It's easy to get caught up in hyperbole these days. Remember the "Tiger is done!" headlines? More on that later.
A lot will be made of the ACC's absence from the Final Four this year, and it will be no surprise if too much is made of it. But you can't imagine John Swofford and the Greensboro brass being too happy with the recent trend in ACC basketball.
You can look at it one of two ways, and no doubt the ACC would choose to spin it this way:
Over the last 12 years, five NCAA basketball titles have been won by ACC schools. That's impressive.
But here's the other reality: In five of the last seven years, the ACC has been shut out of the Final Four -- including the past two years.
Since the ACC chose to expand to 12 teams in 2004, a move interpreted as a victory for football interests despite the conference's basketball roots, there's been some question about the ACC's DNA. The conference is faced with a bit of an identity crisis because the big money is in football now, yet there's still heavy pull from basketball interests as the conference tries to make itself a gridiron force.
Expansion to 12 teams and the championship game was a smart move and will always be a smart move because, well, does anyone want to imagine how bad things would be had the ACC stayed with nine teams? The basketball loyalists can stick with their stance that dilution of the nine-team mix has caused a decrease in attendance at regular-season games and the conference tournament, but that's becoming a ridiculous notion in view of attendance plummets throughout college basketball. You can blame the widespread availability of games on TV and the Internet as much and probably more than ACC expansion.
But you know some of the so-called basketball "purists" have taken some satisfaction in the fact that the ACC hasn't even sniffed a BCS title game in the post-expansion era, and it was only last season (in its 14th try) that the ACC finally secured an at-large BCS bid (and under dubious circumstances, given that Virginia Tech's Sugar Bowl invite came almost solely because of the Hokies' fan support).
The addition of Pitt and Syracuse was viewed as a boost for basketball interests, a move that in one stroke significantly bolstered the ACC's presence while significantly diminishing the Big East's status as the land's premier basketball power.
But this NCAA Tournament showed there's still some work to be done. Five Final Four shutouts in seven years is embarrassing for a conference that considers itself the gold standard. From 1986 to 2001, the ACC was missing from the Final Four on just two occasions.
The Big East has been represented at the Final Four five times in the last six years. And Louisville's appearance this year gives the Big East five different representatives (Louisville, Connecticut, West Virginia, Villanova, Georgetown) over that stretch. That's depth the ACC is still striving to match.
-- Regardless of how much you might hate North Carolina, you have to agree the Tar Heels were struck with a heaping dose of bad fortune over the last few weeks.
John Henson suffers the wrist injury at the ACC Tournament, and then he suffers an ankle injury yesterday. Kendall Marshall suffered the wrist injury a week ago. There's also the lengthy absence of Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald, both of whom suffered serious knee injuries. What is this, football?
And then the Tar Heels are dispatched to St. Louis, which was converted into Lawrence East yesterday.
That's a tough hand to be dealt, and Tar Heel fans probably will forever attach an asterisk to this disappointing postseason. Hard to argue with them, really.
Losing Marshall hurt enormously because he was the facilitator, and certainly one of the most valuable players in college basketball this season. You can point to North Carolina's low number of turnovers yesterday (10) and say Marshall's absence didn't inflict a huge impact, but I'd disagree because No. 1: without Marshall the Tar Heels had little ability to penetrate, and No. 2: the turnovers North Carolina did commit were the worst kind of turnovers -- live-ball turnovers at the top that were converted into easy fast-break baskets.
All that said, a season-long weakness of poor 3-point shooting finally caught up with the Tar Heels. This team shot 30.3 percent from beyond the arc in ACC games, ranking 11th in the conference ahead of only Clemson. Marshall was far from a great shooter, so maybe the triangle-and-2 would've flummoxed the Tar Heels yesterday with Marshall in the fold.
How many NCAA champions have been that weak from long range?
-- It was easy for us to pile on Tiger Woods when he was suffering through all that tumult that seemed to last forever.
I mean, let's face it: He hasn't exactly built the most likable persona, and when you combine that with the run of absolute dominance he was on it was fun for some of us to see the wall crumble, to confirm that the dude is just another human.
But seriously, how silly were the "done forever" proclamations that came forth with such frequency as Woods' winless streak stretched to 30 months?
Here's what Zach Johnson told Steve Elling of CBSSports.com in this column:
"I don't think he ever really went anywhere," Johnson said, noting the series of health issues and swing changes. "In my view, he started from scratch again. It does not surprise me in the least. He never ceases to amaze me."
Any career obits, Johnson said, were as premature as they were over-oxygenated. Another whiff by us write-it-up-right-now types, Johnson said.
"Garbage," Johnson said. "He's the best player I've ever seen -- making putts when you had to make them, executing when he needed to execute, nobody's ever played the game better than him."
Even if you hate Tiger Woods, perhaps you'll at least concede there's some coolness that comes with being in the presence of greatness. A lot of people didn't like Michael Jordan when he was racking up all those NBA titles, but looking back you probably consider yourself lucky to have been able to witness it.
Twenty years from now, we'll probably view witnessing Woods' feats as a similar privilege. And regardless of what you think of the guy, it'd have been a tragedy of epic proportions had he failed to ascend from the ashes of his embarrassing crash-and-burn.
The guy still has to do it in the majors, still has to prove it next month on golf's grandest stage in Augusta.
But this weekend showed some strong evidence that he's back. Back where he should be.
And man is it going to be a lot of fun to watch.
LW
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