After reading all 84 (give or take a few) new messages in my mailbox this
morning (for some reason I didn't get mail all weekend), I thought I'd give
a little Green and White perspective on the tourney. (BTW, my mail does noty
allow me to pull quotes, so I'm going to paraphrase and hope for the best.
Don't be offended if I don't give proper credit.)
1) Someone asked if teams that have not gotten the first round byes have made
it to the Final Four. The answer: yes. 1992, three teams (Lake Superior,
Wisconsin, and Michigan State) reached the Final Four with seedings lower than
2nd (LSSU 3W, Michigan St. 5W, Wisconsin 6W). In fact, MSU and Wisconsin came
out of Providence to make the Final Four to join Michigan and Lake St. in
Albany.
2) Should Lake St. and Michigan meet in the quarterfinals, it will be their
FIFTH meeting this season. I'd love to know how many times a team has beaten
another FIVE times in one season when the two are as close in talent as UM and
LSSU are. (From my perspective, should this game happen, expect the Munn Ice
Arena crowd to be somewhat split with a slight edge to LSSU. I can't see a
mostly Spartan crowd cherring for Michigan TOO loudly. ;-))
Anyway, it appears that the rabbit's feet and all the other luck charms worked,
because the Spartans MADE IT! Not only that, but we get to stay at home (well,
on second thought, maybe we'd have been better off going to Albany, considering
how we've done at home this year). To whomever stated that Minnesota's road
to St. Paul should be easier since they will play the winner of the UML-MSU
game, please remember that MSU plays good teams well (unless they're Lake St.)
If you doubt that, go ask the Wolverines.
So, in my view:
The big winners: Michigan State and RPI. Both get to play at home. This
should help the Spartans more since UML has to travel the
greater distance.
Boston University. #1 seed in the East, gets the winner of
two Western teams and avoids the other 3 top teams (Michigan,
Harvard, Lake Superior) until the finals.
The East. Guaranteed to have a participant in the Final
Four (Harvard, UNH, or RPI).
The big losers: Mass-Lowell (and to some extent Northeastern). Getting shifted
is never fun, but having to go on the road and play at the
other team's home site is a bit unfair. Northeastern draws
Lake Superior in a confine that is not the most hostile to
the Lakers, Munn Ice Arena.
Michigan. Despite the #1 seed and the CCHA title, it's almost
as if the committee said, "That's not enough." Let's make you
play Lake Superior again after you've beaten them four times.
And not only that, let's make you do it in the most unfriendly
arena to you we can find, Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing.
(This, of course, is provided that Lake St. gets by North-
eastern.)
So the road to St. Paul begins. And just like the road to Charlotte in the
other tournament is proceeding, this one looks to be paved with some upsets
also. But, all in all, IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK.
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University
WVU (hosts Clemson in the second round of the NIT either tonight or tomorrow,
I don't remember which) '87, UTenn (vs. La. Tech in the regional semis) '92,
MSU (didn't go down without a fight against the team CBS wants to win it all)
who the hell knows when?
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
P. S. Did all of you know that all of the MSU basketball players were orphans?
If they aren't, how come we didn't see any of their parents yesterday,
while we repeatedly saw Grant Hill's parents, the coach at NC A+
T, Antonio Lang's parents, and Coach K's wife and daughters? What's
the matter, CBS, couldn't find the Duke waterboy's parents so we could
show them, too. And I'm sorry, Mr. Parks, but when you hang on the rim
for five seconds, yank it down and scream, your ass should be hit with
a T, Big Time, Baaaaaaby.
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