Collegiate Times

Cinderella stories. Buzzer beaters. Blood, sweat and tears. Those are all familiar staples of the sports phenomenon known as March Madness. So what happened this year?

The 2007 NCAA Tournament was about as boring as a night spent at the math emporium. Sure, there were good games along the way, and the Final Four saw the return of "the big man" with the likes of Georgetown University's Roy Hibbert and Ohio State University's Greg Oden. However, the magic of the tournament just wasn't there this year.

Maybe it's because there were only two upsets in the first round of the tournament. Two No. 11 seeds – Winthrop and Virginia Commonwealth University – were the only underdogs to make it out of their opening round game (to clarify, I don't consider a nine seed beating an eight seed an upset), and Winthrop was hardly even an upset. I think I saw more brackets that had Winthrop beating Notre Dame (mine included) than the other way around, meaning the only "true" upset was VCU knocking off Coach K's overrated Duke University Blue Devils.

To the demise of those hoping for another George Mason University-like run in this year's tournament, the Oregon University Ducks took out Winthrop in the second round and the VCU Rams' near-miraculous comeback fell just short against Pittsburgh a day earlier.

Just like that, the clock struck midnight. The slipper didn't fit. Choose any Cinderella cliché you want, but the point is the same. The low-seeded team that punches an improbable ticket to the later stages of the tournament was done for.

Maybe you feel like I'm placing too much emphasis on Cinderella stories. But the fact remains that everyone loves a dreamer. From North Carolina State's improbable championship in 1983 with Coach Jim Valvano running frantically on the court looking for someone to hug, to No. 10 seed Kent State making the Elite Eight in 2002. They're special moments carved forever in sports history.

Putting aside the turmoil it may have caused your bracket, who didn't love witnessing the improbable George Mason Patriots ride their tournament theme song "Living On A Prayer" past powerhouses University of North Carolina and University of Connecticut all the way into the Final Four last year? Such a Cinderella story is a huge part of what makes March Madness what it is, the feeling that anyone can catch lightning in a bottle and bring home a national title.

Unfortunately for this year's tournament, any average Joe could have predicted the higher-seeded favorite of every game of the tournament and finished with a pretty solid bracket.

Maybe I should have watched the 2007 Women's NCAA Tournament, where an unlikely No. 4 seed Rutgers University team knocked out tournament favorite Duke University and a strong third-seeded Louisiana State University team on their way to a defeat in the national championship.

OK, OK, I won't go quite that far.

Still though, part of me is envious of the fact that an underdog rose up and made a memorable run.

The highlight of the men's tournament for me, aside from watching Virginia Tech's sensational comeback over Illinois with screaming Hokies fans at Sharkey's, may very well have been University of Virginia's Sean Singletary taking a page from the "Adam Morrison School of Losing" and breaking into a crying mess on the court following their loss to Tennessee.

So what if I laughed hysterically at Tech's rival school's point guard sobbing as if someone had just stolen his Barbie Dreamcar? At the same time, it's that kind of heart and emotion that I love to see in the NCAA Tournament, however embarrassing it may be for that player.

(For the record, Singletary's performance wasn't quite up to Morrison's routine from last year. It had a lot of potential, but when it came down to it, Singletary didn't show up, which leads me to believe that he must practice with the UVa football team.)

Memorable moments aside though, when all was said and done, the tournament favorite University of Florida Gators took home the title for the first back-to-back championship since Duke accomplished it in 1991 and 1992. While Florida's championship may end up providing a good trivia question years down the road, I'll take dreamers, heart and unpredictability over that anytime of the year, especially in March.