The 2021 Madness Rounds 1 & 2 Roundup | NC Hey Hey

PUSH PINS

Mark Emmert early last November bewilderingly stared stone-faced at the NCAA’s crisp then aspirational March 2021 glossy cardstock-imprinted Calendar. And he couldn’t help but notice that it was being held affixed to the wall by only two ruby red push pins trembling, screaming for their lives. Mark’s eyes fell to the weathered blonde carpet beneath to find the remaining befallen twin pins, splayed lifeless separated by accomplishment. Mark Emmert, NCAA President, took this telling moment as an allegory for the year his Association had contorted through: Best laid pans upset by powerful ripples set in motion by a worldwide pandemic. He recoiled and sighed as the 2020 NCAA Calendar was for the most part tossed into the organization’s microcut shredder and with it immeasurable opportunity lost for student-athletes from all walks of life and fields of play. NCAA College football, controlled at the Conference level, falls just out of Mark’s oversight but did manage to hammer out a wildly uneven though ultimately “successful” Season. Taking NCAA College football as an inspiration, Mark approached that March 2021 calendar and reset the twin northernmost groaning pushpins. He then reached to the floor, rescued the remaining pins from their carpeted graves and — lips pursed — leaned IN with his weight as he reasserted the purpose and mission of the NCAA. The 2021 March Madness Calendar, complete with 4 happily employed ruby red pushpins at its corners, once again hung proud. Mark stepped back and made it his duty to keep it that way.

But it was still early November 2020 and the NCAA at the time resided in a world beset with dramatic political upheaval all set against ever-cacophonous shrieks from Health officials warning of dire Covid parabolic trend lines. Communities and economies were beginning to shutdown again just as the gnawing unrelenting teeth of Winter were beginning to bite at the NCAA’s headquarters in Indianapolis (literally and metaphorically). But Mark would have none of it as he envisioned March 2021 but 5 months — and most importantly — a world away. It might have been a quiet penniless 2020 Season for the NCAA but Mark and his Team were doing their homework. They studied the rambling, uneven and divergent plights of the MLB, NBA and NHL Seasons. They also watched in awe as the NFL clapped-back at any deviation from their its Covid-be-damned steady-as-she-goes approach to ultimately complete a largely untussled Season. Mark’s Team scribbled furious notes from all of the above and ultimately decided to rip the entire playbook from the NBA’s clipboard. Mark liked the NBA Bubble approach (so successfully employed in Orlando) as the most sensibly safe one and immediately set to work on replicating it for his Association’s crown jewel to be held in little more than 148 days.

How do you collapse a three week prebaked cake of a 68 Team Tournament widely spread across 5 regional metroplexes and 63 games into a single city seemingly overnight? Just looking up at the gathering gargantuan effort before them had NCAA event planners spinning on their heads. But all Mark had to do was unlock his iPhone and phone a friend. And so Mark called the Governor, Indiana’s Eric Holcomb. Governor Holcomb couldn’t have been more receptive to Mark’s ask and in fact felt it a point of Hoosier pride and hospitality to marshal the forces of state and local governments and agencies to underpin a successful Tournament. It was the week before Thanksgiving that Mark and Governor Holcomb officially set in motion efforts to do just that. And what a productive beehive of activity the past five months have enjoyed. One need look no further than the machined logistical precision of the just-completed initial rounds of March Madness to witness the fruits of this collective, herculean resolve.

The NCAA has created a “Controlled Environment” embedded within Indianapolis complete with seven competition courts, four Team hotels (JW Marrriott, Marriott, Westin and Hyatt Regency), free use of the Conventions Center’s 68 team rooms, 12 practice courts and six weight rooms and dedicated transportation to stitch the entire network together. With 68 Teams populating the early rounds of March Madness, an App was developed to organize the tight choreography necessary to manage Team itineraries, practice and meeting times at the Convention Center while at the same time eliminating contact with other schools, Covid still being a thing and all. At each of the hotels, Teams are assigned their own floors and are served two meals a day. A third meal is wheeled-in Team choice from local area restaurants. Buses, courts, workout and meeting facilities are scrubbed down after each use. And as Teams are eliminated, they are quickly shown the door. It might seem cold, but it’s all Business. Perhaps a little too Cold. An uproar mushroomed out of control last week when the disparity between Mens and Womens accommodations were laid abhorrently bare last week on TikTok. The Men were furnished with all trappings of the toniest Luxury hotels in town. The Women shoe-horned into distanced lesser brands much farther down the hospitality food chain. Speaking of food, hotels rolled-in pans of corn-fed petit filet mignon glazed with a burgundy mushroom reduction topped with Maine lobster tail and ornamented with a pouffe of truffle mashed potatoes for the Men. The Women made do with luncheon meat sandwiches and chips served in an environmentally catastrophic Styrofoam clamshell. The Women were adorned with a sad dumbbell set in a black-curtained, 1000 square foot workout area. The Men frolicked in a 12,000 square foot fitness facility with all the latest equipment and colorful LED lighting. It didn’t take long for the searing indignity of this divergence to burn in. Immediate changes and prolific apology tours commenced.

So it’s clear that Mark and the NCAA are not without their faults. There is obviously much work to be done. But at the same time it is undeniable that a semblance of order has been restored to the sports world. To our great benefit. It might not be perfection and it remains a work in progress but you can’t help but notice the thrill of March Madness is BACK. Once again the Tournament has us nervously gripping out Brackets and slack-jawed staring at the screen. As Mark looks at his March calendar today still affixed to his wall with that quartet of heroic ruby red pushpins, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

And wow what first weekend of gameplay! Anecdotally, it looks like Gonzaga’s tournament to lose. Their octane-charged Offense is leading that way just as it has Season-long. The Bulldogs advance easily to the Sweet 16 as the look to paper their way to the dog park in good fortune. Meanwhile, the Big 10 collapsed in on itself in epic fashion. The Terps? OUT to Alabama. The Spartans? DONE courtesy the hard-charging Bruins on Thursday’s play-in game. Ohio State? Ask Oral Roberts what happened and they’ll both know. The Fighting Illni were not match for Sister Jean and her faithful Ramblers. And yesterday fresh soil was shoveled atop the Big 10 grave when the Oregon Ducks pit maneuvered Iowa, 95–80. And as the Big 10 sinketh, the Pac 12 riseth. Of the leagues five contenders, only the Colorado Buffaloes are hoofing it back down that dusty trail. UCLA, Oregon State, USC and those Ducks all high tail it into the Sweet 16. And with that the Great Seeding controversy of 2021 rages on unabated. Now as far as any Cinderella sightings, Oral Roberts might just fit the bill. Not that anyone knew the tiny school even fielded a basketball Team, much less an NCAA-caliber one. Well we all know now. Ohio State and Florida know this especially well. We’ll see just how far the Golden Eagles from Utah travel in a round pumpkin.