Clemson is rolling through the NCAA T*urnament. The Tigers keep winning. Brad Brownell has a good thing going, if you count it as good to do well in a tournament so bad.
The thing a lot of people are noticing about Clemson’s improbable run (it is so funny that a 6-seed making the Elite Eight is being treated as a Cinderella situation—hilarious ricochet shot for Clemson to have to take) is how easy it looks. It looks easy! They’re beating these teams soundly! Even Arizona never got itself a great chance to win the game.
This is interesting. It’s interesting that the NCAA Tourn*ment is looking so easy. Because Clemson’s played in a few NIT’s in recent years, and when it comes to easy…those were anything but.
In the last ten seasons—counting this one—Clemson has made the NIT three times. In 2017, they were upset in the first round by Oakland. In 2019, they lost a second-round home game to Wichita State, possibly the last at-large in the field. Last year, they lost in the first round to Morehead State. When Clemson’s made the NIT in the last 70% of the Brad Brownell era, Clemson has fallen flat on its face.
To be fair, Brownell did pull off a Final Four run in 2014. We drew the line arbitrarily here. But even if you include that performance, the guy is only .500 in NIT games. All of those came with the benefit of a pretty good seed.
It’s not easy to win in the NIT. Clemson sure can’t pull it off. In the NCAA Tournam*nt, on the other hand…
What Went Wrong for UNC
All of that…to lose in the “Sweet” Sixteen.
When UNC opted out of the NIT last year, for reasons speculated to include Armando Bacot wanting to focus on his commercials (he’s great at them) and Caleb Love & RJ Davis scheduling mutual combat, we told them the ball would keep bouncing. We told them they’d come back to us. Were we right? Not yet. UNC did not make the NIT this year. Very, very far from it. However! They lost earlier than they thought they were going to lose, and they lost to a coach it’s still kind of embarrassing to lose to in that tournament, and I appreciated that.
I’m realizing I didn’t answer the subtitular question here.
What went wrong for UNC is that God hates them because they opted out of the NIT.
Talking Terrence Shannon
Joe can’t talk about Terrence Shannon Jr. because Terrence Shannon Jr. beat Iowa State last night and Joe would appear salty. I can talk about Terrence Shannon Jr. because I don’t recognize the worth of the tournament in which Terrence Shannon Jr. beat Iowa State. I viewed last night as an exhibition game. A bad one, too!
Here’s the affidavit from the rape charge, if you want to know the full story from a primary source. Be warned: It is an affidavit from a rape charge. My impression is that the legal proceedings are taking forever. Illinois tried to suspend Shannon pending their result, but a judge granted Shannon a restraining order against Illinois suspending him. There seems to be some disagreement over what Illinois should have done next. Not being a legal expert, I don’t really think I’m qualified to wade into those waters. I’m not qualified to wade into a lot of waters, but usually, it doesn’t matter if I wade in anyway. These? I’m not wading into these on the legal side.
How to talk about it, though, because people are being bad people:
I think one of the grossest pieces of the Terrence Shannon Jr. discourse is when fans of Illinois’s opponents make jokes that make light of sexual violence in an attempt to hold some moral upper hand over Illinois. Their criticism, ostensibly, is that Illinois isn’t taking sexual violence seriously enough, and that Shannon of course (allegedly) didn’t. In practice, though, they’re also not taking it seriously? By making the jokes? I feel like a good litmus test, if you’re making public Terrence Shannon Jr. jokes, is to ask yourself what the alleged victim might feel if she saw the joke you’re about to make. Would it make the whole thing even worse? Then maybe shut up.
Illinois fans shouldn’t wholeheartedly embrace Shannon, obviously. We don’t know what happened, but we know what was alleged, and he’s by no means been proven innocent. What the role should be of schools and coaches in disciplining players for matters covered under the law is subjective. Reasonable disagreements can be had. But for as good as it would feel for Illinois fans to wash it away and just enjoy a great basketball player, you can’t really do that if you know what was alleged. You know. You can’t unknow it. You can hope for certain things to be true, but at the end of the day, if we’re all pressed on it, I think what we really want is for justice to be served in proportion to whatever the truth is, and what we really want is for sexual violence to not happen. At all. Because it shouldn’t.
You don’t need moral advice from an NIT blogger. Or you shouldn’t, anyway. But seeing some of the reactions last night from people I know read this felt scummy. Social media’s a public forum!
Should NCAA T*urnament Teams Be Deported?
Michigan state representative Matt Maddock made waves on Twitter this week when he incorrectly assumed that the people getting off a charter plane and onto three buses at Detroit Metropolitan Airport were illegal immigrants. They were, in fact, the Gonzaga basketball team, arriving to play Purdue in the “Sweet” Sixteen. When confronted with the real explanation, Representative Maddock (R–Milford) doubled down: “Sure kommie. Good talking point.”
While the immediate reaction, of course, is to file away “Sure kommie. Good talking point,” for use in the next argument in a group chat, I do think Representative Maddock raises a worthwhile question:
Should we be deporting teams who play in the NCAA T*urnament?
Personally, I think not. The cost would be high, and playing in that tournament is punishment enough for what they’ve done. But it’s an interesting theory, and the more punitively-inclined within the NIT liberation movement will undoubtedly now be considering it. Fascinating, fascinating stuff.
Etc.
Joe Kelly, the Chicago Cubs, and a little NIT:
- I synced the Cubs’ radio feed up to the ESPN broadcast last night, and it was a great three hours aside from the Cubs’ best pitcher getting hurt and the Cubs’ beloved closer giving up a game-tying dinger and the Cubs losing in extra innings. Felt like spring. Sun was shining, Pat & Ron were playing through the speaker of my phone…it was great.
- Joe Kelly didn’t get in yesterday, so put a pot of coffee on tonight. The Dodgers are hosting the Cardinals—Joe Kelly’s former team. I don’t know how many guys on the current Cardinals were on the team when our guy was there, but I know Lance Lynn was. And then obviously they were White Sox together, too. High highs, low lows.
- The NIT announced today that it’s sold out the championship, too. Not just the semifinals. ESPN announced last night that Tuesday’s quarterfinals included the most-watched NIT game in seven years. Amidst all that opt-out coverage, the NIT has put together a great tournament, and folks are noticing. Folks are tuning in. Folks are showing up. Don’t call it a comeback. (You can call it a comeback if you want. Comebacks make for good narratives. Where were you when the NIT came back?)
