UMass is joining the MAC, and I know, I know. They’ve been part of the MAC before. For four years after elevating to the FBS level, UMass played in the MAC, averaging 1.75 conference wins per year before somebody (I’ve always assumed this was the MAC) decided maybe it was time for UMass to be an independent for a while.
Before UMass was part of the MAC for football, Temple was. Before Temple, Marshall and UCF spent time in the league. This isn’t some terrible historic aberration for the MAC. They have had 13 teams before. They will have 13 teams again. They will have 13 teams in 2025, specifically. That’s when UMass is making the move. This is not terrible.
So why does it feel that way?
I think the biggest thing going on is that the MAC, ever since UMass left, has been the perfect college football league. It’s regional. It’s got balanced divisions. All its schools are fairly similar to each other. Would we trade Buffalo for Marshall, for nostalgia’s sake and a little bit more geographic continuity? Yes. But that is the smallest of quibbles. The MAC is a good little football league playing ugly little football in the beautiful little Rust Belt on seasonally charming Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The MAC is the answer to how bad of football America will tolerate before we turn the product off and consider reading. Part of what makes it tolerable? That cohesion. Twelve teams. Two divisions of six. Three directional Michigans. With UMass, it gets out of whack. With UMass…this starts to feel like Conference USA.
MAC football was decent, the same way you might describe a good person you know as decent. It treated us kindly, and with respect. We could count on it. Now? UMass. UMass! UMass. Playing Northern Illinois? *gags*
The Ivy League has a similar quality of decency going on, but with basketball. It plays a complete double round robin. Many of its coaches have been in the league forever. Its schedule is easy to intuit. Its championship is muted and celebratory. Can you imagine if the Ivy League added Illinois? *gags*
I get it. A-10 fans are worried that their league is falling apart because it doesn’t have as many good basketball teams as it used to and it lives in a world where everyone is acknowledging society likes football more. I occupy a similar headspace as an NIT blogger. But I’m worried about the MAC. Because UMass vs. Buffalo on a Tuesday night feels like something I don’t want to watch, and I’m worried I’ve forgotten how to read.
In Defense of Jon Scheyer
We’ve gotten some public statements from Duke about Kyle Filipowski’s health after Saturday’s court-storming incident, and they’re all positive. He is, per Jon Scheyer, “a little bit sore.” No MRI will be necessary. That part about him spraining an ankle? Scheyer is said to have “misspoke.”
Duke’s in a funny position now where because they made such a gigantic deal about Filipowski being injured (when he was not injured), they have a little face to save if they sit Filipowski against Louisville tomorrow night. Duke does not need Filipowski active if they are to win that game. If Filipowski plays, jokes will be made at Filipowski’s expense. It’s not that Filipowski cried wolf. It’s that Filipowski became the imaginary wolf those who hate court-storming are crying about.
A few weeks ago, after Caitlin Clark wasn’t paying attention as she bypassed security to leave the court on her own and ran into that fan, Mark Titus pointed out how opponents of court-storming seem to want someone to get hurt. They crave to be proven right. Like those political fanatics who react with disappointment when their bogeyman does something decent and good, a certain type of court-storming opponent relishes any hint of a court-storming injury. That’s why reports this week still mischaracterize what happened involving Caitlin Clark in Columbus. That’s why reactions to Filipowski were less, “I hope he’s ok,” and more, “He’s hurt. Now, we get to ban court-storming.” You could hear these extremists’ impact as Saturday went on. Every successive halftime show, the rhetoric became more and more outrageous. These people moved the Overton window so far that yesterday, Jay Bilas realized he could be taken seriously if he suggested arresting every person who stormed a court, to create a stronger deterrent.
Jay Bilas knows what he’s doing, and Jay Bilas likes college basketball, albeit in a different way than those of us who’ve watched it from the stands. Jay Bilas is a performer. Jay Bilas plays a part.
Seth Davis does not know what he’s doing. He doesn’t understand why people like college basketball. He thinks they enjoy it for the same reason he does, which is that its existence results in Seth Davis being on TV. (Yippee! Suits! Sister Jean! Softball interviews with men who would drain their grandmothers’ pension funds to bag an additional five-star recruit!)
Yesterday, Davis joked that the thing people like about college basketball is debates like the one over whether Zach Edey is good or just tall. Unfortunately, it’s unclear if this was a joke. Because what Seth Davis does—the thing that pays Seth Davis’s bills—is cover college basketball for mainstream sports fans. Not for college basketball fans. College basketball fans only briefly watch Seth Davis before leaving to relieve themselves during the halftime break. Seth Davis covers college basketball for sports fans and people who like March Madness, folks who don’t care how good New Mexico and San Diego State are but enjoy filling out brackets and watching the little score bugs at the top on CBS. There’s nothing wrong with this (the more the merrier, though may I suggest the NIT…), but it’s what Seth Davis does. Seth Davis does pregame and halftime shows for the NCAA Tournament, quick soundbites focusing on a handful of storylines. Seth Davis covers the tippiest tip of the tip of the iceberg. This is his job. In March, this works. In February? Well, is Zach Edey good, or simply tall?
The issue, though, is that one of college basketball’s most prominent media members is therefore not only out of touch with college basketball fans as people, but not even incentivized to know what they like or dislike or think. It’s not that he doesn’t know them. It’s that he has no reason to ever learn about who they are. Seth Davis doesn’t cover college basketball for college basketball fans. Seth Davis went to Duke! He has no idea what it’s like to be a fan of a basketball school that’s bad at basketball. He has no idea what it’s like to have your program on the cultural chopping block because the ACC happens to be fading at a time when you’ve only made one NCAA Tournament in the last thirteen seasons. Duke will be relevant in college basketball no matter which way realignment blows. Wake Forest? Saturday’s was an existential game for them, like all those big ones Oregon State and Washington State played in football this past fall. No, not quite on that level, but not far from it. Wake Forest students will, after Saturday’s win, most likely get to experience an NCAA Tournament involving their school. That was not guaranteed or even all that likely going into the day. Wake Forest is a basketball school. Wake Forest is a place where this all means something. Even an NIT blogger can respect that. Seth Davis? It goes right over his neatly trimmed head.
Could someone get seriously injured during a court-storm? Yes. It’s happened before, though never notably to a player or coach. It’s very rare, but it’s true that it could happen, and as more and more people are noting (this is a good thing to be noted), students’ instinct to videotape the scene with their phones heightens the danger. College students should run on the floor piss drunk after monumental wins. College students should not run on the floor piss drunk after monumental wins waving around a cell phone camera. We don’t need the video. You’re enjoying it less than you could.
College students also don’t need to taunt the opponents they beat. I don’t know whether the guy who collided with Filipowski was taunting him or not, but there have been more incidents of over–the–line taunting related to court-storming than there have been of serious court-storming injuries. Jon Scheyer noted yesterday in his media availability—and we think he was telling the truth with this one—that a Wake Forest student got in Jared McCain’s face after the game. That? Not necessary. When someone does that, they deserve to be punched in the face by Jared McCain. (Credit to McCain, who did not punch.) Again, social media encourages this. There was an incident this fall where a Notre Dame student got in Caleb Williams’s face during a leisurely field-rushing. The video got a lot of views, likes, and comments.
The best coverage of the court-storming debate has either been practical, geared at feasible solutions, or regretful, that which says—as Boog Sciambi said last night on the TCU/Baylor broadcast; I paraphrase—that sometimes you have to take away nice things for a little while. There is a reasonable way to land on a view which says court-storming needs to be curtailed. I think almost all of us are in agreement that Wake Forest’s administration should have made some attempt at slowing the storm on Saturday (though the risk of getting trampled is higher in situations resembling a crush, so there’s also a safety argument to getting people through quickly once they’re as fired up as Wake Forest’s student body was). But where this really gets out of line is when the talking heads dismiss the emotions of the fans of the sport they cover. You don’t have to agree with the people you talk to. But you should treat them with respect. Especially if you post weird tweets all the time asking people to treat you kindly.
There was some stupid college kid shit involved with Saturday’s court-storm. There was some douchey preppy school shit as well. There was some annoying social media shit thrown all over it. But at the core, part of the reason the storm happened as quickly as it did is that there was real emotion on the part of Wake Forest fans about that win. We’ll say it again: That win meant something to that fanbase, something more existential and personal than you almost ever get in professional sports. Don’t disrespect those emotions.
And on that note:
If Jon Scheyer was lying Saturday about Filipowski’s ankle, and wasn’t just wrong? Good for him. Scheyer was furious. Scheyer was pissed off. Scheyer just saw a 20-year-old guy in his care come up limping on the heels of a frustrating, disappointing competitive afternoon. Does it look a little ridiculous in hindsight, knowing what we know now? Yes. Do we need to ban court-storming outright? Of course not, and if that happens in any conference it’s an absurd overreaction. But just as fans shouldn’t be expected to pause for a moment in their elation and ask themselves what Seth Davis might think of their impending harmless act, or whether Jay Bilas could be lurking in the concourse with four thousand pairs of handcuffs, Jon Scheyer should not be expected to be reasonable in the aftermath of a moment like Saturday’s. What happened out there meant something to Jon Scheyer.
We don’t have a problem with Jon Scheyer’s reaction.
We have a problem with Seth Davis’s.
Etc.
The NIT:
- We covered a lot in NIT Bubble Watch this morning, so apologies, but I’m going to leave it at that. Longhorn talk included.
Chicago:
- The Patrick Kane celebration on Sunday was really special. I’m not outwardly a Blackhawks fan, because I never paid attention to them as a child in Illinois until they were good and it felt too bandwagonny. I do like them, though, and we like them here, and the Patrick Kane memories are good ones. The Patrick Kane era revitalized the Blackhawks so much in Chicago that I no longer believe any franchise or brand is entirely hopeless. Also, fun to see the Red Wings doing well. (See? Not really a Blackhawks fan.)
- Bulls play tonight. Love that about them. Most of what you ever need to say about the Bulls is simply that they play.
Joe Kelly, Burnley, and the Ottawa Senators:
- Unless I’m a bigger, dumber idiot than previously believed to be true (possible), Joe Kelly has yet to pitch this spring training. It’s going to be so exciting when he does, though.
- Burnley got beat real bad on Saturday. Late in the proceedings, I told my friend who loves soccer (especially Fulham) I was starting to doubt Vincent Kompany. He gave me a pep talk, reminding me that coaches develop, just like players. Then, Burnley scored. I felt better. Of course, the goal was disallowed by VAR, like so many Burnley goals before it, but it was nice while it lasted.
- The Sens allowed so many goals last night that I was worried their twitter account, in providing updates, was about to get rate-limited.
Austin FC:
- I still don’t know if I like or dislike Austin FC. I think I like them? I don’t know. It might help my discernment if I ever watch them play. Stadium’s great for rugby events in the summer. Anyway, their season started this weekend, and they lost to Minnesota. The Loons! My former hometown team. (I also never watched the Loons. I’m not even positive they existed the whole time I lived up there.)
