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There is a genre of sports biography where a journalist spends a season documenting a single team. Not sure if there is a name for that (AI helpfully suggested "sports book" 🤣), but this category has produced some outstanding reads. For my money, the best at the High School level is "Friday Night Lights" (which is set in Texas but author Buzz Bissinger went to Penn and won a Pulitzer working for the Philadelphia Inquirer). David Halberstam may be the greatest sportswriter to ever ply the craft and "The Breaks of the Game" is his masterpiece. In terms of college sports, "A Season on the Brink" stands alone. I read it when it came out back in 1986 and I couldn't believe it. Neither could Bobby Knight, the book's protagonist. Knight evidently thought he could dazzle the young John Feinstein into writing some sort of puff piece focusing on Knight's coaching brilliance. To a certain extent he succeeded - Feinstein often seems to justify Knight's methods. Feinstein's unprecedented access also revealed Knight to be a first class bully who inflicted psychological torture on his All-American, Steve Alford, to push him and his team to greater heights. It's not pretty. But it is highly compelling. John Feinstein died last week, at the age of 69. I bought another copy of A Season on the Brink and it is justifiably a classic (I finished it in a day). 

Coincidentally, I went to Indiana University for graduate school during Knight's final years at the school. [Editor's Note: It ended poorly. For Bobby Knight that is.] IU has one of the best music schools in the country and I ended up being friends with several music majors (because a couple of them shared a house with my friend and lab-mate David Miller). Secret performances were common. I got word that Ellis Marsalis (father of Wynton and Branford) was in town and was performing with members of the jazz faculty in the back room of a local pizza joint (I am not making this up). Next thing you know, I found myself sitting at the bar right next to Bobby Knight, who was flying solo that evening (I swear I am not making this up). I had a great time at IU but I detested IU basketball (UK played them every December back in those days) and I abhorred Bobby Knight, even though his motion offense was a thing of beauty. Turns out that Knight was a jazz fan and friends with one of the faculty members playing that night. Knight was a big man and that helmet of gray hair was hard to miss. But no one bothered him. And neither did I. After the show he shook hands with the performers, who responded to him with genuine warmth. By the way, after A Season on the Brink was published, the NCAA banned media members from the locker room before and during games. And instituted a rule that all media availability had to be open to all. The NCAA: no fun whatsoever.

The Hoosiers got screwed by the tourney selection committee. Admittedly, their resume was relatively weak. They went 4-13 in Quad 1 games with wins over Purdue, Michigan State and Ohio State (twice). IU's overall record was 19-13. Not great. But let me tell you about a team that made the tourney. They went 22-13 but their Quad 1 record was 1-12. [Editor's Note: 4 > 1] The lack of quality wins was paired with a number of bad losses (including to a Quad 3 team). What if I told you that the chair of the tournament committee also just happens to be the athletic director of this bunch of under-achievers? And that said AD gets a $120,000 bonus if his team makes the tourney? True story: the NCAA tournament selction committee chair is Bubba Cunningham, the AD from the University of North Carolina.

Cunningham swore that he had nothing to do with UNC making the field. And, in defense of his team, noted the strength of the ACC this season (which caused me to do a spit-take with my morning coffee). But what about Louisville? As you might guess, I am not a fan. But they got hosed too, getting an 8 seed even though they finished SECOND in the supposedly superior ACC. In the first round the Cards are matched up against a solid Creighton team, which just made the finals of the Big East tournament. Get past the Bluejays and you have a date with #1 overall seed Auburn. The NCAA is actually making me feel sorry for Little Brother! First year Louisville coach Pat Kelsey evidently was absent on the day they taught coachspeak. Appearing on Matt Jones' ESPN show Kelsey said, "I'll be completely honest with you, when we were watching the Selection Show and that popped up, it hurt a little bit. You felt slighted a little bit. It is what it is at this point. You have the advantage of no choice, but in my opinion, we should be playing a 12 or an 11 seed." 

The folks in Indiana also are not happy, but they already gave up on this season and fired coach Mike Woodson (who played for Knight back in the 70s). Word on the street is Indiana will go after the current Drake coach. Can anyone name him? Does anyone know where Drake is? [Editor's Note: Ben McCollum and Des Moines.] How the mighty have fallen.

OK, sometimes the NCAA has a sense of humor. Or something. It's not the fact that Providence (which is in Rhode Island last time I checked) is hosting a first round pod in the WESTERN region. It's that they matched Arkansas and Kansas against each other. Bill Self and John Calipari have met in the Finals twice. Mario Chalmers' heroics forced overtime in 2008, leading the Jayhawks to the chip over Derrick Rose-led Memphis. Calipari, with a major assist from Anthony Davis, got revenge (for Cal anyway, who had moved on to Kentucky) in the 2012 title contest. These two can't stand each other. Bill Self doesn't even try to hide his contempt. The winner moves on to (probably) face St. Johns, coached by Rick Pitino. Calipari and Pitino make nice in public, but the antipathy there is real. The fourth team in that pod? Omaha and their trash can pounding pro wresting booster club! I love my basketball with sides of trash talking, stare downs and figure four leg locks.

Wrestling hasn't been my thing since I was about 8. The vast popularity of WWE baffles me. The University of Omaha Nebraska basketball team needed a little inspiration mid-season. So they invited a pro wrestling tag team, the Outlaws, to pump them up. The resulting video is joyously ridiculous. Words of wisdom like "in order to win, you've got to beat your opponent" and "nothing succeeds like success" powered the Mavericks to the Summit League tournament championship and a 15-seed in the NCAA tournament (hello St. Johns). If you need someone to post-up a trash can, these are your guys.

If defense won championships, Sampson (Houston) and Barnes (Tennessee) and Otzelberger (Iowa State) would have multiple on the shelf. Collectively, they have none. Their defenses are consistently great. This season, KenPom has Houston ranked 2, Tennessee at 3 and Iowa State at 10 (Rick Pitino’s St. Johns is ranked first). These teams are legit Final Four contenders because they also run credible offenses (Houston 10, Tennessee 18 and Iowa State 20 according to KenPom). History tells us, definitively, that the national champion will be ranked in the top 20 in both defense and offense. This is not good for that team in Queens, because St. Johns’ offense clocks in at 68, a notch below that Summit League powerhouse, St. Thomas. That’s not good. [Editor’s Note: Where is St. Thomas University located? Anyone? The Tommies hail from St. Paul Minnesota. Also, Omaha beat them on the way to the Summit League championship]

Other defensive minded teams that should spend a little more time practicing pick and rolls? Michigan State, Maryland, Kansas and particularly Texas A&M (8th in defense, 44th offensively). Squads that lean too heavily on offense? Alabama, Texas Tech, Gonzaga, Arizona and particularly Missouri (5th in offense, 73rd in defense!).

It pains me to report that the most balanced and effective team this season, by far, resides in Durham, NC. Duke is ranked 2 in offense and 4 in defense. They are indeed very, very good. There are caveats. The ACC was terrible this year. A rebuilding Louisville with a new coach finished second and Clemson was third. SMU was fourth. SMU? When did they join the ACC? Ditto Cal and Stanford, who met in the ATLANTIC coast conference tournament last week. Bizarre. It’s obviously much easier to guard bad offense. And Duke is dominated by freshmen. If you want to win with freshmen, you better have at least one who is transcendent. Duke does. Cooper Flagg has met the hype. Then he got hurt. The dreaded high ankle sprain. Apparently he’ll suit up for the Dance. Duke has no shot without him.

The SEC has been just as excellent this season as the ACC has been mediocre. Auburn, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama are all in the top 6 of the KenPom overall rankings. The SEC just got 14 teams in this year’s tourney, topping the previous record 11 of the Big East (in 2011). Look, I watch way too much SEC basketball. I always over-rate them tourney-time, assuming the kid that hit eight 3s against my team must play like that all the time. The last two SEC teams to make the tourney were Oklahoma and Texas. Your team doesn't want to face either one of them (and their fantastic freshmen point guards Jeremiah Frears and Tre Johnson, respectively).

Who topped the KenPom rankings last season going into the tournament? That was UConn, by a wide margin. They had the most efficient offense and the eleventh most efficient defense. You know how that turned out. This year, KenPom’s top 10 after the conference tourneys is (in order): Duke, Florida, Houston, Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas Tech, Michigan State, Gonzaga and Iowa State. I think there are a couple pretenders in that group. But I would bet the farm that the eventual champion is among this ten. Wager responsibly, my friends.

The player of the year is a two man race between Auburn's Johni Broome and Duke's Cooper Flagg, who should be a senior in high school (he entered college after his junior year). Broome is a fifth-year senior with a receding hairline; when he started college Flagg was 13 years old.

Football conference? The 14 teams from the SEC account for 20% of the tourney field.

The Big Ten has not won a men's basketball championship in a quarter century (Michigan State in 2000).

Houston can't buy a break. Just like last year, their best player is hobbled with an injury (this year big man J’Wan Roberts).

BYU has the most overall victories (1,916) without making a Final 4.

BYU just signed the nation's top prep recruit, AJ Dybantsa. His one-year NIL deal is for $7,000,000. Seven. Million. Dollars. Ryan Smith, the owner of the Utah Jazz, is the main BYU booster. Dybantsa better be good.

UConn coach Dan Hurley's quote from back in January ("I'm the best coach in the fucking sport!") hasn't aged well.

There are two Richard Pitinos in the tournament. Rick Pitino coaches St. Johns and his son Richard Jr is the head guy at New Mexico.

None of the six eligible Philly schools made the tourney.

Football state? Alabama landed four schools in the Big Dance (Alabama, Auburn, Troy and Alabama State).