To The Bison

A brief shout-out to my alma mater, Bucknell, for a great basketball season capped by making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. This, regrettably, was as far as anyone (including themselves) could have reasonably expected them to go. Let's face it: a small, academically-focused (what a novel concept!) university with a 100% graduation rate among team members can't get too far against basketball machines such as those who live for this time of year, rather than for final exams, GMATs, high-level internships, and job interviews. That being said, three out of Bucknell's five losses this year came against teams seeded #1 in their tournament brackets (Villanova, Duke, and Memphis), and the Bison also knocked off Syracuse along the way this season. After totally frustrating Arkansas in the first round, the Bison couldn't quite keep up with Memphis in round 2 -- as Memphis kept trotting out players who were fresher, bigger, faster, and less likely to be accepted as a member of the Algonquin Round Table.

My fellow alumnus and past broadcasting partner, who will go only by the name of R.J. for here, modestly proposed a handicapping system to restore some sanity to the post-season. This is a work in progress, but a few of the items we discussed were to adjust a team's point total by a number of factors:

• Difference in graduation rates
• Degree-of-difficulty in academic courses taken by players
• Number of arrests
• Extra discredit to the team whose coach was hired "to resurrect the basketball program," having done so and flamed out somewhere else previously.

The possibilities are endless. What a wonderful world it would be, were we to remember that these are institutions of higher learning playing these games.

An excellent book, along these lines, is "The Last Amateurs," by John Feinstein, chronicling a year in the life of Patriot League basketball. I heartily recommend it.

Anyway, congrats to coach Pat Flannery and the Bison - you've made us proud. And in the meantime, we can root for Villanova (coach Jay Wright is another Bucknell grad), Duke (another school with actual thinking students who can play basketball as well), or the handful of other teams that, ESPN-be-damned, shouldn't still be alive in the tournament: George Mason, Bradley, Wichita State, etc.

This will all culminate in the Greatest Day of the Year: Monday, April 3, which is baseball's Opening Day (I will be in the center field grandstand for Phillies-Cardinals in the afternoon) and, in the evening, the NCAA men's championship game. What could be better? (OK, maybe a free All-You-Can-Be-Eaten Fellatio Buffet in between. But let's be realistic.)