March Madness, for those unfamiliar with the phrase, refers to the college basketball tournaments, mostly the men's NCAA tournament, but also the women's tournament which has gained in popularity recently, and even the NIT and newly created College Basketball Crown tournament in Vegas.
To be honest, I have filled out my share of brackets in the past. Not to the point of betting, but out of curiosity to see how I fare against the experts, and reality. Most likely won't this year, but will still follow the games, especially those first two weekends which always feature end of game buzzer beaters and upsets. It is particularly interesting when a college from one of the lesser known conferences beats a big time school with top level recruits.
Of course, for most of my life, betting on sports was illegal. Now, there are odds flashed across the screen during the actual games. Interestingly, in this age of rampant cost cutting and anxiety about our national deficit, it is estimated that 3 billion, that's B for billion, dollars will be wagered on the outcomes of the games. And remember, these are not professionals, per se, although the definition of amateur sports is another thing that has evolved, or devolved depending on your opinion, in the last decade or so.
But that is not the focus of this post.
Every year there are teams "on the bubble" as the season comes to a close. Teams that may or may not be chosen as at large teams after all the conferences champions are decided. I would imagine that for most of those schools that are not chosen, which are acknowledged as "first four out", there is disappointment. While they are generally selected to participate in the NIT tournament, that is second banana to the big "dance."
Along with this disappointment, there is sometimes whining that a team was picked that was less deserving, or even hints that some type of nefarious backroom deal had been made to sway the decision.
This year, within hours of the selection reveal, itself a big time TV show, the governor of West Virginia went on record in protest that the West Virginia Mountaineers team had been left out, and further, that the inclusion of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels (UNC) smacked of favoritism, if not downright cheating.
Now, there are certainly some who agree that the West Virginia team had earned consideration to be in the tournament. During the season, they had beaten a number of teams that were ultimately selected, and had won ten games in the Big 12 conference which is one of the stronger conferences in the country. In fact, at one point, their record was 12-2.
But they also lost 10 games in conference play, lost 11 of their last 18 games to finish 19-13 and lost in the first round of the conference tournament, as the 8th seed, to the 14th seed. In other words, they didn't finish well, and sometimes how a team is playing can sway the choice for these bubble teams.
Just to compare, UNC finished with a 13-7 conference record in a similarly strong conference, won 7 of their last 9 conference games then won two more games in the conference tournament as the 5th seed, beating the 12th and 4th seeds before losing to the #1 seed in the semi-finals. They finished strong, in other words.
Now, I am not going to presume to know which team is better, or even to argue that one team deserved to be chosen over the other. I could see good reasons for either choice, West Virginia's better record against better teams, UNC's better record down the stretch.
What disturbs me is that Governor Morrisey is promising to investigate this "atrocity."
So I thought I might do some research on West Virginia in light of the importance of getting to the bottom of this insult to the basketball team, as displayed by the governor's obvious outrage. Please understand, I have no ill will against those who call West Virginia their home. Have no hidden animosity against the state itself, or even its priorities as to where to spend its resources.
I do however, wonder why the governor of a state with some more important, even critical issues, chooses to go on news shows to rant about the travesty of this decision, and holds a news conference to announce his plans to root out the (obviously) biased source of the committee's selection.
One interesting source comes from the annual US News and World Reports state ranking, which I believe is from 2024 for year 2023. Here is that link.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/west-virginia
As you can see, of the eight metrics used for the ranking system, West Virginia is 48th in Economy, Education and Health Care, and an even worse 50th in Infrastructure. The state does receive good marks in Crime and Corrections (21st), Opportunity (16th) and Fiscal Stability (18th), but is towards the back of the pack for Natural Environment (39th). One could say, 5 poor rankings out of 8.
Also, I checked another source for poverty rates, and found the following chart which breaks down the rates for children (under 18), those aged 18 to 64, and those over 65. The charts use color codes to differentiate the states with the highest rates (deep purple), next highest (light purple), two shades of blue/gray, then white.
As you can see in Figure 2, West Virginia is deep purple for child poverty (worst category, 20% or more), and light purple for poverty for adults over 65, figure 3.
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/09/acs-child-poverty.html
Perhaps it is just me, but maybe the governor should be "investigating" why one of of 5 children and one in eight adults over the age of 65 in his state live in poverty.
Priorities.
As I have said many times, there is no shortage of money in America. There is only a shortage of morality in our decision making process when it comes to where we spend our money, and who, apparently, we allow to make those choices.
For me, granting that power to the richest person on the planet, someone with no sense of public service, someone who prefers to spend billions on interplanetary voyages rather than combating disease and poverty on Earth, is just another indicator of the decline of America.
Oh, and just in case you were expecting me to pick a winner in this year's NCAA Men's Basketball tournament, I like St Johns, Duke, Houston and Michigan State to make the Final Four, and look to Drake, St Marys and VCU as possible Cinderella teams.
Not a fan of Rick Pitino but I can see St. Johns winning it all. Also Houston. Anyone but Duke.
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I've posted three times in the past under the topic of Priorities.
The most recent was in October of 2017 during Trump's first term and addressed the concept of false choices. How at that time, and still today, we are told that we can't achieve a high level of growth without sacrificing our environment (drill, baby, drill), that we can't reduce our national debt without slashing benefits for those who need it most. And that we can't increase taxes for the super rich for fear of them taking their ball and going home.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2017/10/false-choices.html
Then there was one from January of 2015 during Obama's 2nd term. This post focused on his stated vision to provide free community college education for all Americans. Of course, in retrospect it seems laughable in light of our current reluctance to even consider eliminating student debt interest, but at the time there was still a belief that advanced education was a good thing. My comments at the time related to the experiences of my family which included one child's recent graduation from college, the cost of sending the second child to college, and the debt my wife and I had willingly accepted to assist our children.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2015/01/education-and-spending.html
The most earliest post, from April of 2011, addressed taxes, and how we analyze where to spend our national money, as well as how we tax our citizens to collect that money, and finally, how we demonstrate our priorities during this process as expressed in the justification for where to spend and how to tax.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2011/04/taxes.html
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