OPINION
0
This March, Not Madness But Predictability
By Harry Kimball
|
Posted Mar 23, 09 3:26 PM CDT
|
Share
(Newser)
–
After the “four-day basketball binge that each year makes up one of the best stretches in American sports,” the results are a little, well, boring, Pete Thamel writes in the New York Times. “The tournament has been as predictable as a 401(k)’s decline or Jim Nantz’s trying too hard to romanticize a story line.” Sure, the Round of 16 will be full of “heavyweight bouts,” but no “passion and novelty.”
“Not one of the 16 teams remaining does not resonate as a recognizable brand name in college basketball,” Thamel writes of the likes of Duke, Connecticut, and Kansas. “None could be considered a remote surprise to have advanced.” It’s “a river of blue blood,” as all of the final 16 have been to the tournament before, “high on predictability and low on charm.”