NCAA Dropped The Ball

When I saw who made the Elite Eight, I was pretty sure. Then, when it got down to the Final Four, I was positive. The Ball State Cardinals, just barely making the NIT, should have easily slipped on Cinderella slippers for the NCAA Tournament dance. Ball who? Let me refresh our collective college hoop memories. Thanksgiving weekend. The Maui Classic. Kansas, a team many felt could win a national championship, had an easy first-round opponent in a certain small college from Indiana. But wait, the Ball State Cardinals are hanging around with those Jayhawks...and...there's a three-pointer...and a turnover...and...a last-second lay-up...and Ball State wins? Ball State wins! No. 3 Jayhawks fall!

Coach Steve Lavin had to laugh. Now his No. 4 UCLA Bruins wouldn't have to worry about whether they got a chance to meet the Blue Devils in a Prime Time Maui Finals match-up. An upset can happen, but not two in a row. The Cardinals had their fun, but now it was time to remember who they were. A small school. Full of players who could only dream of playing for a dream team like UCLA's. Here's the tip-off. Great possessions by Ball State. The Bruins' shots aren't dropping against that pesky defense. The Cardinals continue to execute. The Bruins continue to fade. This one isn't even gonna be close! Final Score: 91-73...Cardinals win?! Again?! That's right, this school from the "lowly" Mid-American Conference just beat the number three and number four schools in the entire country—back-to-back!—a regular season feat never accomplished by a school of such little repute.

But now they must face Duke. Obviously the number one team in the country will blow them out. No way the Cardinals even have a remote chance of competing with them. But the Cardinals hustle. They remain calm. They focus. They believe. Ball State is leading 27-18! No true basketball fan can even blink at this moment. Ball State will become the number one team in the country! The ESPN promos, the accolades, the free yachts, the...

...Return to earth. Ultimately Ball State did lose that game, but only by 12 to a Duke team that regularly beat Top 25 teams by 20. As the Maui Classic drew to a close, one thing was for certain—Ball State was for real.

The Cardinals proceeded to rattle off three straight wins, but then, another test. One tough Indiana team. The Cardinals dug, they dug deeper, but they still ended up dealing with a loss by 13. Then again, isn't Indiana in the Final Four as we speak? Didn't the Hoosiers knock off the defending champion Duke to get there? But the NCAA would learn that later. Only when it was too late. To make matters worse, a few games after Indiana, the Cardinals had to play the number five team in the nation, Oklahoma St. How is this possible, Cardinals fans thought. We have to play four of the top five teams in the country in our first 11 games? Ball State again lost by 13, but showed one more time they could keep it close with the best. The NCAA Tournament Committee will remember us, Cardinal Coach Taliaferro must have thought.

When the regular season came to a close, the Ball State Cardinals had a 19-10 record—not pristine, but indisputably impressive considering the kind of juggernaut schools they did battle with. Clearly with fellow conference teams Kent State having the longest winning streak in the country and Bowling Green State entering the postseason with an impressive 22-7 season of their own, more than one team from the Mid-American Conference would make the NCAA Tournament. All three maybe. But, without question, Ball State had to be in.

The Cardinals rolled to a quick win in the first round of their 13-team conference tournament, but then lost to a deep Bowling Green State cast, who then in turn lost to a deeper Kent State. But, again, Ball State had to be in. You can't always be expected to win your conference tournament to get in the Big Dance. If you did, eight teams in the ACC would go home every year. Surely with a 27-5 record, the NCAA is going to see that letting Kent State have the only NCAA Tournament spot for the Mid-American via automatic bid would be wrong. Surely.

Ball State played well in every big game they had. The argument against small schools participating in March Madness has always been based on their poor strength of schedule. This time, strength of schedule should have been Ball State's greatest strength. Should have been.

When the 65 teams for the Big Dance were announced, we found out the NCAA did not possess the first five letters of Ball State's school name. But the tournament would still be forced to have Kent State, handing the school an embarrassingly low ten seed, an obvious indication of what little was thought of the Mid-American Conference. With a first-round exit this little Ohio school would prove the NCAA was right to forget Ball State. Would prove.

But Kent State played like a team inspired, or insulted, or that was just damn good. There went No. 22-ranked Oklahoma St., then No. 8 Alabama, followed by No. 7 Pittsburgh, all falling in the Golden Flash's wake. And, before we knew it, they were meeting Indiana in the Elite Eight. A ten seed in the Elite Eight? That shouldn't happen. Shouldn't.

Back and forth it went. Kent State crashed the boards, staying with their inside game even as Indiana shot their signature threes like they were free throws. With ten minutes left, that game was still anyone's to win. And...

...The Golden Flash flickered in the end, Indiana escaping with their tournament lives, but Kent State escaped the stigma of what they should have never had to endure—they weren't a great small school team, they were just a great team.

And Ball State could only watch that game on TV, wondering if maybe they would have beaten Indiana had they gotten a second shot at them. And then maybe even won their next game and then taken the championship? No. Not with a team like Kansas that might have been waiting for them. Then again, didn't the Jayhawks lose a heart-wrenching game to a small school at the beginning of the year?

Don't ask the NCAA Tournament Committee. They wouldn't remember.

-Eric Butterman