The Morning According to Us

The NCAA Tourney talks Cinderella, but it's built for the powers.

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Stevens calls Butler a "dream situation."

Back in January, with his team ranked No. 11 and off to a 19-1 start, we spoke with Butler coach Brad Stevens, and couldn't help but mention that the Georgia job had just opened up. Stevens was naturally dismissive, as any coach of a 19-1 team would be.

"We have a dream situation here at Butler," he said.

No kidding. And I wanted to talk to Stevens because the Bulldogs weren't just good, they had become great minus the typical mid-major formula for the dream season. Stevens' team wasn't stacked with under-recruited fifth-year redshirts peaking in hoops and driving a small program to the top. This team was, and is, loaded with young guys. There's no sign of a senior near the top five in scoring for Butler. The point guard, Shelvin Mack, is a strong, steady freshman right out of Lexington, a guy one would think could have helped solve the Kentucky Wildcats' point guard woes if their recruiters had bothered to pick up a local paper.

But this time of year, does Stevens still feel the same about that dream situation? Ranked 23rd going in, his 9th-seeded team is long gone. And while the NCAA Tournament might sound inclusive, it's built for the powers. This year, all the 1, 2 and 3 seeds reached the Sweet 16. The combined seed total of all Sweet 16 teams is 49, the lowest since seeding began in 1979 (previous low was 50 in 1989). The Big East has five teams in the mix.

That says a lot for the Big East, but just four teams total were invited from non-BCS conferences as at-large bids. A team like St. Mary's, with a similar profile to Butler, didn't get invited at all despite most of their losses coming minus All-American candidate Patty Mills.

Moreover, the tournament is set up to cater to the top seeds, with more and more games going down in the back yards of the big boys. When Villanova had to overcome a pesky American team, it seemed like a great comeback. Lots of heart and emotion and…right. The game was played in Philadelphia, where the 'Cats already play their home games. American fans were just a few hours drive away, but were outnumbered 10-1 by the fans of a 3rd-seeded team. Even power schools feel it. When LSU was on the verge of taking down North Carolina in Greensboro over the weekend, most of the loud cheers for the Tigers weren't from their own fans, but from Dukies in the house, patiently awaiting their own chance to defend their backyard from visiting Texas.

Some pundits like to point out the Gonzaga model, the small school gone bigtime that a Stevens could seemingly pull off in Indy with Butler. But Gonzaga is in the Sweet 16 as a power player, not a little program that could. This program grew organically, but then it spent monetarily. The Zags have private planes to ship them to games all over the country, TV deals for exposure, new uni's and shoes just for this tourney dropped off by Phil Knight, they play to big sold-out home crowds, and play home and home's with the likes of UConn and Memphis. They're as much a part of the tourney hierarchy as any other power in many ways.

And Butler isn't. Not yet. They're a great program, but they don't even have some of the things a dormant program for a BCS school like Georgia does. Namely, the conference pull to have just one decent year and conclude that your team is back in the national picture again. Because you are.

The NCAA Tourney isn't broken. Not just because high seeds made it through. But we wouldn't blame Stevens if, in a couple years, he ends up in a place like Georgia. For one, there'd be a million-plus reasons not to be mad at him, and secondly, any coach can see the writing on the brackets.

The NCAA Tournament might seem inclusive for the little guy. But it's built by hand for the powers.

Elsewhere…

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Chinese businessman gets in car accident, holds the Olympic hurdler who promoted the car responsible.

A Florida man sets his neighbor's skateboard ramp on fire after the kids failed to remove it from the street.

This might be a slight case of over-promotion for hockey.

Rock, paper, tournament.

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