They call it March Madness for a reason, everyone.
The magic of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is always attached to a certain kind of insanity. The endlessly, annually amazing capacity of this tournament is not that it surprises us. We know that weird things are going to happen with 19- and 20-year-olds thrown into the pressure of a national stage.
No, the true magic of March is that this tournament surprises you in the areas where you’re less conditioned to expect surprises, less prepared to intellectually accept a brain-busting outcome.
This tournament doesn’t just create upsets such as the one UAB fashioned against Iowa State on Thursday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. It creates upsets that happen in the last way you’d ever imagine.
This tournament leaves you shaking your head and saying, “That’s PREPOSTEROUS! THERE’S NO WAY THAT SHOULD HAPPEN!”
Ah, but “THAT” did indeed happen.
“THAT” befell Iowa State.
“THAT” ambushed Georges Niang and the rest of the Cyclones, who are improbably out of this tournament after beating Kansas to win the Big 12 tournament a few short days ago.
Here is the essence of UAB’s improbable 14-over-3 upset, presented in a very simple fashion: The Blazers didn’t play that well.
What? Get out of here. Really?
No, they didn’t.
UAB hit under 35 percent of its field goal attempts.
The Blazers earned only 11 foul shots when their field goal attempts weren’t falling, and a few of their foul shots were brought about by the necessities attached to endgame basketball, in the final half-minute of regulation.
That’s not particularly good basketball.
UAB hit just 3 of 18 threes. By using quick math, you can recognize that fraction as a 1-of-6 clip, also known as 16.7 percent.
Let’s reset: UAB shot under 35 percent from the floor, couldn’t get to the foul line with regularity, and couldn’t hit the side of a barn from three-point range.
This team KNOCKED OUT THE BIG 12 TOURNAMENT CHAMPION?!
Come on. That’s MADNESS.
Yes. That’s exactly the point. It’s madness embodied. It’s the reason for the naming of the season. It’s the perfect example of how this wonderfully wacky 68-team Dance floor explodes into springtime color every March.
*
UAB did not play well — playing well is about artistry, how you shoot the ball in hoops, how you throw the ball in football, how you swing the stick in baseball or tennis or golf. Yet, if you’re not playing well, the question becomes, “Can you COMPETE well?”
UAB got an A-plus in that category, and it was enough to eclipse Iowa State on a day when Niang, its star, was body-snatched at the worst possible time.
Georges Niang was knocked out of the NCAA tournament on the first weekend last year, but not by a loss. He suffered an injury, and his teammates were good enough to pick him up against North Carolina in the round of 32. Today, Niang was healthy, but his game wasn’t. Plagued by early foul trouble, Niang never found a comfortable rhythm, and he continued to miss shots of varying lengths down the stretch, when his team needed him most. UAB didn’t need to shoot well to win, because Niang finished 4 of 15 from the field and got just two trips to the charity stripe.
Without Niang, Iowa State couldn’t find anything in its halfcourt offense. Monte Morris scored multiple baskets on run-outs after turnovers or bad shots by UAB (and there were many of them). Set plays just didn’t lead to makes for Iowa State, and the Cyclones were even less effective than UAB in getting to the line, shooting a shocking seven foul shots against a number 14 seed.
However, for all the ways in which shooting numbers stood near the center of this upset, one other category got straight to the heart of why the Blazers — without a football program — made a huge basketball statement on the first afternoon of the Big Dance.
*
The Big 12 did have the best computer or formula ratings of all the power conferences in college basketball this season. You would think that an upper-tier member of the conference could at least not get blown out on the glass by a 14 seed. Yet, UAB demolished Iowa State on the backboard. The Blazers got 19 offensive rebounds to only 9 for ISU, but the rebounding percentage (advanced) stat is a better way to measure rebounding impact and effectivness. UAB rebounded 19 of its 45 misses, over a 40-percent clip. Iowa State rebounded 9 of its 41 misses, under 25 percent. UAB wasn’t just better numerically, it was better in terms of percentages — a lot better.
Iowa State shouldn’t be uspet that its shots didn’t fall. The Cyclones should be steamed that they were outfought so consistently on the glass. Niang did get fouled on his mid-range baseline shot attempt in the final 20 seconds, with Iowa State down by only one point. Yet, it’s hard for ISU partisans to point to officiating as a difference-making component of this game. UAB kicked ISU’s tail on the boards, and that’s precisely why this 14-3 upset made no sense.
It would have been logical to expect UAB to win if it had tossed in a bunch of threes and had one scorer devastate ISU’s defense. Yet, UAB’s leading scorer — Robert Brown — was a pedestrian 7 of 19 from the field en route to his game-high 21 points.
Upsets happen, sure. The WAY this upset happened is what makes it so crazy.
Welcome to March, folks.
It’s called Madness for a reason.
