DEAR CINDERELLA by Tannen

The Dance is always great. For one day, the Super Bowl is awesome. Still get a kick out of New Years Day and all the bowl games. But these 17-18 days involving so many teams and sub-plots takes the cake. 3 years ago we had George Mason from the Colonial League make it all the way to the Final 4 before the bubble burst against eventual champion Florida. We can all recite the end of Valparaiso over Mississippi as a #13 seed, but that was way back in 1998 when they reached the Sweet 16. Last year we had all the top seeds make the Final 4 for the first time ever. We did have Davidson come within a whisker of the National Semi-finals as a 10 seed. Otherwise it was all 1 through 4 seeds in that Elite 8. This year as Gonzaga beat Western Kentucky with a second left, only Arizona was still standing after the first weekend with a low seed. But come on! It's freaking Arizona. They've been to the tournament 25 straight years. This is hardly Cinderella. In two brackets it's down to the top four seeds and with #5 Purdue taking out #4 Washington, that West is down to a 1-2-3 & 5, not exactly miracle city. Another interesting factor is how the Big East has in fact held up well in the Dance with 5 teams still standing. As for the performance of the Pac-10, save Arizona, UCLA got torched by Villanova. Nova was also playing in their backyard in Philly. To me it looked like the Huskies were taken by surprise against the Boilermakers. Washington is used to being the gritty team with a speed advantage as well. Purdue matched them physically and I think the Dawgs were thrown off by the Boilers in your face, lightning quick defense. Arizona State got outcoached as that Syracuse zone took James Harden out of the game and on the other end, got Pendergraff to foul out with about 9 minutes left in. We'll have much more on what I witnessed 1st hand at the Rose Garden on both Thursday & Saturday because it was amazing to be a part of this.