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There has been much banter about whether or not the Memphis Tigers would be better off not entering the NCAA tournament undefeated.\u00a0 And, the prevailing opinion seems to be:\u00a0 yes, they would be better suited to winning a national title if they were to lose a game in the regular season.\u00a0 The most common reasons stated for this are:<\/p>\n
I could not disagree more with these or any other reason why Memphis would be better off losing.\u00a0 Let us take the reasons above one at a time.<\/p>\n
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First of all, in response to the added “pressure” of being undefeated, I think this is the most ridiculous one of all–and it just happens to be the most popular.\u00a0 These are 18-22 year old\u00a0AMATEUR basketball players\u00a0who\u00a0eat, sleep and breathe the game of basketball.\u00a0 They have never\u00a0won an NCAA championship.\u00a0 In fact, they play for a coach who, despite 400+ career wins, a .750 winning percentage and a national coach of the year award, has never won an NCAA title.\u00a0 And, all of this is at a school that, despite a strong basketball history and institutional commitment to the sport,\u00a0has never won an NCAA basketball championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When adding all of these things together, I believe there is such a thing as “terminal pressure,” in that adding even more things on top of a tournament run will not increase the pressure that these kids feel in March.\u00a0 Say Memphis wins their first 3 tournament games and is playing on March 30 for a chance at the Final Four.\u00a0 Do you think that these kids will feel any more pressure if they are 36-0 than if they were 35-1?\u00a0 Either way, this game is the biggest game that any of these players have ever played.\u00a0 Can it get any “bigger” than the biggest ever?\u00a0 Can you feel any more pressure than the “game of your life,” which it would be regardless of the number of losses they have suffered?<\/p>\n
The\u00a0response to the second reason stated above is similar to the first.\u00a0 Yes, being undefeated makes it harder to win regular season games because every team shows up to play you.\u00a0 They have your game circled on their calendar.\u00a0 UAB and Houston and Tulane know that the best way to make their season count is to knock off number one.\u00a0 So, yes, being undefeated makes regular season wins harder.\u00a0 However, we are talking about the tournament.\u00a0 Is there any team out there that is not going to be “up” for a tournament game?\u00a0 If you need the fact that your opponent is undefeated in order to bring your best game in the NCAA TOURNAMENT, then you should probably rethink your commitment to your sport.\u00a0 Yes, being undefeated brings the best out of your opponent, but so does playing in the NCAA Tournament, so that should have no additional effect on the difficulty involved in winning an NCAA title.<\/p>\n
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Finally, the third reason stated above may be somewhat valid, but ought to be tempered by several factors.\u00a0 Number one, they have an experienced, intelligent, highly astute coach guiding the ship.\u00a0 Being undefeated may make Coach Calipari’s job a little harder, but I trust the fact that he can do this job and make it so that it does not affect his players.<\/p>\n
Secondly, the big concern here is the overconfidence with being undefeated.\u00a0 I think that the concerns with overconfidence bring no more negative than the positive gained by being confident.\u00a0 If Memphis does finish the regular season undefeated, they will have beaten 7 teams that are likely to be in the tournament field (Oklahoma,\u00a0UConn, USC, Georgetown, Arizona, Gonzaga and Tennessee).\u00a0 This will more than make up for all the talk they have to hear about how bad Conference USA is (a very much overstated opinion) because they know that they have been tested and that, on those given days, they have proven better than some of the best team in the country.\u00a0 I believe that this confidence of being undefeated more than makes up for the negative associated with possibly being overconfident.<\/p>\n
Finally, with all the talk of “needing to know what losing feels like,” people seem to forget that this tournament is a one-and-done tournament.\u00a0 It does not matter how you handle losing because once you do lose, your season is over.\u00a0 It is not like Memphis has to learn how to “bounce back” from a loss because one loss and their season (and most of their careers) are over.<\/p>\n
All in all, I know that no one is advocating the Memphis roll over and lose one intentionally, but many people are stating that they would be better off if they did not enter the Tournament undefeated.\u00a0 I disagree.\u00a0 The bright lights of the Tournament are bright enough to overwhelm 19-year old amateur athletes–adding “history” is not going to make the most important 3 weeks of their lives any more important.\u00a0 And, while they are at it, isn’t it everyone’s goal to “make history” by winning a championship?\u00a0 So, why wouldn’t that goal of “making history” be even more impressive if it was done without a loss?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There has been much banter about whether or not the Memphis Tigers would be better off not entering the NCAA tournament undefeated.\u00a0 And, the prevailing opinion seems to be:\u00a0 yes, they would be better suited to winning a national title … Continue reading