Isn't this exactly what we should be hoping for?

First of all, I would like to take a moment to congratulate my good friend, the trained chimp, who seems poised to win office pools around the country this year, with the historic advancement of all four #1 seeds to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. You were the better man, so to speak, this year.

Secondly, I'd like to comment on the sentiment I've already heard from a few people in the last couple hours, that having all the #1 seeds in the Final Four is somehow not compelling and/or uninteresting. I suppose that might be the case, if you don't have an appreciation if you don't find great basketball to be compelling or interesting. It would be one thing if this sentiment was coming from a casual fan, but a couple of these folks are serious college basketball fans.

It appears that, at least to some degree, we've been somehow brainwashed into thinking that there needs to some compelling back story in order to make a Final Four noteworthy. And that's sad. The reality, as I've pointed out in past posts, is that in most cases, a favorite ends up winning the championship, so any of these compelling stories come to an unpleasant end 9 out of 10 times. In fact, in a lot of years, the Final Four has ended up being anti-climatic relative to the rest of the tournament, because regardless of the story lines, you often wind up with matchups that just aren't particularly interesting as they play out on the court. As much fun as the Cinderella stories are, midnight comes inevitably, and generally with a level of authority. People like to talk about how wonderful George Mason's run in '06 was, and it was a great story, but we forget that it ended with them being dominated by Florida as part of what was a very blah Final Four. We talk about how wild the 2000 tournament was, when 1 seed Michigan State was the only team above a 5 to make the Final Four, but conveniently leave out that the Spartans ran roughshod through the weak Final Four field for their title.

Let's really think about what this year's Final Four represents. The 4 1 seeds are, at least in theory (and I believe in practice this year), the 4 teams that were the best in the country all season long. If that weren't enough, you also have 3 extremely storied programs in UCLA, UNC, and Kansas, along with an extremely exciting Memphis team crashing the party out of Conference USA. Almost invariably in other years, you have at least one semi-final that is a mis-match, or you have a feeling that one of the semi-finals is the real championship game. That is certainly not the case this year, as we are guaranteed 3 matchups that would all make very satisfying title game matchups. Of the Final Fours that I can remember, other than the ones that Duke emerged from as champion, my all-time favorite has to be 1993. Not coincidentally, that was the year when the Final Four had the lowest combined seeds in history, prior to this year. There were 3 1s (UNC, Kentucky, Michigan) and a 2 (Kansas). 3 truly great matchups, combined with a signature moment (Chris Webber's ill-fated call of a timeout Michigan did have) in the title game. Truly classic. I expect a similar feel to this year.

If you're a serious college hoops fan and are somehow turned off by this year's Final Four, I have to believe there's something wrong with you, because apparently you need something other than great basketball to pique your interest. Isn't this what we're all clamouring for in college football, having the best 4 teams playing for the title?

So, if you're a little down on this year's Final Four, I urge you to give it a chance, and appreciate it for what it is - the absolute highest level of basketball that the college game can offer you. I have a feeling you won't come away disappointed.