A rooting interest

NCAA tourney more interesting with a team we can love

The storm drains are overflowing with tears in Columbus, Ohio; Blacksburg, Va.; Tempe, Ariz.; and Normal, Ill.

"You tellin' me we're not one of the top 65 teams in America?" That's what you're hearing from the coaches, players, administrators, and fans of Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Arizona State, and Illinois State, none of whom heard their institution's name called on Selection Sunday.

You can bet there was some sobbin' and wailin' in Amherst, too.

Of course, they're all better than Coppin State, but that's not the point of the NCAA Tournament. The point is there are lots of points. For the elite few, the point is to win a national championship. Way down there in the minnow pond, the point is to get in, period. Just get in. If you don't like the way the tournament is set up, then go find yourself a conference you can win.

So a 20-loss team (but one that has won 12 of its last 13) gets in, and you don't. Too bad. Next time, fellas, win more games. It's about that simple.

The Selection Committee always has a tough job, but this year's task may have been the most challenging ever. Never before have so many flawed, mediocre teams presented themselves for at-large perusal. The usual power conference logic didn't apply. The ACC was down. The SEC was down. The Big 12 was down. The Big Ten was down, but that's no longer news. The Big East was good, and so was the Pac-10. And it didn't help the spurned teams that Georgia stole the SEC tournament while everyone else was waiting for the roof to fall in. Hey, you win two games in one day, you're gonna play in the postseason, even if we allow you to start your own tournament. But a 17-16 team getting in means someone - I would guess Arizona State - gets X-ed out.

It's strict zero sum.

However they got there, the Selection Committee did get us a 65-team field. Now let's hope things get back to normal. We can't have another year like 2007.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the NCAA Tournament is really three separate and distinct mini-tourneys - four, if you count the 10 days of conference championships leading up to the CBS Selection Show. The fascination of the tournament isn't worrying about who's going to win it. That's way down on the list of priorities. What has made the NCAA Tournament such a compelling spectacle are the sagas of the little guys and the average-sized guys in the first two weekends. That's where all the real drama lies. The only time the Big Boys are of any interest in the early stages is if they get in trouble, which brings us back to the little guys and the average-sized guys.

In this regard, last year's tournament was a mega-dud. You could count the upsets on Antonio Alfonseca's two big paws. Lower-seeded teams won only 12 games, and eight were by teams ranked just one seed below. One of the sacred tenets of the NCAA Tournament is that a 12 will beat a 5 on the first day, but for only the third time in the 1-through-16 seeding process that began in 1985, it did not happen in 2007 (the other years were 1988 and 2000).

What gives the tournament juice is a 2 beating a 15, which has happened three times, or a 3 beating a 14, which has happened 14 times, most recently in 2006 when Northwestern State knocked off Iowa. That same year, 11th-seeded George Mason beat Michigan State, North Carolina, and Connecticut in succession to find itself in the Final Four. That's an NCAA Tournament you can sink your teeth into.

So what we need for this to be a proper NCAA Tournament is for some instantly lovable non-mainstream team to emerge. Someone, for example, like Davidson.

Davidson is coached by a wise man named Bob McKillop who helped his team prepare for the 2008 NCAA Tournament by pretty much ensuring it would lose a bunch of games in November and December. By the end of December, the Wildcats had lost to North Carolina (by 4), Duke (by 6), and UCLA (by 12). You can also add Charlotte, Western Michigan, and North Carolina State (by 1). But that loss to the Wolfpack in December was the last time Davidson failed to walk off the floor as victors.

The Wildcats rolled through the Southern Conference and when they take the floor against Gonzaga in a 7-10 game Friday night, they will do so as a 10 seed with 22 straight victories, not to mention as a 10 seed that knows exactly what the elite teams look, feel, and smell like.

If Davidson gets by those pesky Bulldogs, they'll get Georgetown. Light a candle for them.

If not Davidson, what about Butler? The Bulldogs will try to make some noise with five seniors in their first seven, one of whom, guard A.J. Graves, is a one-man "Hoosiers," hailing, as he does, from Switz City, Ind., population 300.

Or try Drake. The Missouri Valley Conference - yup - Bulldogs (doesn't anyone wish to be called the Chocolate Labs?) got an El Shafto from the committee with a 5 seed, despite 28 wins. Last year, Drake had its first winning season in 20 years. This year, it is making its first appearance in the tournament since 1971.

Pull for them to beat Western Kentucky and then see what they can do against UConn, assuming Jim Calhoun's team is interested enough to defeat San Diego.

I'm just offering a few possibilities to stimulate your interest. Here's another one: South Alabama, Butler's first-round foe in an East region 7-10 game. No less an authority than Rick Pitino says they're a potentially troublesome foe for anyone, and I'm here to tell you that Ronnie Arrow is the best coach you've never heard of.

And if not South Alabama, there's always hardy perennial Winthrop, back for the fourth year in a row and eighth time since 1999. The lads from Rock Hill, S.C., got Notre Dame last year. Maybe they'll get Washington State this year.

Hey, there's always George Mason. As the sign said at the CAA championship game, "George Mason is this year's George Mason."

Who's gonna win? See me in two weeks. Then we can discuss Carolina, Memphis, Tennessee, Texas, Duke, Georgetown, Kansas, or whatever other power conference team has caught fire (Pitt? Clemson?). I don't have time for that right now. I've got an NCAA Tournament to watch.

Go Bulldogs. Wildcats, too.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.