Cinderella

Congrats to George Mason University for making it to the Final Four in the NCAA Tourney!

I'm not really following the tournament much this year -- not that I usually do -- but with so many local teams playing this year I couldn't help hearing buzzes around town about our teams. I was sorry that GWU took such an early departure, and Georgetown's defeat was relatively hard fought, but at least Mason's in the Final Four.

We caught the last few seconds of the Mason game while I was at a friend's house. While no one in the room really had any connection to Mason, a few of us were rooting for them just because we wanted a good Cinderella story (bonus points for involving a local school). Besides, almost everyone's brackets got screwed up when Kansas and Carolina lost anyway.

Watching some of the news reports on the match-up tonight, I heard two things that disturbed me about the U-Conn team. First, they made some arrogant prediction last night that they would win the entire tournament. Me personally, I like a little bit of modesty in athletes, especially collegiate athletes. You don't just "win." You have to work at it. There are others involved (they're called your "opponents"); acknowledge it's not necesssarily automatic that you'll beat them.

Second -- good grief! -- after the national anthem, U-Conn actually declined to shake hands with the Mason team. That's wildly unsportsmanlike and definitely uncool to an extreme. Again, these guys are people and, whether you take them seriously or not, they will be playing against you. Does it take too much to treat them like human beings? They're as excited to be there as you are -- maybe even more so, since they've rarely made an appearance in the tournament at all, let alone make it to the Sweet Sixteen -- just be gentlemen and acknowledge them.

If for no other reason, after that kind of arrogant show I'm glad U-Conn didn't beat Mason. I'll just make it a good secondary reason (after the great Cinderella story) that I'm pretty happy for Mason right around now.