I really like watching mid-major basketball. I feel that mid-major teams place a much greater emphasis on mastering the fundamental aspects of the game such as passing, creating open looks, taking smart shots, protecting the basketball, playing tough defense, blocking out and making free throws. Watching some of the major programs that have bowed out of the NCAAs early, I feel like they play with the same sense of entitlement as these writers bestow on them by basically implying that they deserve to be in the final four on the simple merit of climbing out of bed that day. College basketball with a lot of the so-called top programs revolves around exploiting one-on-one situations where there is a mismatch on paper. College basketball at the mid-major level revolves around the team concept and creating opportunities that play to the team's strengths without exploiting the team's weaknesses. I agree that these things matter at the major level, but I see so many innovative ways that coaches at the midmajor level develop players and devise strategies that overcome a team's shortcomings on paper. Players from mid-major schools work hard and deserve this opportunity to compete on a national stage with the rest of the nation's top programs. And when these teams come out ahead, I don't think we should look at them as "crashing the party"...but instead realize that their hard work and mastery of the fundamentals has paid off and allowed them to compete with the nations top programs.
