NCAA Men's Tournement Weigh-In

First off I have to congratulate the Duke Blue Devils on a fine season. As a team they got the maximum out of their group. I'm far from a Duke or Coach K fan, but I give him credit for the coaching job he did with a group that was not loaded with great talent. I tip my hat to the players that went out and got it done. As a former NCAA player myself, I respect what it takes to win a national championship.

Now that that's out of the way, it's time to weigh-in on what happened during this NCAA tournament.

During this tournament I read a number of articles about white players being stereotyped and disrespected because they are white. The media took advantage of predominantly white teams having great success in this year's tournament. Once Duke won the title it dawned on me how bad Duke winning is for college basketball.

Let's clear up some things. Coach K has always tried to win with as many white players as he can get away with. If you don't believe me, then go check the records and look at the rosters. Don't think for one second that this is not done by design. Coach K knows what he's doing and he makes sure his staff recruits accordingly.

I'll admit that the main reason I wrote Duke off at the beginning of the season was because I did not believe them or any other team that was predominantly white could win the national championship. Is it because of the stereotypes? Not at all. But let's be real. The University of North Carolina won the 2008-2009 title with a black team with the exception of Tyler Hansborough. Here's a question for you true NCAA fans. When was the last time a predominantly white team won the national championship before this year? What do you want to bet it was a Duke team?

I'm all for the small schools beating up on the big schools. In my opinion, that's what make the NCAA Men's Tournament the best sporting event in sports. It does not matter whether the team is predominantly white or black. It's just nice to see the little guy beat the big guy. The problems comes in when the big guy wins with white players because it causes us to have to address the subject of white verses black. All that does is take away from the job that the players do to get to that level.

It's irresponsible for members of the media to ask a kid, who's having the time of his life, about being a white player on a white team. The questions should strictly apply to the game and the tournament itself. I highly doubt that players want to address such matters while they are focused on their tournament success. There's a time and place for everything.

There is already a lot of controversy and bad press out there about black players verses white players. There has been a big deal made of graduation rates of black athletes and white athletes. I will say that black athletes, on a wide scale, need to take their education more seriously and graduate at a higher rate. As far as predominantly white teams being stereotyped and disrespected, it's a trivial subject. Duke got it done this year, but I would like to see them do it again next year.

The question is will this change the landscape of recruiting. Will coaches at other programs start trying to recruit more white players? Makes you scratch your head a bit.

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Until next time, have a good one.

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