Sports is a crazy, fun, intense and wild thing. Regardless of your sport of choice, regardless of gender, there are always favorites and there are underdogs. Favorites usually win...but not always. Why do underdogs win, especially during championship tournaments? The main reasons are because one team just outplayed and/or out-hustled the other. Sometimes it is a (unfortunate) injury or disqualification of a key player. Sometimes it is a lucky break going one way or the other. Sometimes...it is a blown call (or non-call) by the referee that affects the final result strongly.
The old sports saying goes something like this: "On any given (Sunday), one team is going to win and someone is going to lose". This saying was quoted in the movie, appropriately titled Any Given Sunday with Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx and a lot of famous actors and NFL Hall of Famers (Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor). What does this saying really mean? It means that after all of the preparation, practice, travel, trash talk and the rest, two teams (or in individual sports two or more (golf, bowling, etc) players) will meet on the field or court of play. When it is over, one team will win, and one team will loses. No matter how over-matched one team (or player) may be versus the other ON PAPER, there is ALWAYS a chance that the lower-seeded team might actually win...for whatever reasons, like the ones listed above or others.
That leads me to the NCAA (mens) tournament, known also as March Madness. This year the field has 68 teams (65 last year). This tournament is the ultimate example of "Any given____". As of today, no 1 seed has lost their first game to a 16 seed, but UNC Asheville came damn close to beating a 1 seed versus Syracuse on Thursday. 5 15 seeds have beaten two seeds. Two did it last night. Three of them came from my home state, the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Last night Norfolk State, out of Norfolk, in their FIRST appearance in this tournament after winning the MEAC conference tournament and hasn't even been one the 320-odd Division I basketball schools for very long, stunned the world and beat Missouri. Missouri played well...they didn't choke or take Norfolk State for granted (despite the Tigers' rep as a team who chokes as a high seed). Norfolk State just played better. They did the little things...and that was enough to get the win.
Duke plain choked versus Lehigh later on. Duke, despite a short bench and not being the most athletic team around, they should have won. Oops. Bottom line, any team can win on any night versus any other team. Ask VCU about that. Last year, they went from being one of the First Four, and being told by so many that they didn't deserve to be in the NCAA tourney (as a at-large invitee), all the way to the Final Four. Ask those teams that VCU beat whether they belonged or not!
The playoff systems of most pro sports don't allow for many true underdogs to get into the playoffs to begin with, but every once in a while, they do appear. When they do, beware! Sports is sometimes reflective of life itself, but more often, it is the kind of fun escape we all need once in a while...the kind that doesn't cost a lot or hurt too much...other than sore lungs from yelling or eating too much..lol.
The old sports saying goes something like this: "On any given (Sunday), one team is going to win and someone is going to lose". This saying was quoted in the movie, appropriately titled Any Given Sunday with Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx and a lot of famous actors and NFL Hall of Famers (Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor). What does this saying really mean? It means that after all of the preparation, practice, travel, trash talk and the rest, two teams (or in individual sports two or more (golf, bowling, etc) players) will meet on the field or court of play. When it is over, one team will win, and one team will loses. No matter how over-matched one team (or player) may be versus the other ON PAPER, there is ALWAYS a chance that the lower-seeded team might actually win...for whatever reasons, like the ones listed above or others.
That leads me to the NCAA (mens) tournament, known also as March Madness. This year the field has 68 teams (65 last year). This tournament is the ultimate example of "Any given____". As of today, no 1 seed has lost their first game to a 16 seed, but UNC Asheville came damn close to beating a 1 seed versus Syracuse on Thursday. 5 15 seeds have beaten two seeds. Two did it last night. Three of them came from my home state, the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Last night Norfolk State, out of Norfolk, in their FIRST appearance in this tournament after winning the MEAC conference tournament and hasn't even been one the 320-odd Division I basketball schools for very long, stunned the world and beat Missouri. Missouri played well...they didn't choke or take Norfolk State for granted (despite the Tigers' rep as a team who chokes as a high seed). Norfolk State just played better. They did the little things...and that was enough to get the win.
Duke plain choked versus Lehigh later on. Duke, despite a short bench and not being the most athletic team around, they should have won. Oops. Bottom line, any team can win on any night versus any other team. Ask VCU about that. Last year, they went from being one of the First Four, and being told by so many that they didn't deserve to be in the NCAA tourney (as a at-large invitee), all the way to the Final Four. Ask those teams that VCU beat whether they belonged or not!
The playoff systems of most pro sports don't allow for many true underdogs to get into the playoffs to begin with, but every once in a while, they do appear. When they do, beware! Sports is sometimes reflective of life itself, but more often, it is the kind of fun escape we all need once in a while...the kind that doesn't cost a lot or hurt too much...other than sore lungs from yelling or eating too much..lol.
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