Oh, the life of a mid-major
By Zach Swartz, Staff Writer
February 27, 2008 | 6 a.m.
When Ohio basketball coach Tim O’Shea mentioned in the press conference following his team’s 69-57 victory over George Mason Saturday afternoon that he would like to see a team like Duke come into the Convocation Center to face the Bobcats, most of the reporters in the room responded with light-hearted chuckles.
“I think we’d give them a heck of a game,” O’Shea said. “I don’t know if we’d win, but it would be extremely competitive.”
The chuckles, even among those experienced in covering mid-major college basketball, were the response of choice because of the prevalent idea around college athletics that certain teams are in a class above others. Of the 341 basketball programs in 31 NCAA Division I conferences, only 61 teams belong to the six so-called power conferences: the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12, the Big East, the Pacific 10, the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten.
In 2007, 34 of the 65 teams in the NCAA Tournament represented these six conferences, with each conference boasting between four and seven bids. The remaining 25 leagues sent no more than two teams apiece.
As far as O’Shea and the Bobcats are concerned, however, they might not be getting the respect they deserve.
“We could pull off the big upset if we get the right seed,” O’Shea said of his team’s chances in the NCAA Tournament. “The hard part is getting there. Bids seem to go disproportionately to the BCS conference. All coaches just hope that they can make it to the field.”
The basketball program that exemplifies this best is none other than the team the Bobcats defeated Saturday.
In 2006, after receiving one of only two NCAA Tournament bids from the Colonial Athletic Association, the No. 11 seed George Mason Patriots took down three of the previous six national champions -- Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut -- as well as fellow mid-major Wichita State, to reach the Final Four in arguably the greatest Final Four run of all time. In doing so, they proved to bracket gamblers everywhere that the little man might have just as good a chance to win the national title as any one of the teams in the six power conferences.
“There’s so much parity now in basketball,” said Bobcat guard Bubba Walther, whose 21 points and five three-pointers against the Patriots Saturday were much of the reason the ‘Cats came out with a win. “We beat Maryland, one of the better teams in the ACC. I think there are probably only 10 teams that you won’t beat. I don’t really like the term mid-major anymore.”
The term mid-major has become somewhat of a quandary these days in the NCAA basketball world because of teams like George Mason, as well as programs like Memphis, Butler, Xavier, Drake and St. Mary’s, all of whom represent so-called mid-major conferences but went into the past weekend ranked in the AP Top 25. The line between mid-major and championship competitor has been blurred in recent years because of teams like these.
When asked about his views of being a part of a program classified as a mid-major, George Mason Director of Men’s Basketball Operations Kenten Dernbach responded that he was confused by the term.
“George Mason is known now throughout the country with the Final Four run in 2006,” said Dernbach, whose position was created only after the Patriots’ tournament run. “I think if you classify us using the term mid-major, we’re part of a program right now that is on the higher end of mid-majors but that is nationally recognized and is pretty successful.”
O’Shea also showed some doubt in the term mid-major in basketball these days.
“I just think there are good basketball teams, and there are some great basketball teams,” O’Shea said. “I think that teams like Ohio are very good basketball teams. You don’t go to Maryland and win on the road if you’re not a very good team. You don’t beat George Mason, New Mexico State or St. John’s if you’re not a good team.”
When teams like Ohio beat schools like these, O’Shea believes it says something about the smaller leagues.
“It’s just a way of almost targeting teams that don’t have big time football programs,” O’Shea said. “If everybody supposedly is in a BCS league that they consider a different level, then the quality of our play at our level is outstanding.”
Despite the successes of the George Masons in college basketball, there still seems to be a widespread need to segregate teams into higher- and lower-quality leagues. Every Monday, CollegeInsider.com releases its Mid-Major Top 25 poll, which consists of teams from 19 of the 25 smaller conferences in the nation, including the Mid-American Conference. As of Feb. 18, Butler sits atop the list with St. Mary’s and Drake rounding out the top three. The MAC’s Kent State and Akron hold the No. 8 and No. 14 spots, respectively, and Ohio, despite getting 37 votes, misses the top 25 at No. 31. George Mason is ranked 11th.
The problem with polls like this is that it establishes the term mid-major as an official qualification for a team, an idea that, to O’Shea, hurts the chances of teams like Ohio or George Mason to get into the NCAA Tournament because they do not always get opportunities to play teams that are considered superior.
“You almost have to pitch a perfect game if you’re from a conference like the Colonial or the MAC,” O’Shea said. “That’s the way it works in those leagues. [Teams in higher conferences] have multiple opportunities to redeem [themselves] because every time they’re playing, they’re playing a team that’s nationally known, that has a high RPI, and they get them on their home court.”
It is because Ohio does not get nationally prominent teams on its home floor that O’Shea expressed his desire to play a team like Duke in the friendly confines of the Convocation Center, where the Bobcats haven’t lost in 12 straight contests.
“It’s tough for anybody to come in here and win,” O’Shea said. “That’s why our winning percentage is so high, and that’s also why nobody wants to come here.”
Regardless of national rankings, Ohio is still looking to get its second NCAA Tournament bid in the last four years. With quality wins over Maryland, Bucknell, Cornell, Kent State and now George Mason, the Bobcats might just have enough to get an at-large bid.
In the more realistic world of college basketball, however, an at-large bid might be just out of their reach, just as it was for last year’s MAC East regular season champion, the Akron Zips, who, after losing the conference tournament and automatic bid to Miami, also gave up their chances at an at-large bid to teams from more prominent conferences.
Nevertheless, tournament or no tournament, the Bobcats take pride in their role, even if it is as a mid-major.
“We take a lot of pride in our home court,” Walther said. “I think we put on a good show for the rest of the country to see what Ohio basketball is all about.”
Ohio vs. George Mason game notes:
Saturday’s ESPNU BracketBuster game presented the first time Ohio and George Mason ever met. Ohio is 3-1 in its last four BracketBuster games.
George Mason forwards Louis Birdsong and Will Thomas played high school ball in Baltimore, Md., for Mount St. Joseph, a rival high school of Ohio center Leon Williams’ alma mater, Cardinal Gibbons. “It felt like old times,” Williams said of his battle against Thomas. "I think I outplayed him."
The win over George Mason, along with Ohio’s Dec. 12 victory over Maryland, also gave Williams victories over two colleges within driving distance of his hometown that never recruited him. “[Beating George Mason] felt great,” Williams said. “Almost as good as Maryland from a personal standpoint.”
With 2:26 to play and two seconds left on the shot clock, Williams put up and made a three-pointer, his first attempted, and made, triple in his distinguished four-year career.
Walther’s 21 points gave him his sixth double-digit scoring game in the last seven contests. “I don’t think playing on ESPN2 was that big of a factor today,” said the 6-foot-5-inch sharpshooter who has been known to get pumped up for big games. “But I’m glad I played well so everybody could see it.”
Ohio’s defense held George Mason’s star center Thomas to just six attempts from the floor, his third lowest total all season.
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