RICK STEWART/NEWSMAKERS Bobby Knight's Indiana team choked against Pepperdine.

ELItorial: Keeping the 65th team at bay

But I don't think I'm the only one whose bracket is lying in shredded little pieces on the floor. Where did all these upsets come from? Can you name one player on the Tulsa basketball team? Who's the head coach of Louisiana State University? What league does Gonzaga play in?

Who are all these teams? Looking back on the carnage, one thing connects the teams that made it to the Sweet 16 (and I probably should have thought of this before filling out my bracket): they all have managed to avoid controversy. Commentators may say the tournament is about hitting free throws or avoiding turnovers, but this year it's about keeping your name out of the press.

Of course, controversy can't explain everything—Temple and Stanford fell without any. But the detrimental effects of media coverage are often overlooked—attention can do awful things in sports. For the gifted few like Michael Jordan, it can make careers. But for us mere mortals, most of the time it breaks you. Sports simply are not about thinking. If you think, you're done. What do coaches do when they want an opposing player to miss a free throw? They call a timeout. They want him to think it over. It happens in every sport—icing the kicker is as common as a pitcher taking his time to make the batter nervous. Controversy has the same effect. We can call it media-icing.

For example, consider Indiana. Bobby Knight's boys finished the regular season with impressive victories over Michigan State and Purdue. But the day before the tournament, Knight became embroiled in yet another dispute over his abusive coaching tactics as Neil Reed, a former player, made allegations of physical and mental abuse against him. The media storm hit Indiana like El Niño and the Hoosiers lost to Pepperdine by 20.

Ditto for St. John's. Media buzz and controversy surrounded the team. As the NCAA bureaucracy threatened to swoop down at any moment to suspend star point guard Erick Barkley '02, an anxious Barkley picked a fight with teammate Bootsy Thornton '00. What was, for my money, the team with the most raw talent in the tournament nearly fell to Northern Arizona and then lost to Gonzaga in the second round. I've been watching the Red Storm all year and they never looked anywhere near as dismal as they did in the tournament.

Same story for Cincinnati. After the basketball pundits went on and on about the loss of Kenyon Martin '00, head coach Bob Huggins whined incessantly on national television about a supposed injustice—his Bearcats only got a No. 2 seeding. He was trying to spark controversy to rile his team up, but it backfired. The extra attention resulted in another early exit for Cincinnati.

The list goes on and on. Off the court considerations were crucial in the losses of Auburn, Connecticut, and Arizona.

On the other hand, the few favored teams that have survived and advanced are those without disgruntled coaches or dysfunctional stars. Michigan State and Iowa State have kept their focus on the court and played solid basketball. Duke is just Duke, no story, and their so-so season has meant that they've attracted even less attention than usual.

As the NCAA tournament goes, media-icing has more than its usual effects because the players are amateurs. While these kids may seem godlike on the basketball court, it's important to remember that many of them aren't even 20 years old yet. Many of their brains may be much less mature than their calves, and seeing their name on the cover of USA Today often easily destroys what little poise a player may have learned.

Media-icing also can explain why cinderella teams sparkle, then fade. As soon as their anonymity is gone and all eyes turn to them, they fizzle under the pressure.

Rhythm is the most important part of this tournament. To succeed, teams have to keep a blue-collar work ethic and keep their attention focused on the court. The media, that perennial 65th team, is all too contagious when it comes to spreading the upset bug.

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