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Imagine this is one month from now. Indianapolis will be in the middle of a five-week college basketball bash the likes of which it has never seen before, and never will again. COVID willing, of course.
The Big Ten men and women will have played their tournaments downtown. The Horizon men and women, too, at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The Connecticut women will have come to Hinkle Fieldhouse in late February to play at Butler, probably atop the polls. Which means, combined with Gonzaga’s visit here in December, Indianapolis will have hosted the No. 1 men’s and women’s teams in the same regular season.
By mid-March, Indy will be ready for its closeup. While the buses of 68 teams go by, arriving from hither and yon and the airport, we’ll be able to look at the side of the JW Marriott, and there it’ll be: The bracket for an NCAA Tournament that no one could have imagined in the old world, back before we knew what antigen tests and Moderna vaccines were.
No ordinary bracket will do, not with the entire tournament bouncing around Indianapolis like a Grubhub driver. And judging by right now, it won’t be remotely close to ordinary. We have here the most recent Associated Press Top 25, and what it suggests is that Indianapolis won’t just host the most unorthodox tournament ever played by location, but also maybe with one of the most unusual fields in recent times. Not just because of who’s here, but more because of who isn’t.
Notice anybody missing from the Top 25? Duke. Kentucky. Kansas. Michigan State. North Carolina. UCLA. It’s as if the bluebloods nearly all took a wrong turn. There have been 81 national championships decided in the history of the NCAA Tournament—and 71 of them were won by programs that couldn’t even dent the rankings last week.
For that matter, only three schools in the Top 25 have won a title in the past 57 years: Virginia, Villanova and Michigan. There’s never been another week like it in recent poll history.
So just imagine the bracket come mid-March. Duke might not be there. The Blue Devils began this week 7-7, which meant they owned two fewer victories than starting lineups Mike Krzyzewski had tried with his young team. The last time they didn’t make the tournament was 1995.
Kentucky might not be there. The Wildcats are closing in on their second losing season since 1927. There have been 81 NCAA tournaments. Only 22 of them were played without Kentucky. The last time Duke and Kentucky both didn’t make the field was 1976. Krzyzewski was in his first season coaching at Army, John Calipari was in high school and Indiana was the undefeated national champion.
Michigan State might not be there. As of February, the Spartans had done a swan dive from No. 4 in the rankings to 12th place in the Big Ten. The last time they sat home in March was 1997, when Tom Izzo was an assistant coach.
Indiana might not be there. The Hoosiers’ prospects got a huge boost when IU beat Iowa twice, but they need to keep their sneakers slammed on the gas. If they maintain their recent zigzag pattern, they might tumble right off the bubble. The last time Indiana and Michigan State both missed the NCAA Tournament was 44 years ago.
Kansas, unranked for the first time in 12 years, will probably be there but not seeded highly. Care to hear one of the most amazing but little-talked-about feats of this era in college basketball? The Jayhawks have been seeded in the top four of the tournament every March since 2001. They’ve been No. 1 nine times. Not this year.
Wake Forest and North Carolina State will probably be missing. Duke is iffy. North Carolina will likely be there but down the seed list. Those are the four ACC schools from the hoop-happy state of North Carolina, and we mention them all together because the last time at least one of them wasn’t among the top four seeds of the NCAA Tournament was … never. But maybe this year.
Rutgers will probably be up there. The last time the Scarlet Knights were invited to the NCAA Tournament was 1991. There have been 291 other Division I programs that got to go since then.
Alabama will be up there. Maybe even a No. 1 seed. And this ain’t even football. The Tide claims 18 national championships in football. That’s only three fewer than NCAA Tournament games they’ve won in their history.
Purdue could well be up there. Forty-one years ago, the Final Four came to town for the first time, and the Boilermakers were included in Market Square Arena. So they can still say they’ve done something in the tournament that IU never did—play in a Final Four game in Indianapolis.
And here’s something else to ponder. The First Four games, pairing the lowest-seeded at-large teams to get into the field, will be in Bloomington and West Lafayette. If Indiana or Purdue end up in the First Four, would they get a tournament game on their home floor? Probably not, so imagine what that could be like for, say, the Hoosiers. They could be hosting NCAA Tournament games in Assembly Hall, the same night they’re playing in one in Mackey Arena.
Toledo might be up there in the bracket. The Rockets, who lead the MAC, haven’t been in the field since 1980. They’ve won only one tournament game in their history, and that was in Bloomington.
Missouri will probably be up there. Remember the old Boilermaker, Cuonzo Martin? You could make a case for him as national coach of the year. Missouri is 10th in the national rankings this week. Before the season, the Tigers were picked to finish 10th … in their conference.
Baylor will be up there, probably seeded higher than it has ever been. The Bears, unbeaten and No. 2 in this week’s rankings, will be trying to get to their first Final Four in 71 years. Coaching them is Scott Drew, one of Homer’s sons, from Valparaiso.
Grand Canyon might be up there. The Antelopes—their campus is in Phoenix, 20 miles from Arizona State University—have never been invited to the tournament, but they’re leading the WAC with a first-year coach. That’d be Bryce Drew, Scott’s brother, and Indiana’s Mr. Basketball of 1994. The Drews are a true Hoosier family, and the two brothers could be coaching in an NCAA Tournament that will be played all in Indiana.
The possibilities are endless, and the giant bracket on West Street could be so rare, so compelling, so odd. Just like the tournament it represents, as Indianapolis becomes the unquestioned and unprecedented capital of college basketball.
COVID willing, of course. Or did we say that already? One month from now.•
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Lopresti is a lifelong resident of Richmond and a graduate of Ball State University. He was a columnist for USA Today and Gannett newspapers for 31 years; he covered 34 Final Fours, 30 Super Bowls, 32 World Series and 16 Olympics. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mjl5853@aol.com.
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