If you want to know what makes the men's NCAA Tournament so exciting, you need look no further than George Mason's upset victory over UConn on Sunday. Upsets like that — the heavy favorites being toppled by feisty underdogs — are reason numero uno to watch the Big Dance.
It's the highlights from those upsets that will be the lead items on CBS' end-of-the-tournament "One Shining Moment" montage. They're what cause millions of people across the country to sweat over their brackets in hopes of picking the right No. 5 seed v. No. 12 seed upset and cashing in on the office pool. Essentially, they're what give March its "Madness." Everyone loves to see a good David versus Goliath story.
And those upsets are exactly what the women's counterpart is missing.
Looking at what's transpired so far in the women's NCAA Tournament, there has only been one instance where the outcome of a game could truly be considered an upset: Eighth-seeded Boston College taking down top-seeded Ohio State in the second round. There were also a few instances when a No. 6 seed lost to a No. 11 seed (New Mexico over Florida and Hartford knocking out Temple), but that's where the excitement ends.
Meanwhile, a No. 11 seed in the men's tournament has made a run all the way to the national semifinals, and on the way, it knocked out a 2005 Final Four participant (MSU), the defending national champion (North Carolina) and the odds-on favorite to win it all in 2006 (Connecticut).
There's a level of parity in men's hoops that the women just don't have. Heading into any given NCAA Tournament, you could say that 10-15 men's teams have a good chance to win it all. Another 10 teams at least have a glimmer of hope. All it takes is peaking at the right time or riding one special player.
Outside of those teams, there's another group of squads that have a chance to at least advance to the second round. The only group that you could definitely say has "no chance" of winning a single game is the four lowly No. 16 seeds.
As for the women? There are only five or six teams each year that a sane person could reasonably expect to win the championship, and it's always the same teams. LSU, Tennessee and UConn are virtual locks to at least make a run to the Elite Eight in each tourney. Year in and year out, they're the best of the best in women's basketball. The No. 16 seeds are so overmatched in the opening round that the Duke women beat Southern by 69 points. That's not a typo.
Duke's men's team has only made it that far once in the last five years, and the Blue Devils are widely considered to be the most elite men's program in the country.
The MSU women's basketball team's blowout loss to Duke on Sunday was a perfect example. Sure, the team had good players, like Liz Shimek and Lindsay Bowen. And yes, it has a great coach in Joanne P. McCallie.
But by no means could you say that the Spartans were loaded. From the opening tip it was apparent that the Blue Devils were on a completely different level than the Spartans. They were too big, too fast and too talented.
At the end of the day, the Spartans were just another middle-of-the-road team. Good enough to have a great regular-season record, and good enough to be competitive in their conference, but definitely not good enough to have a realistic chance at this year's national title.
In the men's tournament, "good enough" is more than enough to make a run. Just ask the George Mason Patriots. As long as women's hoops is lacking upsets, it'll never come close to touching the popularity and excitement of the men's tournament.
March Madness needs its Cinderella stories, and (ironically) they rarely exist in the realm of women's college basketball.
Ethan Conley can be reached at conleyet@msu.edu.
