Sports
 

March Madness a venue for miracles, underdogs

by Daniel Huron
The Daily Cougar

Sixteen teams remain, and though fans of Duke, Kansas and Illinois feel that making it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament is more or less a birthright, fans of Xavier, Nevada and Alabama-Birmingham are ecstatic over their team's surprise Sweet Sixteen appearances. 

Although a powerhouse team from a powerhouse conference may ultimately prevail in San Antonio (site of the championship game), it's the surprise schools and the upsets that truly make this tournament the nation's second greatest sporting spectacle behind the Super Bowl -- and the envy of the BCS.

No computers, no polls but human beings -- who actually sweat, bleed and cry like UAB's Mo Finley did after making the game-winning basket against No. 1 Kentucky -- will decide this national championship.

The impossible is possible. 

Give a team like Alabama a chance and it will run Stanford out of the tournament.

No one but Nevada and its faithful fans believed that they could defeat Gonzaga. But could even they foresee winning by 19 points?

Ask Mississippi State about Xavier and they'll tell you about a team that didn't give up.

Consider Saint Joseph's an underdog as well. Here is a team that many people feel is undeserving of its No. 1 seed, but it too is just two wins away from a spot in the Final Four.

Connecticut, Duke or Oklahoma State may be lifting the championship plaque in two weeks. But think back: How many former national champions can you name? 

The true memories are made in the early rounds. We remember the last second shots and the "David vs. Goliath" games. 

We remember the little guys who prove year in and year out that, given the chance, we can do anything.

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