by Kevin Burton Perhaps you noticed that all the teams in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament this year were from the Big Four conferences. That and Kansas losing in the second round has dialed my enthusiasm down very close to zero. A pox on all 16 of their houses …
Category Archives: March Madness
How Sports Underdogs Became ‘Cinderellas’
by Merriam-Webster Dictionary Cinderella is arguably the most iconic of fairy tales, an archetype of what is known as the rags-to-riches story. You know how it goes: living under the oppression of her evil stepmother, she finds her chance at happiness and fortune only after a fairy godmother makes her over for the …
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Miami Of Ohio Strikes A Blow For Underdogs
by Kevin Burton My underdog heart beat just a little bit faster Wednesday, thanks to Miami of Ohio winning a play-in game. I would love the RedHawks to have a nice long run in March Madness, beginning with their 3:25 p.m. matchup with Tennessee today, but I’m happy with what they have done …
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Mike Kennedy, Forever Voice Of The Shockers
by Kevin Burton Tomorrow Mike Kennedy will call his final regular-season game after 46 years as the voice of Wichita State basketball. This is one of those blog ideas that showed up on the spreadsheet long ago. But it keeps moving down the page. I’m having trouble delivering it. I don’t want …
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Deflated Wichita State Program Limps Offstage
by Kevin Burton Well, at least it’s over. The 2024-25 version of Wichita State basketball bowed out yesterday, when the Shockers lost an American Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinal game to Memphis 83-80. The team went 19-14 this year and will not go to a post-season tournament. They were far from sublime, not …
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Adding Indiana Fever To My Sports Landscape
by Kevin Burton I need to correct an error today, an egregious error. Last month I wrote a post about my favorite sports teams in the various college and professional sports leagues (“My Shifting Sports Team Allegiances,” March 27). Somehow I got all the way through that post without writing a single …
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My Shifting Sports Team Allegiances
by Kevin Burton Time and location, location, location, can change even the most fervent loyalties when it comes to sports fan allegiances. On ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption, Tony Kornheiser talks about the New York Mets as “the team of my youth” to differentiate it from his current favorite, the Washington Nationals. That is …
Wichita State Great Ron Baker Turns 30
by Kevin Burton Ron Baker, the shooting guard who helped usher in the greatest era of basketball at Wichita State, turns 30 tomorrow. Some of us may not be ready to hear that. Some of us overlooked, downtrodden people clung tightly to those Wichita State teams, underdogs who routinely slayed giants (I’m …
Why Do We Love March Madness So Much?
by Kevin Burton In the bad old days, being without a girlfriend, or a date, or even a prayer, on Valentine’s Day was a sharp searing pain to the psyche. Now by comparison, being without a basketball team for the big dance, or even the little dance, is a dull ache. March Madness is …
SI: North Carolina’s NIT Decision Was Lame
by Kevin Burton North Carolina head basketball coach Hubert Davis, hurting after his team coughed up a 16-point lead and the NCAA tournament final to Kansas last April, nevertheless had gracious words for his players. “I can’t be more proud of the group that I just coached this year,” Davis said in a …
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