Since Arizona last made it to the Final Four in 2001, almost 30 NCAA Division-I men’s basketball teams have made it to March Madness’ ultimate weekend.
A full 29, to be exact. Twenty-nine other programs that have tasted April’s sweet showers since the Wildcats last did. Sixteen years! Old enough for a driver’s license.
It’s enough to make you want to wax poetic.
So I did.
Call it “The Rides of March.”
For every Duke and UNC, there’s a Cinderella story, a VCU or Butler, coming so close to glory.
Georgetown has been there, Indiana and Maryland, too, but for the Terps and Hoosiers, it hasn’t been since 2002.
Oklahoma has made it twice, and Florida made it three. UCLA, also thrice, but Texas not since ’03.
Neither has Marquette, who’s run with Wade was lore, and for Georgia Tech and OK State, who last made it in ’04.
They say for a team to succeed, it must advance and survive; someone forgot to tell Illinois, who hasn’t made it since ’05.
For LSU it’s been 11 years and for Memphis it’s been eight, and it’s been seven years since West Virginia has been destiny’s date.
VCU went in ’11 and couldn’t win it for Shaka Smart, and surprise, surprise, one year later, it was the Shockers’ start.
Wichita State’s only got that one time, which made them want to shout, Michigan finally made it in ’13, after over a decade of drought.
And then there are the teams who seem to get there every year, led by coaches with graying hair, grinning ear-to-ear.
Roy Williams and Tom Izzo, Bill Self, even Coach K, Bo Ryan hung the laces up, John Calipari is here to stay.
That Thad Matta has taken the Buckeyes back to relevance, and Jim Boeheim is aching for just another chance.
And speaking of the dance, almost as if it’s bridal, Rick Pitino’s brought Louisville back, even winning another title.
You might be a little surprised to learn who’s been the best, because it might be easy to forget, coming from the West.
Kentucky’s gone four times this decade! For no one else, that’s true. Let us not pretend they ever wore Cinderella’s shoe.
Nor Kansas, which has gone four times since Arizona last advanced, nor UConn, as well, which also four times danced.
Then you’ve got Michigan State, always one of March’s best bargains, seeing as it’s been four long marches for the Spartans.
Jay Wright has taken Nova twice, and even all the way, but even with the top seed this year, the Wildcats are no longer in play.
And that’s about it, the whole stinking lot, who’ve made it to April since Arizona’s last shot.
A decade-and-a-half, quite a long time, enough to make you crazy, or make you want to rhyme.
But if you didn’t like this poem, maybe called it needed filler, perhaps Arizona will make it to Glendale; and next year, an ode to Sean Miller?
