All this talk was especially popular in 2005, when George Mason made headlines by going all the way to the Final Four.
It’s great when teams like George Mason bust bracket pools, but it doesn’t happen all the time. Every other time George Mason has made the tournament, they were out by the first round.
No doubt some mid-major schools like Gonzaga are very good come tournament time, but the major conference schools have proven themselves to be more consistent. This year, for the first time in tournament history, all four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four.
Some complained it made for a boring tournament, but it speaks to the consistency of schools like Kansas and North Carolina. Only 64 teams can make the tournament anyway, and not all teams are always consistent.
Look at a team like Syracuse, which won the 2003 championship with Carmelo Anthony, and hasn’t done very well in the postseason since.
Mid-major teams should perhaps use George Mason’s run as an inspiration, but shouldn’t judge the success of their program based on other schools’ successes or failures.
8. Fouling excessively
Plain and simple—if you’re down by two with a few seconds on the clock, then go ahead and foul, hope the shooter misses one free throw, and get the ball back for a last-second shot.
But, if you’re down by eight in the same spot, just try and steal the ball. Fouling makes the last minute of a basketball game last five minutes, and unless you’ve got a shooter with the three-point ability of Reggie Miller, you’re probably not mounting a comeback.
9. Retaliation
It seems the slightest thing touches off athletes’ nerves nowadays. A hard check into the boards demands an equally hard check or hit in return. A hit batter from one team automatically means that someone’s gonna get beaned from the other side.
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