Zach Turner
In the past week, No. 1 North Carolina got beat by UNLV and No. 4 Connecticut got beat by University of Central Florida.
Some may call it luck. Some may call the traditional powers overrated.
The right word is parity.
Parity has a strangle on college basketball, shout out to the Butler Bulldogs making two consecutive NCAA Championship game appearances. Although they lost both, they still made it along a continuous runs of upsets in two consecutive years of March Madness.
Side note about Butler, I have yet to voice my opinion on Rotnei Clarke transferring there, but he made a huge mistake and will regret not continuing under coach Mike Anderson at Arkansas. Southeastern Conference over the Horizon league any day.
Back to the real focus of this column, though, the parity in college basketball. Is it good or bad for the sport?
I am a firm believer in that it is a great thing for the sport of college basketball, such a great thing that is gives it a slight advantage at times over stagnant college football games.
Did everyone know that No. 1 LSU was going to crush SEC Western division cellar dweller Ole Miss in football 52-3? Yeah – most could’ve predicted a blowout.
However, did any one predict Cleveland State, a team that two years ago went 16-17, would beat No. 7 Vanderbilt in basketball? Probably not.
Parity in college basketball is growing and mainly due to the experience of the underdog in a matchup against the traditional heavy weights.
Arkansas coach Mike Anderson weighed in on the subject Monday.
“That is why you see those veteran teams getting deep into the tournament,” Anderson said. “You are seeing teams beat teams early in the year. When you look at North Carolina going down this weekend, UNLV has a veteran team and a lot of guys that have been there for four years. When you see that it tells you, you have some guys that have gone through the wars.
“They don’t panic and they are going to give themselves a chance to win. I think with one-and-done and guys leaving and after two years, I think those veteran teams are really going to start seeing a lot of those teams where the seniors are doing well.”
The one-and-done college basketball player may be coming to an end with the new NBA collective bargaining agreement, which could force players to stay longer in college. For now though, it is just one year of college and sensations such as Kentucky’s John Wall and Demarcus Cousins, Duke’s Kyrie Irving or Memphis’ Tyreke Evans.
Parity coincides with this rule because teams like Kentucky load up every year on the top freshman because rarely does the previous year’s freshman stay. If John Wall didn’t leave Kentucky after his freshman year would Brandon Knight had gone to Kentucky?
Probably not because he could have easily gone somewhere else and starred to the same degree Wall did at Kentucky.
So when a team such as Central Florida knocks off UConn, you can see a major reason why – the Knights have a more upperclassmen-laden lineup than the Huskies. However, the Knights then lost to Harvard the next day after beating UConn.
In this formula does that mean Harvard is better than UConn and March Madness addicts, like myself, should start chalking up the Crimson for the Final Four like everyone was doing with UConn at the start of the season?
Well no because UConn clearly has more talent.
This is what makes parity such a funny word because it is crazy to think a scenario that happened last year when Florida State beat then No. 1 Duke, but before beating the Blue Devils the Seminoles lost to Auburn. Auburn had previously lost to Samford early in the season who finished its season 12-19.
Did that mean Samford was actually better than No. 1 Duke based on who they had beat?
No, that would be absurd.
That would fit the definition of the word parity.
A funny word that makes college basketball so great to watch.
Zach Turner is the assistant sports editor for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Wednesday. Follow him on Twitter @zwturner.