March 4, 2006
Sports of The Times
Cinderella Is a Myth, and David Is a Lie

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
St. Louis

THE great attraction of the N.C.A.A.'s Division I basketball tournament is its promise of a sprawling democracy. The tournament is a free-for-all in which 65 teams, from programs with operating budgets ranging from $2 million to $90 million, meet on a level court. Everyone has a chance to reel off a string of victories and reach the Final Four.

This is a myth, of course. Everyone does not have a chance; in fact, only a few do. Invariably, money and talent determine the national champion. By the Round of 8, Cinderella teams will have been disposed of, dreams will have been crushed.

But let's stay in the moment; let's stay in St. Louis, where the Missouri Valley, the hottest conference in the country, is holding its championship tournament this weekend. With the major conferences experiencing a down year, experts predict that what was unthinkable a few seasons ago could happen: a conference like the Missouri Valley may well produce a team that reaches the Final Four.

Bradley is the Missouri Valley's most athletic team, Wichita State may be its best, and a healthy Northern Iowa is its most complete. I like to dream, too, but you have to wake up. The conference may get three teams, perhaps four, in the N.C.A.A. tournament, but the era of David beating Goliath is over.

Ask Mark Turgeon, the coach of Wichita State.

"The Valley's having a great year; we have six really good teams," said Turgeon, the conference's coach of the year. "We don't have any great teams. We don't have any Final Four teams in the Valley. I don't think so. We've got to play the games. But we have a lot of really good teams."

Turgeon is in his sixth season at Wichita State. What gives him an interesting perspective is that he coaches at a so-called mid-major but played for Kansas, one of college basketball's traditional powers. He played in four consecutive N.C.A.A. tournaments and was on the 1986 Jayhawks team that reached the Final Four under Coach Larry Brown.

Turgeon was an assistant at Kansas, from 1987-92; at Oregon, from 1992-97; and with the Philadelphia 76ers under Brown for the 1997-98 season. His first head coaching job was at Jacksonville State, and after two seasons he left for Wichita, in March 2000.

"To get where I've been, I've made some mistakes," he said. "I left the University of Kansas when I shouldn't have left, so I went to the University of Oregon when it was down. I was at Jacksonville State when it was down. I came to Wichita State when it was down. That wears you out. I'm young, but it's been a lot of work to build these programs."

As great as this conference tournament has been, as riveting and heated as the rivalries are, there comes a point every year when players win games; the Missouri Valleys of the world cannot get those players. "We're not able to get the players that Connecticut and Duke and Kansas — it's always going to be that way, and I understand that," Turgeon said.

The futility of the climb, the hopelessness of the chase, is what compels coaches in these mid-major conferences to jump to major conferences — or forces a program to come up with more money than it probably should to keep them. This week, Northern Iowa gave Coach Greg McDermott a substantial raise, apparently covered by private donations, according to news reports, to keep him from leaving. McDermott's salary will increase to more than $350,000 a year by the 2008-9 season.

I couldn't tell whether Turgeon was content to be a David or was ready to become a Goliath. "It all depends on personality and what people want," he said. "When I was 23, 24 years old, all I thought I was ever going to do was hoist national championship trophies in the air. I was pretty spoiled. I was at K.U., I thought: 'Heck, Larry Brown did it, and I was with Roy Williams. I'm going to do the same thing.' "

But then he got married and started a family. "I realized I'm getting a lot of satisfaction out of what I'm doing, where I'm doing it at, building a program," he said. "So things change."

What has not changed in 40 years is the reality of a caste system that all but dictates how far a team — and a conference — can go in the N.C.A.A. tournament. The last spectacular upset on the men's side came in 1966 when Texas Western, now Texas-El Paso, defeated Kentucky in the le game, but that was more of a social upset. Five African-Americans started against Adolph Rupp's all-white Kentucky team. In fact, many in the know knew that Texas Western was great.

The last true tournament upset in the le game, however, was in 1963, when tiny Loyola beat mighty Cincinnati. The Bearcats had won two national championships and were overwhelming favorites to beat Loyola for a third. (Don't mention Villanova beating Georgetown in 1985; that was one giant beating another giant.)

The most the Missouri Valley can hope for this year is to produce teams that can consistently battle the nation's top-25 programs and occasionally have members join that group. "I think we can get six that are really good," Turgeon said, "and I think at some point we can get two that are great.

"It's great that we're getting this publicity. The whole thing is, since we're getting so much of it, we'd better back it and play well."

This is a great time for dreams and hopes and adventuresome bracket construction. Just be advised, however, that David is dead.

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