Grizzlies players catch March Madness
Al Bello/NBAE/Getty Images
Chances are that over the last few days, someone around your office has organized an NCAA Tournament pool. And chances are, at some point today, someone in your office will be loudly cursing the results of the first eight-nine game.
It’s March Madness time, and productivity in offices all around America will grind to a halt this afternoon. And for one day at least, the country’s accountants, insurance adjusters and mortgage brokers will have something in common with NBA players: they’ll all be monitoring their brackets.
Like so many other people around the country, Grizzlies players will be rooting for their alma maters, while trying to win bragging rights among their co-workers.
Their methods of picking winners varies: some players do hours of research, study matchups, trends and stats, while others take five minutes to fill out their bracket and hand it in.
“I try to pick a lot of upsets,” said Mike Conley. “I don’t try to go by the book too much because upsets are what really make or break the brackets in the tournament. If you get a good upset in there and you get it right you’ve got a very good chance of winning the whole thing.”
“I don’t know a lot about some of these teams, so I’m just kind of winging it. I just go with my gut and hope for the best and see what happens,” said Brian Cardinal, a former winner of the Grizzlies locker room pool. “A lot of these guys know the starters on Cornell’s team and all these other teams, and I’ve got no idea, I’m just out there having a good time and hoping my pool does well.”
Of course, many players have a vested interest in their alma mater, and will automatically pick them to go all the way. In fact, with many of the team’s young players, they still have former teammates in the tournament.
In the case of the Grizzlies, six players will have their colleges represented in the tournament: Cardinal (Purdue), Rudy Gay (Connecticut), Kyle Lowry (Villanova), Aaron McKie (Temple) and Jason Collins and Casey Jacobsen (Stanford). In each case, you can expect those players to pick their teams to go pretty far.
“I think they (UConn) have a pretty good chance,” said Gay. “They should be fun to watch. They have an exciting team, hopefully they get further than they’re expected to.”
For Conley, Selection Sunday was disappointing, as his Ohio State Buckeyes, who he helped lead to the final last year, were left out. But there was a plus side for him: he could fill out his picks completely objectively, without feeling compelled to pick the Buckeyes to make the Final Four, even if he didn’t truly believe they belonged there.
“That’s the only positive thing that can come out of it, that I don’t have to put them all the way to the championship and win no matter what, because that’s what I would have done,” he said. “Now I’ll be more unbiased and have a better chance of getting more points.”
Of course, as much as the Grizzlies enjoy watching March Madness, nothing compares to playing in it. The Grizzlies have one of the more impressive NCAA Tournament resumes in the league. Of the 11 players on the roster who played college basketball, they have one champion (Hakim Warrick), two players who made it to the finals but lost (Conley and Mike Miller), four more players who made it to the Elite 8 (Gay, Kyle Lowry, Jason Collins and Casey Jacobsen) and another who made it to the Sweet 16 (Cardinal).
In fact, two of those players had signature moments that will forever be replayed as part of tournament lore: Warrick’s last second block on Kansas’ Michael Lee to seal Syracuse’s 2003 title, and Miller’s buzzer beater against Butler in the first round of the 2000 tournament.
Meanwhile, Gay was on the other side of history. His 2006 UConn team, a favorite to win the title, was knocked off by one of the tournament’s most famous Cinderella stories: the 2006 George Mason team.
“It was terrible. I remember my feeling after the game, going into the locker room and knocking over the first thing I could see. We wanted it so much, not just for us but for our coach and our staff,” he said.
That game would end up being Gay’s last as a collegian. At the time though, he still hadn’t made up his mind about turning pro.
“I didn’t know it would be my last game. I talked to Coach (Jim) Calhoun and he gave me his blessing and said I should probably leave,” said Gay. “I thought about (coming back). It wasn’t an easy decision but coach made it easier for me. Without his blessing I would have stayed.”
Despite the heartbreaking loss, two years later Gay still has fond memories of playing in the tournament.
“It was great. Big crowds, a lot of excitement, and everybody’s playing like it’s their last game, so it’s fun.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Conley, whose title dreams ended in the final against Florida last season.
“It was the best time of my life. It was so exciting, just the whole atmosphere of March Madness, the lose-or-go-home atmosphere where you’ve only got one game and if you don’t win it you’re going home,” he said. “It was exciting for me and to make it all the way to the championship as a freshman it was a real honor because I know how hard teams work to get there and I know how hard we worked, so it was a great thrill to do it.”
Those memories will all come flooding back today, as the players sit back like and watch with their brackets in hand, just like the rest of the country.
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