Wednesday, March 25, 2009
A funny thing happened on Sunday.
Marquette trailed Missouri by two points. The Golden Eagles had enough time left to win with a three, or tie the game with a Tyus Edney-esque layup. Lazar Hayward, a Marquette junior forward with big-game experience to spare, took the ball to in-bound it. Only he never got to. He stepped over the line, effectively gift-wrapping a Sweet Sixteen birth for Missouri.
And that funny feeling became more prominent in my gut. I was — dare I say it? — happy Missouri had won. The subdued fist pump with which I saluted the victory only served to make official what I had desperately wanted to deny the entire game — I had been rooting for Missouri.
My only source of solace — and similarly, confusion — was the fact that I was hardly alone in my treachery. First, Facebook statuses (the best barometer for telling what our generation thinks about anything) spelled out begrudging admissions of having rooted for the Tigers. Brief conversations have since provided further evidence — however anecdotal it may be — that seemingly significant portions of Jayhawk nation found it somewhere within their hearts to do the sacrilegious.
The obvious question is why?
The most obvious answer is brackets. More than anything else, people like being right. Especially in the context of competition. If there happens to be money at stake, all the more motivation. But although this may explain the Mizzou cheering for some, it should be noted that people often seem to abandon their brackets and let the emotions evoked by March Madness take over. I doubt anyone had East Tennessee State offing Pittsburgh, but most were probably cheering for it, however badly it would have ruined their brackets.
Perhaps it’s conference loyalty that can explain matters. Perhaps KU fans were merely supporting the Big 12. That Mizzou was facing off against Marquette (of the endlessly hyped Big East) may have been enough to switch the sympathies of some Jayhawk fans.
Or perhaps it is in that word “sympathy” that the answer can be found. Maybe Kansas fans, knowing that Missouri hasn’t had any tournament success in seven years and has never reached a Final Four, felt sorry for the Tigers.
Maybe it was reason that Kansas fans relied upon to make their choice. Maybe, on some level, Kansas fans want Missouri to get better and to reach national prominence. A better rival leads to bigger games and more ESPN coverage. That increase in exposure (something Kansas hardly struggles with now) could help Kansas further establish itself as the nation’s elite program. Like the Joker needs Batman, and Duke needs North Carolina, maybe Kansas needs Missouri.
But neither these nor any other explanatory mechanism seem to justify rooting for a rival as hated as Missouri. But, justified or not, it could happen again as soon as tomorrow, when Mizzou plays Memphis. And although Jayhawks for Missouri makes about as much sense as a screen door on a submarine, March Madness has been known to produce some crazy happenings.
— — Edited by Grant Treaster
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