Not Every Underdog Is A Cinderella

I can't stand the tendency of the American sports media to label every underdog team a "Cinderella." We've seen some ridiculous examples of this recently.

In the NCAA basketball tournament, the lack of upsets left the media without a George Mason-style storyline. So, they resorted to doing crazy things like proclaim that Final Four teams #3 Villanova or even #2 Michigan State were Cinderella teams.

With the NCAA hockey tournament, it gets worse. I'll admit that there were a lot of upsets this year, including three first-round upsets of #1 seeds by #4 seeds. But please, you HAVE to keep in mind that only 16 teams make the NCAA hockey tournament. An upset of #4 by #13 isn't that big of a deal -- imagine a defeat of a #1 seed by a #4 seed in basketball. Still, the media couldn't figure out what to make of this one. The Wall St. Journal:

Three of the four No. 1 seeds in this year's tournament didn't even survive their first games over the weekend. Michigan fell to Air Force, 2-0, due almost entirely to the play of Falcons goaltender Andrew Volkening (Michigan took 43 shots to Air Force's 13); Denver lost to Miami University, 4-2; and Notre Dame was buried by Bemidji State, 5-1.

Denver's loss and even Michigan's actually weren't that shocking -- Air Force, which subsequently was eliminated Saturday by Vermont, came within an eyelash of first-round upsets the previous two years -- but Notre Dame's defeat was the equivalent of Radford dismissing North Carolina by double digits.

This is a ridiculous assertion. There is much more parity in the NCAA hockey tournament than on the basketball court. Bemidji's win was unexpected and startling, but nothing close to a first-round upset of UNC basketball.

Miami, also a #4 seed, made it to the national championship game. Reporters were quick to label them a "Cinderella," as well:

The ending to regulation and the ultimate game winner in overtime spoiled an incredible effort by Miami, a Cinderella team that entered the tournament as the 13th overall seed but gave BU all it could handle throughout the title game.

Miami ended the regular season with a second place finish in the strong CCHA conference, and their NCAA run consisted of wins over the lowest #1 seed (Denver), then #2 seed Minnesota-Duluth, and finally #4 Bemidji. Regardless of Miami's low seed in the tournament, their road to the final wasn't too rough.

There are times when the Cinderella image is warranted. But these days the media is too eager to create a compelling storyline that it fails to give a proper assessment of what these upsets really mean.

See you on Saturday at Schoellkopf Field, when Cinderella wannabe Cornell lacrosse takes on expected #1 Princeton. "Can Cinderella find her slippers once again?"