A Tribute to #66
- March 18
Gordon Pepper
Yesterday started the yearly tradition known to college
basketball enthusiasts as March Madness. Out of 300+
possible teams, we have 65 of them competing over the
course of 2 and a half weeks to win the NCAA Division I
Championship. Chico Alexander, an alumnus of North
Carolina, knows this event very well, and while I don't
have any affiliation to one team (as I went to Division
III College of New Jersey - who did make it to the
Division III title game in 1989), it's a wonderful sight
to behold.
It's far less wonderful
for those teams that find themselves on the outside
looking in. This year, the complaining has been quiet,
but the effect of not being invited to the Big Dance can
be devastating to teams like Maryland (who won the
national championship only a few years ago) or Notre
Dame (who turned around and played an utterly flat game
and got bounced in the first round of the NIT's).
We can take this feeling
and parallel it to the world of reality shows. We can
easily apply this to American Idol, as Jaclyn Crum and
Warren Nolan are the last woman and man to feel the
sting about not being invited to the final 24. But we
can go deeper than that. America's Next Top Model 4's
first show is about the audition process, and how close
some of the people get to making the show. Last season,
Tiffany was close, but thanks to a fight that she
participated in, was eliminated from making the show.
She redeemed herself and got in this season, but one of
her compatriots, a 'plus-sized' model named Mary, now
has the dubious distinction of being the only person to
get to the final cut for the past 2 seasons of that
series and not making it. Maybe now that she's seen the
show, she may be happy that she got cut and still has
her eligibility left - the first woman the show
eliminated was Brita, who was the largest woman there.
What about the teams who
only get to the play-in and don't actually get to
compete in the bracket of 64? The obvious parallel, of
course, is Survivor, as Wanda and Jonathan make it to
the cast - but don't stick around long enough to see the
first tribal council. This is especially devastating for
Wanda, who said that all she wanted was to have a taste
of the action. She got a little taste, but to not even
get to go to a Tribal Council is rough.
In American Idol, Amanda
Avila, Janay Castine and Travis Tucker were THIS close
to getting to the big dance - but can only settle for
the small stage. Nikko Smith could have been added to
that - but thanks to the withdrawal of Mario Vazquez, he
gets to experience the huge stage, the live orchestra -
and the many fans who he can now perform too. Based on
the fact that he didn't fall into the bottom three,
maybe Nikko can continue to keep dancing.
As for the teams
outside, looking in, they can all growl about how they
would have done better than the teams that happened to
have gotten in. Some of them maybe wondering why
Pittsburgh plays a drearily bad game in losing to
Pacific, while they strive to be the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee who makes the first of predictably
many upsets by knocking off Alabama. One could only
imagine what some of the rejected Starlets felt like
when they saw the premiere episode feature a Texas
beauty queen butcher her lines. Was it just me or did it
feel like the only reason why she was there was less of
her talent and more for her
assets? Going back to Next
Top Model - in the last season, Magdalena was the first
person eliminated, and she didn't even get a chance to
appear in front of any elimination sessions with Tyra
Banks. I have a feeling that after she saw Julie
admitting that she did not want to become a full-time
model and getting eliminated almost on the spot that her
television may have come under attack by a flying shoe
or two.
But this column is not
about making fun of those people who make a quick exit
or don't even make it to the dance. This column is to
thank them. Thank them? Why, you ask? It's simple. You
wouldn't understand how truly magical and precious these
events are or understand the unbridled joy without
seeing the other side of complete devastation to those
people who are cut. If not for these people - and their
stories of heartbreak, then you really wouldn't see how
important these things are. To you or me, it's a form of
entertainment, but to them, this potentially
life-changing event that could free them from poverty or
give them a new start means everything To you or me,
it may be a television show, but to them, like the
players in the NCAA Tournament, it's their big break,
their change in their lives, their 'One Shining Moment'
- and to see the agony of the people who lose that dream
reinforces to us how fleeting that moment truly is.
If we never saw these
people going through the lowest of lows, we couldn't
fully appreciate and realize the utmost of joys that we
experience when we see the winners - and that's what
putting yourself into an event and pledging support
through a team or a person - whether it's rooting for
the next American NCAA Division I Basketball Champion or
voting for the next American Idol - is all about. Just
something to think about as we are watching our
wall-to-wall basketball - we wouldn't be so passionate
if everyone was able to participate. I congratulate Eva,
Ruben and Clay - but I also thank Wanda, Mary, Jared,
Justin and the hundreds of others that made those
competitions that much more special.
Gordon Pepper can be reached at
gordon@gameshownewsnet.com |