AUBURN | ESPN’s Jay Williams sent out a Tweet shortly after Auburn’s loss in the SEC Tournament semifinals Saturday that pointed out no team has ever won an NCAA Tournament championship after losing three of its last four games.
I certainly won’t argue the facts of Williams’ statement, but I would point out that overcoming the odds is exactly what makes sports great.
It is exactly what makes March Madness so special.
So I’ll take your statistic, raise a glass and simply say, ‘The ball is tipped.’
Auburn will enter the NCAA Tournament Thursday as the No. 1 overall seed. Losses to Texas A&M, Alabama and Tennessee in the last two weeks, all teams in the top 20 of the NET rankings and two away from home, is certainly not ideal.
But it’s not a death sentence either.
Especially for a team that has achieved so much this season and certainly has the potential to achieve much more. Let’s not forget that this Auburn team won the regular season title in one of the toughest conferences in NCAA basketball history.
That combined with one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country is why AU deserved the top overall seed. Now, they have to prove the committee right.
It won’t be easy for the Tigers to turn their fortunes around but the last couple of weeks certainly don’t preclude a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
You just have to look back to last year and what both Alabama and N.C. State did as a prime example.
The Tide lost three of its final five regular season games and were blown out by Florida in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals before making a run to the Final Four.
The Wolfpack won the ACC Tournament and made it to the Final Four after losing their final four regular season games.
In 2021, UCLA came into the NCAA Tournament on a four-game losing streak before advancing from the First Four all the way to the Final Four.
How many pundits were predicting those teams to make a March run?
Of course, as Williams noted, when it comes to winning the national championship, it’s a little tougher to find teams that came into the tournament on such sour notes.
But there are some pretty close examples.
In 2011, UConn lost four of its last five regular season games and then went on a run to win the Big East and NCAA tournaments. In both 2006 and 07, Florida lost three of its last five regular season games before running the table in the SEC and NCAA tournaments.
Perhaps the most Cinderella run of any team in history came from Villanova in 1985. The Wildcats lost four of their last seven regular season games and lost in the semifinals of the Big East tournament before winning six straight to claim the national championship.
As a No. 8 seed, Villanova is the lowest seeded team to ever win an NCAA title.
Clearly, it can be done.
And if there’s been an overarching theme to this season, one that’s been repeated over and over, it’s making history.
There’s just one more step to take. Another piece of history to make. Six games in three weeks.
Auburn has already played the other three No. 1 seeds, two of the four No. 2 seeds and four of the teams seeded No. 3 or No. 4. These Tigers are battle tested and won’t be intimidated or surprised by any potential opponent.
It doesn’t matter what Williams are any pundit has to say. This can be Auburn’s shining moment.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 67 years to the release of the first-ever greatest hits album. On March 17, 1958, Johnny Mathis released Johnny’s Greatest Hits. The album was released just two years into Mathis’ career, and didn’t include any hit singles at the time. But several of the songs on the album would turn out to be some of his most popular including “It’s Not for Me to Say,” “Chances Are,” “Wonderful! Wonderful!,” “The Twelfth of Never” and “Wild Is the Wind.” The idea for the greatest hits album came from producer Mitch Miller. Miller and Mathis were under pressure from Columbia Records to produce another album, but Mathis didn’t have any new songs written at the time. Miller compiled many of Mathis’ first six singles, including the A and B sides, and Mathis was able to add one original song in “I Look at You.” The album came out just four days before Elvis Presley’s Elvis’ Golden Records, which compiled his hit singles from 1957 and 58 and is considered the first rock and roll greatest hits album. Johnny’s Greatest Hits remained on the Billboard 200 chart for 490 weeks, which was a record until it was exceeded by Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in 1983.
John Royce Mathis was born in Gilmer, Texas in 1935 and moved with his family to San Francisco in 1940. His father, Clem, worked in vaudeville as a pianist and singer. Mathis began playing piano and singing at home at an early age, and continued that at church and school as he grew older. In addition to his singing, Mathis was a standout track and basketball athlete in high school and earned an athletic scholarship to San Francisco State College in 1954. He set a school high jump record that was just three inches short of the 1952 Olympic record. He was asked to tryout for the 1956 U.S. Olympics team but opted to pursue a music career instead. He was signed by Columbia Records that same year after being scouted at a club by a record executive. Mathis went on to record 73 studio albums including one of the most popular Christmas albums of all time in 1958’s Merry Christmas. Mathis had one No. 1 hit on the Billboard 100 in 1978’s “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,” and two more in the top 10 in 1962’s “Gina” and 1963’s “What Will My Mary Say.” Another popular single is 1959’s “Misty.” Mathis received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.
