Paper Tigers, Past and Present
Imbalance often leads to an early exit in March. Who could get bounced?
I like to brand things. If you follow my written work or my radio show, you have undoubtedly figured this out. Even in the 2 months I’ve been writing here, we have “The Stoplight,” “Before and After,” “Length of the Ice,” and “Degen DM’s.” Branded elements, where you know what you’re getting.
When I worked on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt, this idea was drilled into me by the rest of the production staff, and it stuck. A lot of smart people worked on putting that show together, and I was fortunate enough to be a small part of the process. SVP has “Bad Beats,” “Best Thing I Saw Today,” etc. on his show. You know what you’re getting, and you frequently know when you’re getting it. Appointment viewing. And I’ve tried to carry that wherever I’ve gone. On our radio show, you can probably name 4-5 branded elements we do regularly, if you’re a listener.
Well, when we talk about the NCAA Tournament here, the branding won’t stop. We have our Stoplight teams, who can win the title and make the Final Four. I eluded last week to a type of team to beware of, “the late bloomer,” and we’ll get more into that in about two weeks time. Today we’re going to talk about a tried-and-true NCAA Tournament archetype, a team that frequently exits the tournament earlier than expected, and has had very little success historically despite a lot of hype.
This team is called a Paper Tiger.