Battle for March's Soul

In her last twirl across the floor, Cinderella wears a Viking helmet.

And, judging by the massive mascot painted at the center of Cleveland State's home court, it's a piece of hatwear that would dwarf even Barry Bonds' sombrero.

Take that as a hint. There's nothing petite about this team.

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This isn't some waif thin, diamond-wearing, 3-point chucking lady with a hope that Prince Charming will come along to bail her out. This Cinderella is a snarling, dunking group of mid-major brawlers. It's Cinderella with a bad attitude and good right hook. It's Cleveland tough, ready to pick themselves up off the floor before their opponent realized they knocked 'em down.

With only a trio of teams left from non-BCS conferences and mid-majors in name only, Gonzaga and Memphis, this is what remains for the hopes of Cinderella.

And whether coach Gary Waters will admit it or not, Sunday's showdown with Arizona couldn't be more symbolic if the school opted to change their names to "Small School State" and "Power Conference U" at the last moment.

"I don't want to think about that right now," Waters said, after his team's 84-69 opening round victory over Wake Forest. "I want to savor this a little bit."

But when the two teams finally tip, they'll be doing so over a center court line that might as well be college basketball's red-state, blue-state line of demarcation. On one side sits Arizona, a perennial power making its 25th consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament but which won just once in the last month entering the tournament. Backing the Wildcats, who upset another mid-major, fifth-seed Utah in the first round, is the contingent who believes the NCAA tournament is best served as a blend of power conferences with just a few mid-majors on the side as garnish, parsley to the meat and potatoes of BCS schools.

On the opposite side sits Cleveland State, now twice a Cinderella 23 years apart, pairing its memorable upset of Indiana in 1986 with an even more memorable drubbing of Wake Forest Friday night. The Vikings had to play their way into the field with a program-defining win over Butler in the Horizon League final, their first win over the Bulldogs in three tries this season. Backing the Vikes are all those who think March should be a buffet for the have-nots, a chance for the little to guy to go toe-to-toe with the power conferences and see just how good those BCS chins are when there's nothing around to protect them.

If you ask Cleveland State guard Norris Cole, he'll tell you he's firmly in the latter camp. That's likely because he knows his team throws punches as big as it dreams.

"We believed from the start of the game we could play with [Wake Forest]," he said, about the Vikings' matchup with the nation's former No. 1 team, a club with three likely first-round NBA draft picks on it.

Cole was oh-so-right in the opening round.

Watching the Vikings beat the Demon Deacons was like watching a mouse spook an elephant and then chase it off a cliff. Cleveland State jumped out to a 9-0 lead and, sometime between the time the two fighters were announced and they touched up gloves, the bout was already over.

"It took them a while to realize what was occurring out there, and then it became a ballgame," Waters said.

But it didn't. Wake never drew closer than six and any time the Deacons pushed, the Vikings dug their heels in even harder then dumped Wake on its butt. Again and again until the clock finally stopped what was long ago a technical knockout.

And with every blow-by drive, every twine-ripping 3-pointer and every stand-up-and-clap dunk, the Vikings scored one for the ever-dwindling population of little guys.

This year's tournament featured just four mid-major at large teams, a startlingly low number that usually ranges somewhere between seven and eight. The team many felt responsible for crushing Cinderella's slipper like a beer can was the Wildcats, a marginal power conference team, who entering the tournament had won just once since Valentine's Day.

But along the way the Wildcats beat four teams that would take a sixth seed or higher in the NCAA tournament.

"We deserve to be here, and the reason we deserve to be here is because we're here," interim Arizona coach Russ Pennell said. "The victories that we had this year were quality wins, and we weren't the only team in America that lost a few games down the stretch. ... Would we have been surprised if we had not been selected? No, that's a different question. But as far as us belonging here, we definitely belong here"

The 12th-seed Wildcats made their point on the basketball court and the brackets, jumping out to an early lead against fifth-seeded Utah and wrapping up with an 84-71 told-you-so victory over the Utes.


And now Arizona takes on a team their own size, at least if toughness were measured in inches. Like Arizona, they fought through adversity this season and were on the brink of missing the tournament altogether before a two-point Horizon League win over Butler.

But there the similarities end and the battle lines are drawn.

Yes, it may be a 12 vs. 13 matchup, but only one team could truly lift the underdog standard. Should Cleveland State lose, this will be one last waltz for Cinderella.

And, metaphorically at least, one lost grab for March's soul.