A fleeting glimpse of parity

So, you miss it right?

You miss the unpredictability. You miss the wailing and gnashing of teeth. You miss pouring lighter fluid on your NCAA Tournament bracket and setting it on fire because bleeping Loyola or bleeping Bucknell or bleeping Middle Tennessee State just atomized it two days into the thing.

Well, you're not getting that this year, as the Blob pointed out yesterday. This year has been chalkified, which is to say a snoozefest, which is to say no damn fun at all.

Want to know the weirdest thing about that?

It's what the women's tournament used to look like.

Now, though, it's far less chalky than the men's side. And who would ever have thought that could happen?

The women set their Sweet Sixteen last night, and, yes, the 1-seeds were as dominant as they always are. Notre Dame launched 9-seed Michigan State into orbit by 28 points in the round of 32. Baylor carpet-bombed 8-seed Cal by 39. So the rich got richer.

However ...

However, there was also 6-seed UCLA taking down 3-seed Maryland. And 6-seed South Dakota State knocking out 3-seed Syracuse. And -- whoa, look at this! -- 11-seed Missouri State shocking 3-seed Iowa State.

An 11 over a 3, on the women's side. Used to be turtles would fly and sing the lead in a Broadway show before you saw that.

But now you've got a Sweet Sixteen on the men's side with one 5-seed and one 12-seed -- and that 12-seed is from the Pac-12, so it hardly counts as a true underdog. On the women's side, meanwhile,  you've got a Sweet Sixteen with two 6-seeds, a 5-seed and an 11-seed.

And two of those (Missouri State and South Dakota State) are mid-majors.

So what in the name of Nancy Lieberman is going on here?

One word: UConn.

Back when the Huskies were beating everyone eleventy-hundred to 12 and winning the national title every year, the ongoing debate was whether Geno Auriemma's mighty legions were good for the women's game. They were so good, and everyone else was so deep in their wake, that the women's tournament was barely worth watching. You tuned in only at the end, to see how bad Geno would cripple whatever no-hoper his team faced in the title game.

What he said about that, and what no one wanted to hear, was this: That it wasn't up to him to play down to everyone else's level. It was up to everyone else to raise their level.

Which is exactly what has happened.

UConn is still a power, but it hasn't won a national title since 2016. South Carolina won in 2017, after Mississippi State knocked out the Huskies in the national semifinal. And Notre Dame won last year after beating Mississippi State on Arike Ogunbowale's  buzzer-beater in the title game.

This year?

This year, UConn isn't even a 1-seed. It's a 2.

Progress.