THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: With Madness comes some real good underdog stories

It tosses up a story every year.

Usually more than one.

March Madness is a media dream, because there’s often an amazing tale anywhere you turn.

Amazingly, both Gonzaga and Washington State are involved in fascinating scripts — starting tonight — and we’ll touch on them directly.

First, however, it’s necessary to discuss the tournament itself, the uselessness of the NCAA, and how the selection committee was shameless in bowing down to some giant conferences.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has all but directly threatened to take his basketball, join one or two of the other largest conferences, and bolt to form a separate tournament.

Sankey wants the current field bumped up to 90 and at-large bids for mid-major schools (and smaller, of course) squeezed down to almost nothing.

If that sounds like he’s demanding even more bids tossed toward his own bully conference (along with the Big Ten), that’s because it’s EXACTLY what he wants to see.

Forget the good of the game, and the excitement of March Madness.

The big boys are making the most money now, and still it isn’t enough.

So, this year’s field contained more name brand schools, sometimes at the expense of better teams.

Indiana State?

Tough luck, fellas.

THIS IS now a tournament whose gurus don’t even care if the public (and the media) know the thing is fixed.

They have to take care of a few conferences, and as for everyone else, well, in the words of one-time member of the selection committee Marie Antoinette: “Let ‘em eat cake!”

We’ve reached the stage where mid-major conferences like the Mountain West, WCC, Missouri Valley, and even the Big East have almost become the subject of ridicule.

God bless UConn for keeping belly laughs out of the meeting room.

The committee HAD to include six teams from the MWC, just because they were that good — but every single one of them was handed a seeding far below its level of accomplishments.

Colorado State, for instance, brought its 24-win gang to a First Four game in Dayton, hoping for a precious 10-seed.

CSU was matched against Virginia.

Yep, Virginia.

Courtesy of SI’s veteran reporter Pat Forde, here’s the resume that 11-loss UVA handed to the committee.

“The Cavaliers come to Dayton with the lowest NCAA NET ranking of any at-large team, and the lowest KenPom ranking by 20 spots of any at-large selection. 

“Virginia is 4–5 over its last nine games and brings the country’s No. 194 offense and slowest tempo into the tourney.

“Fun time.”

Actually, it wasn’t.

Virginia managed just 14 points in the first half Tuesday night, and Colorado State went on to deliver a 67-42 thrashing.

Even beyond that, the entire bracket looked like it was drawn up by reps from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC.

Plenty of very good mid-majors got screwed.

On the other hand, every team from those four “brand” conferences that could find five guys in shorts got an invitation.

DESPITE those self-inflicted flaws, the tournament will be a must-see event, as always.

Excitement is guaranteed, and almost certainly an upset or two over the first weekend.

Plus, as mentioned earlier, Gonzaga and Wazzu got stuck in spots with automatic storylines concerning their opponents.

The Zags face Southern Conference champ McNeese (30-3), which is coached by the ultimate outlaw, Will Wade.

You may recall the hoopla over Wade’s staggering list of transgressions at LSU, for which it was assumed he would be suspended for centuries rather than seasons.

Oh, but the NCAA treated Wade like a Mob informant, and gave him some kind of back-room probation.

Wade immediately skipped down I-10 to Lafayette, took over at McNeese and has laid waste to the Southern Conference.

(I promise: He’ll be back in the SEC soon.)

Rooting outright is generally a no-no in this job, but … c’mon, Zags!

Washington State, meanwhile, is facing a dangerous 28-win Drake team that won the Missouri Valley.

Coach Darian DeVries’ son, Tucker, is the Bulldogs’ star, and both are mourning a family member who died in July.

Darian’s younger brother Jared, who played almost a decade as an NFL defensive lineman, had a son, Easton DeVries, with congenital heart failure.

Easton, who hung out and shot baskets with Tucker, was always part of these family tournament outings — so the first trip to St. Louis since he died at just 19 left the entire family sobbing visibly after Drake wrapped up its Valley title.

Besides the emotion involved, Drake has a hell of a team, as Cougs coach Kyle Smith can tell you.

Wazzu will have to scrap tonight.

But maybe that’s true of everyone in this tournament.

As Gonzaga center Graham Ike put It:

"We've got to stay on our toes. It's March."

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through

Friday unless, you know, stuff happens. 

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”