“Learning more and more about less and less and less.” - Chan Marshall

You’d think at some point the national sports media would learn something. Just something. It doesn’t have to be a lesson. That would mean progress. Something would be fine.

Every year, highly paid analysts, self-taught wiz kids, genius bloggers and a gazillion average Joe’s with an Internet connection and a cable subscription spend months obsessing over NCAA basketball Goliaths, while gleefully pointing out “sleepers.” Every year, the know-it-alls blow money and hot air, talking the talk and pointing out just how much they know about everything. They pick everything and everyone apart. Shooting percentages, RPIs, interior defense, mid-majors, low mid-majors, non-conference schedules, “tough” road wins … it never ends. They rank the teams. They rank the players. They hold grudges and triumphantly proclaim favorites. And, every year, someone like Davidson shooting guard Stephen Curry comes around, reminding us all that we really don’t know anything.

I’m not going to lie. I’ve been up on Curry for a while. I followed Davidson’s season with interest. I watched them nearly down North Carolina and Duke. And my interest peaked when John Branch knocked out a solid feature in the New York Times on Curry, the Wildcats, and the kooky town of Davidson, N.C.

And, now, it’s fascinating to watch the experts come around. They point out Curry’s soft touch. His drive and determination and willpower. His NBA-brushed pedigree. He came out of nowhere, they say. Who is Davidson, they ask? How did they do this? How did we miss Curry?

It’s pretty simple. They never looked.

How does a team go 20-0 in conference play and roll of 22 straight wins heading into The Dance, and still not get attention? How does Curry shoot 48.8 percent from the field, 44.4 percent from behind the 3-point line, and drop at least 20 points 23 times before the tourney, and not get noticed?

Because no one’s watching.

Well, I mean, some people are. Davidson fans knew. Hardcore mid-major devotees knew. But while the rest of the sports-media world spent the entire NCAA men’s basketball season kneeling before the Hansbrough-Beasley-Mayo-Love-Singler-Rose shrine, and eating everything on the Calipari-Pearl platter, other less-fortunate souls had to actually go out and play (or watch) basketball.

Moreover, all the talk about an East Coast bias in the media or whatever the latest gripe/fad is pales in comparison to what happens every year as kids like Curry and teams like Davidson fight the good fight. They play good, honest, real ball. They do it for the right reasons. And it takes a “miraculous” run to even show up on the national radar.

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And … in the “can’t help but point it out” department, I wonder what ETSU’s current athletic administration thinks of Davidson’s current run in the tournament.

Davidson is doing what ETSU should be doing right now. But the Bucs aren’t. The Bucs’ season is done, with nothing but a fourth-place showing in the lowly A-Sun to show for it. Meanwhile, Davidson is new news and commanding national attention.

Not that long ago, ETSU held its own with Davidson. The two were Southern Conference foes, with wins and losses going both ways.

Now? The Wildcats are front-page worthy, while the Bucs couldn’t buy a ticket to The Dance.

What’s wrong with this picture?

A lot.