The Bernstein Brief: Nobody To Root Against In This Final Four
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Almost always without a college basketball team to pull for actively, I am usually reduced in March to searching for villains -- real or perceived -- to be vanquished.
This particular Final Four slate is a shoulder-shrug, however, perhaps making up in novelty what it lacks in decent candidates for some satisfying sports schadenfreude.
Steve Alford is out, so that's good. Baylor, too, and there's no Duke or Jim Boeheim for anyone to dislike just because. It now would take some manufacturing to drum up such motivational disdain for those remaining, unless I'm missing something.
North Carolina is the obvious Goliath, but Roy Williams is easier to take in his dotage than he once was. Oregon and their precious uniforms may be an extension of the Nike sports industrial complex, but so is every team now. Gonzaga doesn't inspire much of anything, and Frank Martin's Gamecocks seem tough and likable.
There's still time for a perfectly good reason to emerge to want one or more of these teams to lose, so I'm open to any ideas.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Bernstein and Goff Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.