We are witnessing some extraordinary events in College Basketball.
Northern Iowa, led by a guard who is the son of an Iranian volleyball coach, puts away the top seed, Kansas. Saint Mary's, led by a big man Omar Samhan, son of an Egyptian father and an Irish mother, put away Villanova. Tom Friedman in his Sunday column talks about what used to be the Westinghouse (now Intel) Science Competition and how many of the names of the recipients are of Asian origin - our talent pool is enhanced from legal immigration and their offspring who manifest the parent's aspirations. But who'd have thunk it? It matters in the world of sports too, only it's the Middle East that's populating the talent pool.
Northern Iowa is actually a 9 seed, but Saint Mary's is a 10 seed and there are two other double digit seeds in the round of 16, which has to be a record. One of those is Washington, which is from a power conference that supposedly had a down year - a lot of inferences are made by how teams play in November and December that may simply not carry over to March. The other is my alma mater, Cornell, a 12 seed that has completely destroyed its opponents so far. Wouldn't it be something if they put away Kentucky?
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