I don't really follow sports. Yet, it's difficult for even the most idle of dabblers to not get caught up in March Madness. The excitement of the competition in the 64-team tournament is overwhelming. Fans all across the country are cheering their hometown teams. Nearly everyone I know is drawing up their own brackets. However, if there is one thing that is most exciting about the NCAA tournament, it is this: the underdogs.
VCU. Can anyone tell me what it stands for? As someone who doesn't regularly follow college basketball, I had to look it up. Virginia Commonwealth University. No, not Virginia Tech. Not Virginia. Not West Virginia. Virginia Commonwealth. Sunday night, number 11 seed VCU beat number 1 seed Kansas 71-61 to make it into the Final Four--making them only the third number 11 seed in history to enter the Final Four. Along their way to the Final Four, VCU also ousted Georgetown, Purdue, and Florida State--all teams ranked at higher seeds. Certainly, no one can argue that VCU is turning into one of those true underdog stories that we love so much--a 'Cinderella story' as it's often called. Undoubtedly, many who did not know the meaning of the acronymn 'VCU' will be cheering for Virginia Commonwealth University next Saturday.
But why do we root for the underdog? Why does it give us such a rush to see number 1 toppled by number 11? I think this 'cheering the underdog' phenomenon is about much more than a basketball tournament. I think it's about human nature. We root for the underdogs, because they give us permission. They tell us that we can do it too. We can defy the odds. We can overcome great obstacles. Hey, if VCU can beat Kansas, maybe I will get the sale, maybe that girl will go out with me, or maybe I will pass this exam. Maybe. Underdogs introduce possibility. We see someone else of lesser 'rank' become successul and we are given permission to win as well. If they can do it, why can't we?
And how do underdogs win? They certainly don't do it by believing their 'seed.' They don't accept their 'rank.' Before the game against Kansas, the coach of VCU surely didn't say anything along the lines of, "Well fellas, Kansas is ranked much higher than us. Clearly we don't have a shot." As a matter of fact, VCU coach Shaka Smart is quoted as saying, "Those people (the doubters) don't matter. The only people that matter is the 14 guys on our team, and they never stopped believing." In other words, the players on VCU's team did not accept their label. Whereas the players on Kansas' team may have felt entitled to victory because of their number 1 ranking, the players on VCU proved themselves to be number 1 through victory. They did not let perceptions of who they were effect their performance. They played like champions.
Of how many things in our lives can we say that we are underdogs? Work. School. Family. Social relationships. Hobbies. How often do we not have the upper hand? Yet, what will we do about it? Will we give up? Or will we play like the victorious underdogs? Life is filled with challenges. We'll win some and we'll lose some. But we shouldn't resign to defeat those challenges in which we are merely expected to lose. Our expectations of ourselves must always outweigh the expectations that others have of us. Only then do we give ourselves permission to play like champions. Only then can we become the underdogs everyone loves to root for.
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