Rhetorical activity #2 on pg. 142

Enthymeme:
Great teams do not lose to 15 seeds in the NCAA tournament.

Duke lost to a 15 seed.

Duke is not a great team.


Maxim: Dwight D. Eisenhower said aptly that
"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog." The 15 seed may be the underdog, but if you fight harder, you will likely win.

Historical example: An USC team won their first conference championship in 1997 but lost to the #15 seed. They lost in the first round again the next season. Missouri, this year, a supposed nation title contender, lost to another extremely low seed in the first round just as they did last year. To be great, you must win.

Fictional: Furthermore, consider if UNC lost to a #15 seed. A great UNC team is a team that finds a way to win and wins national championships. A UNC team that loses to a #15 would be seen as a failure, most of all by its own fans.

Sign: The signs were there. Duke lost at home to Florida State and Miami and got creamed by UNC. They should have lost to VT and were down by 20 to N.C. State with 10 minutes to go. Duke showed fight to stay in many of those close games, but the mistakes they made to force them into close situations eventually came back to bite them in the NCAA tournament.


(Yes I note that this is not necessarily true, as one of the teams that lost to a #15 seed made the Final Four the next year).