What with the NCAA Tournament winding down, I figured now would be as good of time as any to make a post about basketball before baseball season engulfs my entire life after Monday.
It’s a good thing I don’t put money on brackets. Ironically, I had an awesome, winning-worthy bracket last year, but as evident above, that’s clearly not the case this year. It’s a miracle that I have even one Final Four team this year, considering the massive amount of upsets. I lost one Final Four team in the first round, and my predicted champion was bounced in the second. Las Vegas must be miserable right now having to pay out all the winnings to drunk idiots randomly picking scrub schools that are actually coming through this year.
I mean, if you’re really curious, you can click on the image to download the PDF of my bracket in its full, failing glory; I think West Virginia is the only team I have to make it into the Elite Eight, let alone the Final Four.
Given the fact that the four number ones were Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, and Duke, I boldly predicted that ALL one-seeds would not make the Final Four, with Duke getting bounced first. Ironically, Duke is the only one-seed to actually make it into the Final Four, but at least my predictions about Kansas and Kentucky were valid still.
Anyway, although it’s proven to be an utter fail for me this year, here is the rationale behind some of my picks:
- Kentucky and Kansas, if given one-seeds, will fail. With the exception of 2008, when both teams inexplicably made it to the championship game, with Kansas coming out on top, both teams are inevitably expected to get upset every year otherwise.
- If a CAA team from Virginia sneaks into the tournament and has an #11 seed, they will make it out of the first round. 2006 saw George Mason Cinderella it all the way to the Final Four, 2007 saw VCU upset Duke in the first round, and this year saw Old Dominion “upset” Notre Dame.
- Duke typically loses to Big East teams, because their predominantly lily-white prep stars can’t handle the bruising hard-fouling, tough-defense playing Big East schools, and with this year being an exception, their players tend to vanish and the threes stop falling.
- My rationale in picking Villanova as champion is a quite simple one – positioning on the physical bracket. I’ve always envisioned the “southeast” #2 seed as always a viable contender. It seemed like every time UConn snagged the #2 seed in the bottom right corner, they went real deep into the tournament. And based on the way Villanova played throughout the season, I figured I could have a shot. Apparently not.
Anyhow, this tournament has been a wash, as far as my bracket goes, but I don’t really care, I didn’t put any money on it. The last time I did that, was when I dropped $5 bucks in an office pool in 2003, and had Maryland going all the way. Maryland lost to Syracuse, and UConn, coming out of the bottom right corner #2 seed, ended up winning it all.
Brackets aside, this year’s tournament has been one of the most interesting in ages. It’s been good basketball, which is I guess, what any sports fan can really hope for. Out of the four remaining teams, I don’t really care who wins. Even Duke, surprisingly, because I have a great deal of pride in ACC athletics being the best. But they’re up against the Big East winning WVU tonight, so who knows what’s going to happen.
