More Tourney Talk

I probably do not need to tell you how shocking this Final Four really is. Quite frankly, I can’t even explain how or what happened with any real sense of conviction. I had seen both VCU and Butler numerous times during the season and neither had the look of a great mid-major team, let alone a team that could handle the big boys come tournament time. Heck, VCU was the third best team in their own conference behind George Mason and Old Dominion, two teams that combined to win one game in the tournament and Butler lost to Youngstown State! One of those teams will be playing for the title come Monday night!

I guess we shouldn’t be as surprised by Kentucky and Connecticut, two of the best programs in the country, but UConn finished ninth in the Big East during the regular season before getting on a roll here in March and Kentucky showed their youth time and again this year in close games and on the road. Words really can’t describe how shocked I am by this Final Four...or how awful my bracket turned out!

Here are some of my other thoughts from the second weekend of March Madness:

- I know the NCAA Tournament is supposed to be great because it gives even the lesser teams a chance to compete for the National Championship but when that reality actually happens as it has this year, I hate it. I just can’t help but be disappointed in having to watch two mid-major programs compete in the Final Four without a future NBA player among them. At least last year we could explain Butler by having a phenomenal coach in Brad Stevens and a future lottery pick in Gordon Heyward leading the way…this year we have two great, young coaches leading their respective programs but a bunch of overachieving, scrappy players getting it done on the court. Sorry, I just can’t get excited over watching two teams with maybe a combined three players between them that would crack Pitt’s two-deep rotation.

- I hate the BCS as much as the next guy but at least we know that the two teams competing for the national title are among the best few teams in the country. As deserving as Butler and VCU are of being where they are at, we can say pretty confidently that neither are among the top 15 or even 20 teams in the country.

- Three of the four teams in the Final Four won their conference tournament and the fourth, VCU, had to win a play-in game to reach the round of 64. If you don’t think that momentum carries over, I don’t know what to tell you.

- Pitt fans like to complain about their lack of tournament success, and rightfully so, but does anyone do less with more than Bill Self and Kansas? The national title they won a couple of years back, which was gift wrapped by John Calipari and Memphis, gives Self and the Jayhawks fans a few years of reprieve, but boy does it seem like they lose to vastly inferior team year-in and year-out with just enormous amounts of talent.

- There were a number of fantastic games over the weekend but my favorite was probably Arizona versus UConn. Those teams went at it toe to toe in that second half and it was a thoroughly enjoyable game. My other favorites were Florida-Butler and Florida-BYU. Florida’s inability to put teams away came back to haunt them against a Butler team that just wouldn’t quit.

- The reason I enjoyed those games over a couple of other close ones was because I enjoy seeing teams play well. Ohio State played extremely poorly by their standards in their loss to Kentucky, which took away from the dramatics at the end for me. Same with the North Carolina-Kentucky game as John Henson became a non-factor due to foul trouble. Ohio State’s loss to Kentucky really magnified how hard it is to make a Final Four when just one poor shooting night from even the best team can end a season. Pitt fans should take notice.

- As I mentioned earlier, I can’t say I am too excited for this Final Four. Of course I will watch it because what real sports fan wouldn’t, but my guess is this is the least watched Final Four in some time. I will certainly be cheering for the UConn-Kentucky winner to win the title on Monday and hope some sense of reason returns to the tournament. My guess and it is completely a guess at this point, is that Kentucky finds a way to cool off the red hot Huskies on Saturday night and pulls out a close win over the tremendously coached Butler Bulldogs in the title game. Judging by the rest of my bracket, however, that prediction all but guarantees that VCU will knock off Connecticut for the worst National Championship team in NCAA history…