Tournament Talk

Yesterday I wrote about Pitt’s disappointing loss so today we will try to eliminate their string of disappointing tournament runs from our thoughts and instead focus on the rest of this past weekend and look ahead to the rest of the tournament.

- I thought at the outset of the tournament that Ohio State at its best was better than any other team in the country and their play over the first weekend of the tournament did nothing to disprove that notion. Their lack of depth continues to be somewhat of a concern but the Buckeyes certainly proved why they were the #1 overall seed entering the tournament.

- Despite how great Ohio State looked, however, it is hard not to make Kansas the favorite at this point. That is not because of how great the Jayhawks looked, even though they did play well, it is because of the potential paths each team has to a championship game. Ohio State could very well see Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke just to make it to the title game while Kansas will face Richmond, the winner of VCU-Florida State and the survivor of the watered down Southeast region. No comparison there about which team has the easier path. I would be lying if I didn’t say I feel pretty good about my National Champion selection of Kansas.

- The other remaining number one seed got a surprising boost when freshman Kyrie Irving suited up for the first time in three months. Irving didn’t have his same explosiveness that we first saw at the beginning of the season but that should be expected coming back from such a long layoff. I am very interested to see how Irving looks this weekend with a couple of games and another week of practice under his belt. A healthy Irving puts Duke right there with Ohio State and Kansas as the prohibitive favorites to cut down the nets.

- All in all the officials do a great job in what is a thankless and almost impossible position to be in. One call that needs to be changed however - and this is not the officials fault as they call the rule as it is written - is the charging violation. Right now it is way, way too easy for a help defender to slide underneath an offensive player going to the hoop. The way the rule is currently being called puts an impossible judgment call on the official to make, it puts the offensive player in danger of getting hurt, and ultimately it makes for some ugly basketball. The first thing the NCAA needs to do is put in the semi-circle like the NBA has to stop charges from occurring underneath the basket and to make the call easier on the official. The second thing that needs to happen is that when a call is in doubt, it should be called a blocking violation. This will stop rewarding defensive players from trying to take so many charges and open the game back up. The game of basketball is a much more appealing and free-moving game to watch when bodies aren't flying all over the place underneath the basket for most of the game.

- Four double digit seeds have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen and a fifth sleeper as defined by our rules last week, Butler, has also joined the party. We knew it was a down year in terms of top talent around the NCAA, but for nearly a third of the final sixteen teams to be an eight seed or above is pretty remarkable. It could also mean that we are in for some ugly basketball on Thursday and Friday night.

- The game I am probably looking forward to most is San Diego State versus Connecticut. It should be fun to see if Kemba Walker can continue leading the Huskies on their incredible tournament run while the Aztecs have plenty of size and athletes to match-up. I am sticking with my pre-tournament pick of Connecticut in this one but it wouldn’t surprise me if Steve Fisher’s boys find a way to get it done.

- Six of my original Elite Eight teams remain and three of my four Final Four teams remain. (I promised I wouldn’t mention that fourth team!) I am sticking by all of my original selections with the revised predictions of Florida beating Wisconsin in the Southeast region to be our fourth Final Four team and Florida State knocking off cinderella VCU in the battle of sleeper supremacy.

- I am looking forward to another great weekend of basketball in what truly is the best month of the year on the sports calendar!