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…
Showing posts with label 2011 NCAA Tournament. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011 NCAA Tournament. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
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!
- 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!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
NCAA Bracket Selections 2011
Thursday has come, everyone has filled out their brackets and opening tip-off of the 2011 NCAA Tournament is just hours away. The first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA Tournament have a certain buzz about them, kind of like we are watching something great develop in its infant stages. I, of course, have taken the afternoon off and a vacation day on Friday to watch all of the action.
Before we get to the games, however, it is time to unveil the “official” People’s Quarterback bracket. I call it official because like so many of you, I fill out too many of these things to keep track of. This one, however, is the one I am holding myself accountable for, as Regis used to say, “final answer!”
If those first two paragraphs sounded familiar, they should! Those were the opening two paragraphs I used last year before I went on to say how much I know, blah, blah, blah. I know you just want the picks, so we’ll get right to them.
I like upsets early and chalk late. I also have the same Final Four and champion as the President, which isn’t such a bad thing in case he ever gets bored with that simple job he does and comes across the blog. Here are the picks:
East
Ohio State over George Mason
Kentucky over Clemson
Syracuse over Marquette
UNC over Washington
Ohio State over UNC
West
Duke over Tennessee
Texas over Arizona
UConn over Cincinnati
Penn State over San Diego State
Duke over UConn
Southwest
Kansas over UNLV
Louisville over Richmond
Purdue over Georgetown
Texas A&M over Notre Dame
Kansas over Purdue
Southeast
Pittsburgh over Old Dominion
Utah State over Wisconsin
BYU over Gonzaga
Florida over Michigan State
Pittsburgh over Florida
Final Four
Ohio State over Duke
Kansas over Pittsburgh
Kansas over Ohio State
Before we get to the games, however, it is time to unveil the “official” People’s Quarterback bracket. I call it official because like so many of you, I fill out too many of these things to keep track of. This one, however, is the one I am holding myself accountable for, as Regis used to say, “final answer!”
If those first two paragraphs sounded familiar, they should! Those were the opening two paragraphs I used last year before I went on to say how much I know, blah, blah, blah. I know you just want the picks, so we’ll get right to them.
I like upsets early and chalk late. I also have the same Final Four and champion as the President, which isn’t such a bad thing in case he ever gets bored with that simple job he does and comes across the blog. Here are the picks:
East
Ohio State over George Mason
Kentucky over Clemson
Syracuse over Marquette
UNC over Washington
Ohio State over UNC
West
Duke over Tennessee
Texas over Arizona
UConn over Cincinnati
Penn State over San Diego State
Duke over UConn
Southwest
Kansas over UNLV
Louisville over Richmond
Purdue over Georgetown
Texas A&M over Notre Dame
Kansas over Purdue
Southeast
Pittsburgh over Old Dominion
Utah State over Wisconsin
BYU over Gonzaga
Florida over Michigan State
Pittsburgh over Florida
Final Four
Ohio State over Duke
Kansas over Pittsburgh
Kansas over Ohio State
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Bracket Thoughts
- For those of you that are not long-time readers you probably don’t know that Selection Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year. To check out the piece I wrote about Selection Sunday last year, click here.
- Pitt fans should be thrilled with the Panthers draw. I commented to my brother on Sunday that I do not think Pitt could have received a better region if they had picked it out themselves.
- I have read or heard others who do not think Pitt’s draw is as good as I believe because of their potential second round (I guess it is now called the third round but nobody is speaking in those terms yet) match-up with Old Dominion or Butler and a possible Sweet 16 opponent of Kansas State. Listen…if you are a number one seed and you are worried about a 2nd round game against a non-power conference team and the team you think offers the most potential problems in your region is the #5 seed, you got a damn good draw.
- I would agree that Duke has the second easiest region among the four number one seeds (many of the TV experts think Duke has the easiest). That leads me to the question of what the heck is the committee doing? Ohio State and Kansas are clearly the #1 and #2 overall seeds in the tournament and were named rightly so. How can the committee justify having their regions being the most difficult? I know this is a matter of perception but still, it is pretty clear to even the least knowledgeable college basketball fan that Kansas and Ohio State were not rewarded properly for their overall seeds.
- I guess the actual reason is not the committee’s fault. This whole idea of putting the top seeds in their “pods” and then placing them in the respective regions to keep them close to their fan bases is ridiculous. Line the teams up 1-68 and seed the tournament accordingly.
- Another pet-peeve of mine that has developed is listening to these “experts” calling teams such as Purdue, Louisville and Syracuse a “sleeper”. We need to make some kind of universal ground rules up for what a sleeper is. My suggestion is two-part:
(1) If we are talking about the ability to win the national championship, no team that is a top four seed in its region can be considered a sleeper. If you are ranked in the top 15 or 16 in the country you have a legitimate shot to win six straight games and cut down the nets.
(2) If we are talking about true sleepers, as in a team that people would be at least a little bit surprised if they made the Sweet 16 or better, then a team must be seeded 7th or higher in its region to be considered. No one would be surprised if #6 seeds like Georgetown or Cincinnati make a little run to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. They are not sleepers.
- Speaking of Georgetown, if it is true that Chris Wright is expected back I see a legitimate scenario where the Big East has seven or eight Sweet 16 teams and possibly three of the Final Four teams. Even with that kind of depth, however, I still don’t see a Big East team winning the National Championship. My money today would be on Duke, Ohio State or Kansas…and I am leaning towards Duke after seeing each team’s respective brackets.
- I will make my official picks Thursday morning. We have to see who wins these horrible, nobody really cares about them, play-in games before we make our official predictions right?!? But since you’re reading this today, I’ll take Clemson, USC, UNC-Asheville and UT-San Antonio in the play-in games.
- Pitt fans should be thrilled with the Panthers draw. I commented to my brother on Sunday that I do not think Pitt could have received a better region if they had picked it out themselves.
- I have read or heard others who do not think Pitt’s draw is as good as I believe because of their potential second round (I guess it is now called the third round but nobody is speaking in those terms yet) match-up with Old Dominion or Butler and a possible Sweet 16 opponent of Kansas State. Listen…if you are a number one seed and you are worried about a 2nd round game against a non-power conference team and the team you think offers the most potential problems in your region is the #5 seed, you got a damn good draw.
- I would agree that Duke has the second easiest region among the four number one seeds (many of the TV experts think Duke has the easiest). That leads me to the question of what the heck is the committee doing? Ohio State and Kansas are clearly the #1 and #2 overall seeds in the tournament and were named rightly so. How can the committee justify having their regions being the most difficult? I know this is a matter of perception but still, it is pretty clear to even the least knowledgeable college basketball fan that Kansas and Ohio State were not rewarded properly for their overall seeds.
- I guess the actual reason is not the committee’s fault. This whole idea of putting the top seeds in their “pods” and then placing them in the respective regions to keep them close to their fan bases is ridiculous. Line the teams up 1-68 and seed the tournament accordingly.
- Another pet-peeve of mine that has developed is listening to these “experts” calling teams such as Purdue, Louisville and Syracuse a “sleeper”. We need to make some kind of universal ground rules up for what a sleeper is. My suggestion is two-part:
(1) If we are talking about the ability to win the national championship, no team that is a top four seed in its region can be considered a sleeper. If you are ranked in the top 15 or 16 in the country you have a legitimate shot to win six straight games and cut down the nets.
(2) If we are talking about true sleepers, as in a team that people would be at least a little bit surprised if they made the Sweet 16 or better, then a team must be seeded 7th or higher in its region to be considered. No one would be surprised if #6 seeds like Georgetown or Cincinnati make a little run to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. They are not sleepers.
- Speaking of Georgetown, if it is true that Chris Wright is expected back I see a legitimate scenario where the Big East has seven or eight Sweet 16 teams and possibly three of the Final Four teams. Even with that kind of depth, however, I still don’t see a Big East team winning the National Championship. My money today would be on Duke, Ohio State or Kansas…and I am leaning towards Duke after seeing each team’s respective brackets.
- I will make my official picks Thursday morning. We have to see who wins these horrible, nobody really cares about them, play-in games before we make our official predictions right?!? But since you’re reading this today, I’ll take Clemson, USC, UNC-Asheville and UT-San Antonio in the play-in games.
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