March Madness Recap

Now that the Final Four is set and my bracket is screwed, let's recap this year's NCAA Tournament.

The fact that SO MANY favorites won was completely ridiculous, and I know everyone else who knows anything about college basketball is looking at their brackets and wondering why they picked Oral Roberts over Washington State, while the woman in their office is shrugging at "just how easy it was to pick the winners, because all you had to do was pick the good teams."

Seriously, after last years crazy run of upsets, how many people did what I did and just decided to pick every upset that was somewhat conceivable? Albany over Virginia? Sure! Holy Cross over Southern Illinois? Why not!? Miami (OH) over Oregon? Makes sense! But ALL the freaking favorites won! With the exception of VCU-Duke (which upset NOBODY except Duke fans), Winthrop over Notre Dame (was that really even an upset?) and UNLV-Georgia Tech (doesn't count because it was a 7-10 game), every favorite won not including the coin-flip that is the 8-9 games.

But not that I'm complaining. No really. Any real fan of college basketball has to admit that they like it better this way. While the upsets are awesome to watch in the early rounds, but once it gets down to the big games, any true fan would much rather see the higher seeds battle it out. Think about it. Of the eight Sweet 16 matchups, which was the least appealing? By FAR it was the UNLV-Oregon matchup; and once the Elite Eight is set, what would you rather see as a basketball fan? UNC-Georgetown or USC-Vanderbilt? Or even some David-Goliath matchup such as UNC-Vanderbilt wouldn't be as appealing.

I want to see the best battle the best and in Georgetown's thriller over UNC (by vote for best game of the Tournament), that's exactly what we got. We saw an incredibly accurate strategic team in Georgetown take on the most athletic team in the tournament in North Carolina. Incredibly compelling stuff. Same with the Kansas-UCLA game. It was the slow-down, defensive-minded Bruins vs. the run-and-gun, alley oop minded Jayhawks. Nobody knew who was going to win these games. And that's what made them so great to watch.

That being said, here are my awards through the Elite Eight:

Surprise Team of the Tournament--Memphis. Now I know this doesn't make much sense considering they were a two-seed who made it to the Elite Eight. But NOBODY who doesn't follow Memphis or Conference USA knew ANYTHING about Memphis and discredited them because of the weak conference. 90 percent of the brackets I saw filled out had Texas A&M beating them in the Sweet 16, myself included. They weren't even favored as a higher seed against the Aggies. I can't remember a team seeded that high not being expected to go at least to the Elite Eight.

Surprise Player of the Tournament
Good--Eric Maynor, VCU: had a swagger you don't normally see out of a small-conference school, and the guy has the body of an NBAer. I fully expect a team to take a chance on him with a second-round pick this April.
Bad--Alando Tucker, Wisconsin: Even as an Illini/Marquette fan, I've been riding the Badger bandwagon all year and after their manhandling of my Golden Eagles, were an easy pick for me to go to the Final Four (yeah, I know). But the team choked and with them did Tucker. Superstars and conference player's of the year are supposed to be the reason a team wins. In their absurd comeback against the team who's name is too long to type, it wasn't even Tucker who brought them back. In fact, they began their run RIGHT AFTER he left the game!

Disappointing Team of the Tournament--Along with the aforementioned Badgers (I'm too angry at them to type any more), I give this award to Texas A&M and Kansas, and no, not just because they were in my Final Four. A&M had me sold as a legitimate contender when they beat Kansas in Lawrence and Texas in Austin. And Acie Law IV IS the best point guard to potentially go pro. I don't care what the so-called experts say about Darren Collison and Mike Conley Jr., Law reminds me of Ben Gordon but only a better passer. He's the type of guy who can hit a shot at will but is unselfish enough to get his teammates involved. Trust me, he's a lock to be a good pro, but team's will pass him up for the potential of Collison and Conley Jr. Anyways, Billy Gillespie, who I am sold on as a pretty good coach, made a boneheaded decision by not putting the ball in his hands down the stretch against Memphis. A&M should have beat Memphis, but choked, thus they are a disappointment.

Player of the Tournament (so far)--Jeff Green, Georgetown: As much as I hate Billy Packer with a passion like none-other, he made a very good point towards the end of the game against UNC. He kept pointing out the Green wanted the ball and if his teammates could get him the ball Georgetown would be OK. And he was spot on. Once Green got going, so did Georgetown. His turnaround jumper when he has the ball on the low block is undefendable. And not even Tar Heel's freak of nature Brandan Wright could defend it. Nor could Hansbrough.

Final Four Picks--As much as I hate Joakim Noah and Florida (see above, Billy Packer), they are the same team from a year ago and UCLA is the same team from a year ago minus Jordan Farmar and plus Collison. Not much difference. UCLA still doesn't have a big man who can match up with Noah or Al Horford and the game should turn out similarly to that of a year ago. As for Georgetown-Ohio State game. I'm torn. I know as much as that I will root for whoever wins this game in the Championship game. But I have to give the edge to Georgetown. As many playmakers as Ohio State has, Georgetown is just too precise with executing their gameplan and Ohio State is a little too sloppy that the Hoyas should be able to capitalize off their mistakes and take control.

But I will leave you with this: If the Buckeyes win, it will be because Greg Oden steps over Roy Hibbert and wins the game single-handedly for Ohio State. He's been showing signs of dominance more than ever in wins over Xavier, Tennessee and Memphis and I would not be surprised if he pulls out a superstar-like dominant performance and lead Ohio State to the title.