Tourney Talk

Well, Tuesday begins the 2nd best 3 weeks in college sports. It's time to go dancing, America. In this post, I'll talk about what I think of the field: the No. 1s, the Snubs, possible cinderellas, and sleepers. If I'm not too tired, I'll add some of my insight. Off we go!

We'll start at the top of the board with the Number 1 seeds. Louisville, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, and North Carolina all grabbed the top lines of their brackets. Lousiville was able to edge out Pittsburgh for the top overall seed, thanks to a Big East tournament championship, and Pitt's failure against WVU in the Big East quarters.

UNC looks to have the easiest road to the Final Four, despite being the 3rd overall seed. The second round brings LSU or Butler to the table against the Heels. Pitt would face either OK State or Tennessee, UConn would draw BYU or Texas A&M, and UL would get the winner of Ohio State/Siena. Many think that the Cardinals have the easiest 2nd round game, but Ohio State beat 2nd seeded Michigan State in the Big 10 tourney by a 12 point margin. Neutral court wins are huge, and Ohio State could be a force to be reckoned with.

Snubs are always a huge topic after the brackets are announced. This year is no different (I say this as I watch Dickie V argue for St. Mary's) I agree with Vitale that maybe Arizona shouldn't have gotten in over St. Mary's. But my biggest problem with this year's tournament is that Auburn is not in. They had 22 wins, and 10 in conference. I do understand that had Miss. St not won the SEC tournament, the Tigers may have been dancing. I disagree that Davidson is out, despite being the cinderella story of 2008. Again, Temple stole the A-10's auto bid from Xavier, giving that conference more bids than it deserves (3).

Cinderellas. My absolute favorite part of this tournament is who becomes someone that noone expected them to be. Davidson was last year's cinderella story, riding the Curry Wave. This year, I think that Tennessee has the best shot at becoming America's sweetheart this year. The Vols play hard core defense, and have one of the best half court offenses in the SEC. OKST offers a tough challenge to start the dance off. Winning that game would put the Vols in the face of top seeded Pitt, who was exposed in the last 2 games.

Few people think about sleepers until it actually happens. Looking over the brackets this year, the first team that strikes me as a sleeper is Washington. The Huskies drew Miss St. with a 4-13 matchup. Washington is seeded below UConn, Memphis and Mizzou in their bracket, but would only run into one of those teams in the Sweet 16 or later, giving hem time to build some momentum. I like the Huksies to make a small run this year.

My Final Four: I like Kansas, Memphis, UNC, and Duke to make the trip to Detroit.


Now America, Let's Dance!