March... not so Madness

So how are your brackets looking? If you like to see upsets and you picked some big ones, like 12 and 13 seeds advancing, then they’re probably not looking too good. If you’re one of those who doesn’t usually watch the tournament and figures the best team usually wins, then you’re feeling pretty confident right now. Watch out though, that means that second round games are going to be a lot more competitive then in previous years. Lower seeds don’t get the luxury of playing an upset team with an over inflated “maybe we CAN win this thing” mentality. Now they’re forced to play strong high seeds that escaped the first round with and have new life after that sigh of relief they get from making it past day one. While low scores and large margins of victory made for a pretty uninteresting first round, the overall tournament might benefit from the competition we should see throughout the next couple weeks.

Some notes:
The second round brings some interesting match-ups because a couple of the teams facing off are complete opposites of one another. VCU, a quick and athletic team that surprised no one by upsetting Duke, is playing a slow and methodical Pittsburgh team. Same with Rick Pitino’s run and gun Louisville, who started the tournament by dismantling and embarrassing a weak Stanford team. They get to face a slow and strong defensive team in Texas A&M. A&M also brings with them the clutch stylings of Acie Law, IV who single handedly keeps them in close games late. Usually, the team that gets to dictate the tempo of the game will be the one who comes away with the win, and for that reason, I like Pitt and A&M. Don’t be surprised though, if the faster teams can take over and wear out the defenses quickly by turning the game into a track meet.

Some games to watch:
Winthrop, who beat Notre Dame, now gets to take on a deflated Oregon team – whom I have in the Final Four – that snuck by Miami (OH) after they missed a three at the buzzer. UNLV, who somehow held off a big run from Georgia Tech, gets to play a Wisconsin team that looked TERRIBLE against Texas A&M – Corpus Christi. Both Vandy and Wazzou played well in their opening game and face each other in a tight 6 vs. 3 match up. Same with Texas and USC in their 5 vs. 4 game.

Teams I Like:
Maryland - Balanced and fun to watch. They have a harder game coming up against Butler, but I think their team play along with how strong they were inside will make that game a lot easier for them. Watch for Osby off the bench, great hustle player and great afro. Look for someone to call him Baby Ben by the end of this tournament.

UNLV - Smart and can shoot outside better then most teams in this tournament. They have a veteran leader in Kevin Kruger – who looks like a young Will Forte – and Wendell White can take over a game whenever he wants. Look for them to upset Wisconsin.

Teams I Hate:
Tennessee - Fast and athletic but EXTREMELY careless. They’re cocky after running past Long Beach and now face a Virginia team that won the ACC regular season. Plus they wear those terrible burnt orange uniforms… oh and Bruce Pearl is an idiot.

Memphis - Won 30 games in Conference USA, which is about the equivalent of Iverson averaging 80 a game in the WNBA. They lost all their best players to the NBA and are facing a good Nevada team that forces people to focus on Nick Fazekas and forget about the balance they have with Marcelus Kemp, Ramon Sessions and Kyle Shiloh.

Whatever happens, this could be a very exciting tournament from here on out. We still have a couple mid-majors that could make serious runs in Winthrop and VCU, and yet we have such an amazing amount of talent out on the floor that anyone could win. I still like Kansas, and I wish I had Florida going farther – thought they were overrated… whoops – but don’t be surprised if we see some smaller schools knock out some 1, 2, and 3 seeds this weekend.

Finally I’d like to thank Boston College, UNLV, and USC for playing so well against their first round opponents (read: covering the spread). Remember everyone, betting on sports is only wrong when you lose. Enjoy the games.