The NCAA Basketball Tournament...

The die has been cast for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The teams have been selected and the first match ups are made. For the next three weeks nothing else in the sports world means anything. Go ahead and put the dog in a kennel, send your partner on a vacation, tell your boss you caught a recurring illness. If you’re a true sports fanatic nothing else in life means very much of anything. It’s all about the tournament. Face it college basketball owns the month of March. Starting this past Sunday night most of us are daily slaves to our bracket choices. Relationships in offices, schools, businesses and in the halls of our government itself will be focused (and maybe a little bit stressed) on our bracket choices. Bone up on your trash talking abilities and vocabulary. The NCAA Basketball Tournament has arrived. Let the games begin!

There were no huge surprises in the Conference tournament championships except maybe for Houston. Teams that failed to win their respective titles will in most cases none the less participate in the tournament, although they will be seeded a bit lower. In looking over the results of the past week and watching a lot of major conference basketball their are however several teams that impressed me greatly. I smell several upsets in this year’s tournament but after last years first and second round heartbreak I know that nothing is impossible.

First let’s talk about the obvious dominant teams, then I’ll point out some teams to keep an eye on and finally highlight a couple of Cinderella teams that can ruin your bracket and propel you back into sports obscurity. I’d pay attention if you haven’t filled in your brackets yet. I’ve been known to pick extremely well in the past, sort of.

First, the obvious top seeds who everyone in your office or bracket pool who know absolutely zero about basketball yet will rave about; Houston, Purdue, Kansas and of course Alabama are all number one seeds in their regions. Frankly I’m not too hot on any of these teams except Kansas. Houston focuses too much on offense and it cost them in their conference championship which they lost. Purdue lives and dies by their big man Ede and Alabama is way over rated after managing to survive a less then average SEC season which saw them winning a lot of close games against teams that were marginal at best Additionally, if you’ve been following the off court news, an Alabama player being involved in a murder is bad Karma in my opinion. If you take the time to read about it you won’t like what you read. I’m looking for Alabama to get upset early. Purdue and Houston should roll the first week or two but only Kansas will survive to the final four.

Now for the teams to look out for, the dangerous ones that will ruin your bracket. On this list I’ve got Virgina, NC State, Baylor, UCLA, Arizona, Gonzaga, Kansas State, Duke and Marquette. All of these teams have the ability to go the distance at the very least to the final four. They’ve all finished their season very strong in spite of floundering early, a characteristic I put a lot of weight into when picking my bracket. I wouldn’t bet the farm on any of them but I will say they will go deep so you might retain some early bragging rights in your office bracket group, at least for a week.

The Cinderella teams are the Upset Teams, the ones no one ever saw coming until they start celebrating after the final horn. I don’t see a lot of these in this year’s tournament but do see a few possibilities. Miami, Memphis, Pittsburgh, Florida Atlantic and VCU all fit into this catagory along with maybe one or two others. It’s important to note here that Pittsburgh led the ACC for much of the season and Florida Atlantic University finished the Regular season at 32-3 destroying teams along the way in Conference USA. They’re all well coached teams, they all finished strong save for Pittsburgh and they all can come from behind and win a game, but after a few initial upsets I don’t see them over powering enough to reach the final four.

Lastly, but certainly not finally, this year sees the first time in I don’t know how long that The North Carolina Tar Heels will watch the tournament from home. They were the pre season number one. I find it rather hard to grasp as they essentially have the same team that took them the distance last year yet failed to make the tournament. Maybe the luster is fading, maybe it’s time for another coaching change, either way their absence is obvious.

So with all of this in mind let’s look at my “Official Bracket”, the one that my bragging rights hinge upon. There’s gonna be one or two other brackets out there as well but these are the teams I like. I’ll go through each round’s winners as to not make it too winded. What I basically do is start at the second weekend, The Sweet Sixteen and work my way forward from there. It’s my personal version of “Survival of The Fittest”

After the first weekend of crazyness my sweet sixteen teams are Vigrina, West Virginia, NC State, Arizona, FAU, Tennessee, Kansas State, Iowa, Indiana, Pittsburgh, Texas, Kansas, UConn, Gonzaga and UCLA. These teams will survive the first round. Not too many upsets but one or two, maybe. There’s not any St. Peter’s, St. Joe’s, St. John’s teams this year so I don’t think The Lord is gonna play a big part of the first weekend except for Texas Christian University, Saint Mary’s and Grand Canyon University, both faith based institutions, and I don’t have either of these teams surviving the first weekend.

From these sixteen I like Kansas, Arizona, Virginia, UCLA, Iowa, Texas, Tennessee and USC. These are my “Elite Eight”. All great teams, all well coached, all finishing strong in the regular season. All these teams have tournament pedigree and can pull off an upset at any time. What’s more, all of these teams have huge fan bases that travel well. Their fans can turn an away arena into a home court. Like in football, the home field(or home court in this case) is worth points.

Now for my Final Four. Arizona, Tennessee, Iowa and Kansas will make it to the big weekend. Kansas and Arizona will dispatch Iowa and Tennessee for the final and Kansas will take home the NCAA Trophy. Boom! Simple! You heard it here first!

In all honesty it’s a guessing game like everything else in sports. Anything could happen. Kansas could end up being upset by Howard University on the first day, Oral Robert’s could end up beating Duke and FAU could end up In The Final Four, you just never know right? I suppose that why they play the games. It’s a win or go home scenario, period. When it comes to picking your bracket everyone is an expert. Look for a review here every week and we’ll give out bragging rights awards right up to the big weekend and the final game!

Kev