Tournament Food for Thought

Following one weekend of hoops, there are now just sixteen teams for which the dream of a national championship still remains. All of the 1, 2, & 3 seeds remain, but many were tested at some point this weekend. Arizona is the lone "upset" team that has stuck around (I don't consider Purdue much of an upset as a five-seed), which helps justify the selection committee's decision to include the Wildcats in tournament. The SEC is completely eliminated already, the Pac-10 has only one squad hanging around, and the Big Ten and ACC has lost 10 out of 14 tournament teams combined (5 a piece). Overall, it was an exciting four days of basketball, but was ultimately characterized by near-misses instead of little engines that could and one shining moments.

I did not see much of the Thursday/Saturday games aside from the ones I saw in Greensboro in person, but UCONN has to come out of this weekend as the most impressive team thus far. The Huskies simply blew out both their opponents and hardly broke a sweat. Things could certainly change with Purdue on Thursday night. Pittsburgh seemed pretty shaky in both of their contests, while Louisville and Carolina both struggled in the second round. We'll analyze the Sweet 16 a bit more later this week when picking the games (it has become tradition on The Blue Team to pick the actual matchups from the Sweet 16 through the finals because my bracket is traditionally ruined by now; speaking of which...)

That sound you heard this weekend, emanating from Blacksburg, VA, was my bracket being blown to bits. The smell? It started when I lit my bracket on fire. The water that erupted? Don't worry, it was just my bracket going down the drain. The last time I had a bracket go this terribly was way back in 2005.

Thursday in Greensboro was fairly tame. Only the Butler/LSU game was reasonably close and the crowd was pretty quiet most of the day. Duke playing the last game thinned out the Carolina folks who were willing to stick around and pull for Binghamton, so the Blue Devils did not have to play a "road game" as was speculated. Saturday, on the other hand, was intense. My day started early in Blacksburg with an 11:00am NIT home game. The Hokies decided not to show up, while Baylor came to play, leading to an 18-point home loss to end Virginia Tech's season and drive me to an early exit. After two plus hours in the car, I met the crew for some tailgating and hoops. The scoreboard gave us the first indication of Ty Lawson's status, including him on the listed starters. I sat/stood quietly for the entire game until Lawson's three-point play right before the eight minute media timeout of the second half, erupting from my seat for some unintelligible yelling, three pounds of the seat in front of me, and high-five that might have broken the girl's hand sitting in that seat in front of me (didn't know her) before I had to sit back down quickly. I had a Roy spell, nearly tipping over. Oops. I think I forgot to enjoy the ride for a minute there. Overall, the game was about what was expected in closeness, but the lackadaisical attitude in the first ten minutes of the second half was bothersome. Lawson is imperative to this team and Carolina will go as far as he carries them. Survive and advance, though, and the Heels did just that. Whew.

We'll see what next weekend brings us. All I know is that Carolina has only good teams left to play in this tournament. The top four seed in the South and East regions all remain, and I still think that UCONN and Louisville will settle who plays for the championship. I can tell you for sure that I'll be tuned in on Friday night at 9:57 EST for a tough matchup with Gonzaga. Rah rah...