Last week at this time, millions of people studied a simple sheet of paper in a maddening fashion. They developed acronyms for teams they've never heard of. They pegged upsets and Cinderella stories They figured out the perfect Final Four. They made bets on their perfect piece of paper and believed that this is finally their year. Then something funny happened. A Friday night rolls around and a fifteen seed from Fort Myers, Florida is beating a perennial Big East power. Granted this team has struggled in the tournament (now having lost to double digit seeds in the last four tournaments), but a university that is only 21 years old should not be in this position. Suddenly, the notion of maintaining a perfect bracket goes out the window. We root for this underdog. We marvel at their "We've got nothing to lose attitude", and jump on the bandwagon in seconds. This team makes incredible plays (FGCU Alley Oop) and shocks the world by pulling off an incredible upset. While we celebrate this team in a moment of jubilee, we realize the Cinderella story will unfortunately end next round and reality hits us hard. However, the Eagles weren't going to let history write their script. They show up two nights later against the San Diego State and reclaim their intensity from the onset. Now, for the first time in NCAA tournament history, a fifteen seed, the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, is going to the Sweet 16. What makes this miraculous story sweeter? How about a match-up with the Florida Gators. If you're looking for one of the best David vs. Goliath games of 2013, I would tune into this game. Will America's newest darlings be able to beat one of the most successful basketball programs of the last decade or will Florida's little underdogs be able to defeat the state's mighty Gators? I can't wait to find out. The winner of this game will face either Kansas or Michigan in the South region's final, two teams who have been very impressive thus far. Michigan made VCU's "Havoc" look more like "Peace be with you" and steamrolled the Rams behind a stellar performance from Mitch McGary. They're going to need the frontcourt play to continue against Kansas. The Jayhawks shook off a terrible first half to advance to the Sweet 16. Travis Releford and Jeff Withey have replaced the scoring for a struggling Ben McLemore, but Rock Chalk Nation is going to need every member of the team playing well if they want to beat Michigan.
The Florida Gulf Coast story line would have been enough excitement to suffice for one NCAA tournament, but come on. In the most exciting NCAA basketball season of my lifetime, that little amount of chaos isn't nearly enough. In the West region, the one, three, four, and five seeds will not be advancing to Los Angeles to play in the Sweet 16. The number two seed, the Ohio State Buckeyes, tried to continue the trend, but luckily Aaron Craft stepped up to make his first three pointer since the sixth grade. They'll move on to face a very underrated team in Arizona. What makes this match-up even more interesting is the battle between Thad Matta and Sean Miller, two coaches linked with the Xavier basketball program. Arizona was a top ten team at one point during the season. They derailed in the latter parts of the season, but right now they're playing their best basketball of the season. Ohio State's going to have to shake off a shaky performance if they want to advance to the Elite 8. On the other side of the west region, La Salle will face Wichita State. If you had this picked correctly, raise your hand. No put it down because you are a dirty liar. Unless you are an Explorer and your spouse is a Shocker, nobody could have seen this match-up coming. Neither of these teams are even their conference's best program. Ron Baker stepped up for the Shockers against Gonzaga, while La Salle was able to advance past Marshall Henderson and Ole Miss in the final seconds. Ohio State still appears to be the favorite to win this region, but with what has conspired so far, who really knows what to expect as wildest region in the tournament travels to one of the wildest cities in the country.
With all of the chaos, the East region has served as a perfect antithesis and consists of all chalk in the Sweet 16. Top seeded Indiana will face fourth seeded Syracuse, while second seeded Miami (FL) will face third seeded Marquette. Indiana barely beat Khalif Wyatt University (Sorry, it was actually Temple University), but more importantly won a low scoring defensive battle. The Hoosiers had not been successful in defensive battles prior to this, but a clutch three from Victor Oladipo and limiting Wyatt's offensive abilities in the final few minutes allowed Indiana to hold on. Syracuse embarrassed Montana in their first game, before soundly beating California in their second, and they will roll into Washington D.C. with a lot of momentum. This game will feature a phenomenal coaching battle between Tom Crean and Jim Boeheim, and the Indiana high octane offense vs the famous Syracuse 2-3 Zone. Another great basketball game seems guaranteed. In the other game, Marquette who STOLE two victories against Davidson and Butler and SCREWED my bracket twice. Davidson's awful pass and Andrew Smith's "Worst Shot That Ever Was and Ever Will Be in the History of Basketball" gave the Golden Eagles two wins. Now they face Miami, a team I picked to win the National Championship. The Hurricanes should have the talent to win this game, but since Buzz Williams' squad must be using the blog for bulletin board material, I'm not quite sure what to expect.
Finally, there's the Midwest region. Three of the most historic programs (Louisville, Duke, and Michigan State) and three of the greatest coaches (Rick Pitino, Mike Krzyzewski, and Tom Izzo) will be in the Indianapolis this weekend. Then there are the Oregon Ducks and Dana Altman, currently raging a vendetta against the selection committee for choosing them as a twelve seed and out to prove Oregon is more than a football school with cool jerseys. Let me take a quick moment to celebrate that my national championship pick, the Michigan State Spartans, are still playing basketball, unlike Missouri last year. Unfortunately, they must face one of the most talented teams in the country next, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. Two very talented teams are going to duke it out in this game(no pun intended....). However, I have faith that the Spartans will prevail and make me look like a GENIUS when they win it all two weeks from today. Louisville vs. Oregon would've been a great game in college football. Unfortunately for the Ducks, I think there are only three teams left in the field that can beat Louisville, and they are not one of them. Russ Smith and Peyton Siva may be on Ricky Bobby invisible fire, and the Cards' full court press made a solid Colorado State team look like a bad high school freshman team. I still believe the winner of the entire tournament will come from this region, but what team it will ultimately be is going to be fun to watch unfold.
Unfortunately for me, my bracket is in complete shambles. But my ego was recovered when I reread my Six Senses article and have turned out to be right about many of my predictions, including Ole Miss, the Atlantic 10, LaSalle, and Indiana. Let's hope the other two come true, so my basketball predictions aren't diminished to the level of your average know-it-all with a blog.........................
J. Nave
Fun Fact of the Week: The Florida Gulf Coast coach, Andy Enfield, is married to a supermodel. Don't believe me? Read this for way more information than you possible could need to know about Amanda Marcum Enfield (Amanda Marcum---Yahoo)
No comments:
Post a Comment