College basketball marches into madness
Every year Division I men’s college basketball’s tournament of the 65 best teams receives interest from millions of people around the country. This year’s tournament field is no different. Actually it may gather more interest than it did for the past two years.
Why more interest you ask? Well there’s guaranteed to be a new champion for the first time in three years as the two-time defending national champion Florida Gators didn’t make the field, and neither did the Ohio State Buckeyes who lost to Florida in the National Championship last season.
The Gators’ two-peat however did help bring the tournament more attention. One way that the attention can be shown is through people filling out brackets online. A Web site that many college students may be familiar with is Facebook, where one can go to fill out an on-line bracket, and enter into the same group as their friends to see whose bracket comes out on top.
ESPN.com is another Web site that cultivates a lot of interest for people seeking to make the perfect bracket. Each person has been allowed to fill out five brackets each in the past, but this year ESPN has upped that to 10.
Think this gives you a much better chance at picking the right teams? Not quite. If you’re planning on striking it rich, you might as well try to win the lottery before trying to win a car on some Web site by picking the perfect bracket. A 65-team field makes for more than nine-quintillion different possible tournament combinations.
Here’s a look at each bracket and the teams that have the best shot at making it to the finals:
East
In the East watch out for the top-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels (32-2) as always. They don’t leave home until the Final Four with their first two games in Raleigh and their next two in Charlotte. Also, it doesn’t look like they’ll see much competition until the elite eight where they’ll most likely take on either Louisville, Tennessee or Butler. Although Butler has the lowest seed out of the three and is from a mid-major conference, look out for them to give the Tar Heels the best test if they make it that far. Any team who goes 29-3 on the season deserves some attention.
West
Not so fast UCLA and Duke fans. There could be a lot of upsets in this bracket; especially for the Duke Blue Devils whose only new addition from a team that lost to VCU last year in the first round is stud freshman Kyle Singler. West Virginia’s 24-10, and if they take care of Arizona in the first round look for them to upset Duke as Duke’s three-point shooting legs may be tired from having to fend off pesky Belmont who made the field for the second year in a row.
However West Virginia may not be the best team coming out of the bottom half of the bracket either. Everybody always forgets about Xavier from the Atlantic-10 who nearly defeated Ohio State last year in the second round.
On the top half of the bracket, the Connecticut Huskies will be hungrier than ever after a sub-par year last year in which they didn’t make the tournament. If sophomore center Hasheem Thabeet can shut down UCLA freshman PAC-10 player of the year Kevin Love, look for UCONN to pull the upset and square off with Xavier in an unexpected elite-eight matchup.
Midwest
In the Midwest it seems like everyone’s talking Kansas versus Georgetown in a one-two matchup in the elite eight. Kansas stands a good chance at getting there, but the second-seeded Hoyas may be getting a little more respect than they deserve to some teams.
One of these teams is Davidson who the Hoyas may have to play in the second round. Davidson returns all five starters from its team that made the NCAA tournament last year. However Davidson’s problem is having to go through Gonzaga in the first round. And we all know that Gonzaga has played Cinderella a lot in past years. So regardless of whom they play, the Hoyas may have a tougher time than people think advancing into the later rounds.
As long as Kansas gets past Clemson in an anticipated sweet sixteen matchup, they should be in the elite eight without a problem.
South
This could be the most entertaining bracket with four teams who have a very good shot at making the final four. First is Memphis who went 33-1 this year with their only loss to then second-ranked Tennessee. The only knock on Memphis is that they play an easy schedule in Conference USA, but who can really knock a 33-1 record?
The teams that may be able to knock them off are Texas, Pittsburgh and Stanford.
Unlike Stanford and Texas, who could possibly play Memphis in the elite-eight, the Pittsburgh Panthers may get a crack at them in the sweet sixteen. Despite only a 26-9 record, the Panthers are primed and ready with the return of their star junior point guard LeVance Fields from Brooklyn, who’s been out with an ankle injury for the majority of the season. Fields led the Panthers to the Big East conference title as they defeated Georgetown in the tournament finals this past weekend.
Texas of course would present an interesting elite-eight matchup to Memphis with their All-American D.J. Augustine going up against Memphis’ All-American Chris Douglas-Roberts. However the Longhorns will need to get by Stanford who’s had its best regular season in years. The Cardinal finished at 26-7 thanks to the Lopez brothers whose inside presence will be tough for anyone to handle in the tournament.
