Friday, March 28, 2008

Gotta love the Dance

Just sitting here wondering whatever happened to Tyus Edny. He should make an album or something with all the pub he's getting from that commercial for Coke with his tourney buzzer beater from the mid 90's.

Once again, the NCAA basketball tournament has proven to be the most excited and frustrating sporting event on the planet.

The thrill of victory, seeing the 12 seed you picked upset a major conference opponent or the agony of defeat seeing that 13 seed upend your alma mater after you had them in the Final 4.

Every year, I strongly feel that I have filled out my bracket flawlessly only to see one of my Final 4 teams get bounced the first weekend (thanks, Georgetown). We also get to see each year that a "mid-major" shows the big boys that they can hang with the cool kids (thanks, Davidson).

So as we enter the weekend anticipating the Final 4, let's look back on last weekend's highs and lows.

Highs:
* Seeing the country find out who Stephon Curry is. I got to see him last year when Davidson played here in Buffalo and the folks here knew this kid was special after the show he put on last year in there loss to Maryland (made Gary Williams a believer).

*Siena, the little Catholic school in Albany, taking down a Vandy team that had already upended a #1 team in the regular season. Only Siena alums had them winning this game.

* Western Kentucky making the Sweet 16. Be honest, not even WKU alums had them this far!

*Belmont nearly upsetting Duke. Duke let Belmont hang around too long and are extremely lucky to have won this game.

Lows:
* Duke. Should have never been a #2 seed and they proved it. No big man this year for Coach K and should have been ranked much lower. They played bad in both games and should have been bounced in the first round.

*Drake. A mid-major yes, but they had such a good season to tank in the first round even though they got the dreaded 5 seed.

*UConn. If UConn played San Diego again 100 times the old cliche of they'd win 99 doesn't seem to work this time. I would like San Diego's chances in those other games too. Like Duke, UConn was not what they used to be.

After all was said and done, I only lost Georgetown out of my Final 4. So, now I would love to see Davidson be the new George Mason but they would have to get by a strong Wisconsin team first then most likely Kansas in the Elite 8. May be too much for them to swallow.

The rest of my Final 4 bracket:
East: North Carolina
South: Texas
West: UCLA

National Title:
North Carolina over UCLA 65-62