The Madness of March

Some ESPN analysts say there shouldn't be such a thing as an "upset" but with this year's tournament making history, being the only tournament in history to have more than one 2 seeds lose. 1 seeds still have preserved their names, never having lost in the first round in tournament history. Now there are teams challenging the high seeds such as Florida and Xavier who entered the tournament field as great disappointments and now are predicted by ESPN analysts to live up to their pre-season hype and could seriously challenge their highly ranked appointments. It seems as though the small conference teams do deserve their places in the tournament to create unrest for all of us who think we have mastered the bracket strategy, but clearly these teams aren't prepared to play with the big boys. Lehigh had C.J McCollum who has NBA talent, they were obliterated in the second round by Xavier and Florida beat the Cinderella Northfolk St. by a whopping 34 points, with their lead having been extended to 48 at one point of time. Now it's a hard claim for me to say these teams don't deserve spots because they actually do, it's just hard to weed out teams that actually have no business being apart of the tournament, and teams like Butler, VCU, and George Mason all inspiring stories that prevent anybody including me from making a valid argument that these teams don't belong amongst the big conference powerhouse schools like those who are the top of the Big East, Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12.

The tournament is a cultural phenomenon, and filling out a bracket has become a cultural norm, whether you fill it out just to spark some conversation with co-workers around the water cooler or have a hot topic to talk about with your friends, as soon as the bracket comes out on selection Sunday, until game start at noon on the following Thursday, "who do you have winning?" and "who's in your final four?" are questions you hear EVERYWHERE. The president even filled out a bracket, and Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney was afraid his personality would be construed based off his picks so he decided against filling out a bracket. They wrote articles (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/sports/ncaabasketball/what-your-ncaa-tournament-bracket-says-about-you.html?_r=1) about how you fill out your bracket, can reveal a lot about your personality. So how could all those people out there who try and be experts or those who like the underdogs fill out a bracket if all the small conference tournament winners are deprived of the opportunity to play with the Big boys? The simple answer is.....they THEY SHOULDN'T. The tournament set up proves fairness. Teams like Northwestern who were on the bubble, and finished with losing conference records don't deserve a spot over a team like Northfolk st., NC St., Belmont, or any other team that was one of the 31 who made the tournament by winning their conference tournament, besides the 16 seeds, but they are just fillers because the 1 seeds deserve an easy first round game because everybody is excited to see those teams play and hope for ultimate match-ups of the titans clashing. The final thing I will leave you with is a little food for thought....who will be this year's Cinderella, or is Kentucky going to take this title with ease? My Pick: Florida in the final four, and the bold predictions I will say the final four will consist of Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, and Cincinnati.