Thoughts On The NCAA Tournament
20 Mar 2008

I love the NCAA tournament. It’s absolutely a sports lovers dream. All the top teams playing with a common goal in sight. Unpaid athletes playing for the love of the game, laying it on the line for the ultimate prize, the national championship.
Along the way, we’re certain to see unforgettable upsets (see George Mason, Valparaiso, and Cleveland State in past years), some of them of monumental proportions.
We all sit back and hope for the top teams, or at least our favorite teams, to be remaining at the end. Some people (the crazy ones with no life) actually enter numerous NCAA brackets contests, hoping to either win some monetary prize, or more importantly, have inner-office bragging rights over co-workers that last until the tourney rolls around again.
For those of you who have been entering the News-Journal contest for years, you know without a doubt that my picks are, year in and year out, basically terrible.
I actually do log on to espn.com every day three or four times. I also watch Sportscenter every night and listen to the so-called “experts” rattle off who they think has the best chance to end up in San Antonio, the site of this year’s Final Four.
After studying the field again this year, I am going to make my predictions so that you will know exactly who not to choose if you want to have any chance whatsoever of winning.
First, a few complaints. How in the world did the selection committee give Indiana a No. 8 seed? Granted, they weren’t playing their best basketball at the end of the season, but the fact remains that they finished 25-7 overall and a solid 14-4 in the Big Ten. The overall body of work should have been rewarded.
Taking a closer look in the same bracket (East) and there are clearly two more what I consider major injustices.
First off, how does Oklahoma and their 22-11 record end up as the No. 6 seed?
I could be wrong, but I don’t remember seeing their name pop up in the AP top 25 at any point this year.
Which leads me to my next point. How on earth can Butler, who ended the year ranked No. 10 in the entire country, be seeded No. 7? Basically, the committee feels that Butler is the 28th best team in the nation. I understand that they don’t play in a quality conference, but if the AP and the coaches (poll) feel that they are a top 10 team nation wide, it seems next to impossible that they get anything worse than a No. 4 or No. 5 seed.
Enough gripes. My final four includes North Carolina, Georgetown, Texas, and UCLA.
The Heels and Bruins will play for the title, and UNC will bring it home.
Make sure to get your brackets turned into the News-Journal by 12:00 noon on Friday. The first place prize is $500 cash, thanks to a generous donation from R&B Car Company.
Have fun with your brackets and good luck.