The Bracket: Initial Impression

The Bracket: Initial Impression

Before you fill out your bracket, take a quick minute to put everything in perspective.


By LEW FREEDMAN
Basketball Times Online

   Not a single thing about the final bracket for the NCAA’s men’s basketball championships truly outrages me. That’s a departure. The bubble teams that lost out had their fates in their hands and gave away chances to advance.
  I’m thinking of Illinois’ double overtime loss to Ohio State for starters. I didn’t even think Illinois deserved to be on the bubble before the start of the Big Ten tournament, but especially with Minnesota winning three straight Illinois had to do the same to have a chance.
  Mississippi State played Kentucky as tough as can be in the Southeastern Conference tournament, had every chance to win, and didn’t.
Keeping track of the AP top 25 this past week was fascinating. Eighteen of the ranked teams lost during conference championship week. And that was before Sunday. My biggest surprise was that everyone ranked who was still alive won, from Temple, to Kentucky, to Duke, to Ohio State.
  Granted, several of these teams faced one another, so some ranked teams had to lose. But despite gaudy records, many couldn’t survive their own conferences, whether it was the Big East big boys or New Mexico, Brigham Young, Gonzaga, Maryland, Xavier or UTEP.
Does this mean that everyone who voted in the poll all season was more wrong than right? Does this mean we truly have overwhelming parity? Does this mean that if the last six or so teams that didn’t get into the NCAA tournament played again this week that they would win with a do-over?
   Maybe all of the above.
  Some impressions:

• There are two and only two super talented teams capable of running the table – Kansas and Kentucky. Kansas has more experience.

• I heard gripes that Syracuse shouldn’t have been sent West for its No. 1 seed. I love Syracuse, but with the loss of its final regular-season game, losing in the first round of the Big East tournament, and counting on a key player who is iffy because of injury, they should feel fortunate to retain that No. 1 seed. And be careful of Vermont. We saw that unthinkable upset once before.

• The team with the most legitimate complaint about Syracuse’s No. 1 seed is West Virginia. The Mountaineers won the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, arguably the toughest tournament in the land, and got the same No. 2 seed out of it as they likely would have without capturing the final.

• It is difficult not to see Purdue as a dead team walking without Robbie Hummel, with perhaps other injuries, and after being slaughtered by Minnesota. Bad luck at the wrong time.

• If your best player is going to suffer a serious injury it is better to have it happen much earlier in the year as in the case of Ohio State’s Evan Turner and his broken back. The next three weeks could be a showcase for Turner. He has proven he can win ballgames at the end for the Buckeyes.

• In a season of comparative mediocrity by its members with the exception of Duke, the Atlantic Coast Conference was over-rewarded with six teams.

• I have no doubt there is a major conference bias.

• First-round match-up that irks me the most: Temple, with a 29-5 record in the tough Atlantic 10, gets only a No. 5 seed and Ivy League champ Cornell, considered to be one of the best Ivies in a while, gets shunted to No. 12 and has to face Temple right away.

• That same type of lack of respect applies to the first-round match between Butler, 28-4, with a 20-game winning streak given a No. 5 and then thrown into a first-round game against UTEP, 26-6, which did hurt its cause by losing in the conference tourney. Still, UTEP was worthy of better than a No. 12.

• Do you detect a pattern by the selection committee on those last two items? Either way it turns out one fine team from a non-power conference will be eliminated in the first round in each one.

  As of right this minute, here is my top 10:

1. Kansas
2. Kentucky
3. West Virginia
4. Duke
5. Syracuse
6. Ohio State
7. Kansas State
8. Temple
9. Butler
10. Murray State

   Teams that could become fan darlings: Northern Iowa, Xavier, Richmond or St. Mary’s, (depending who wins in the first round), Marquette, Baylor, Butler or UTEP, (depending who wins in the first round) and Murray State. If you’ve got 30 wins, you know how to win.
And…Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish were on a tear before losing in the semis of the Big East, adapting superbly to Luke Harangody’s injury.
  Notre Dame was not mentioned until the end of the selection show and there was some fidgeting going on in that room. Maybe the Irish were just tired after a rainstorm canceled their charter flight from New York and they had to take an 11-hour bus ride home to Indiana.
  But not even the NCAA Selection Committee was going to deny Notre Dame leading up to St. Patrick’s Day.


Lew Freedman is a Chicago-based contributor to Basketball Times Online.