The NCAA tournament this year definitely qualifies as madness. The past week started off with a new twist on the tournament, with four play-in games instead of the typical singular play-in match up. The decision to add three games is already paying dividends, at least if you’re not USC, Georgetown or Purdue. Virginia Commonwealth University, winner of the Southwest region play-in, has ousted three large schools on its highly unlikely road to the sweet sixteen.
Aside from throwing a monkey wrench into just about everyone’s bracket, VCU has showed us why play-in games are valuable, and why we are so fixated by this madness of March.
In the Southeast region, Butler is still alive, after playing just like the team that kept it exciting all the way to a last-second prayer three that almost went in the National Championship game last year. After watching the last second tip-in that elevated them past Old Dominion in the second round, I thought the magic was done for them, and my bracket (regretfully) reflected that as I had them losing to Pitt in the third round. As I watched the game on Saturday however, I found myself committing bracket blasphemy, rooting passionately for Butler. I have never seen two more critical and unnecessary fouls in the final seconds of a basketball game. At the highest level of the collegiate game, you would think that the players on both teams would have complete situational awareness, but again, the madness doesn’t just consume the spectators, and even in the final seconds of a game it’s not a guarantee for any of these athletes to keep cognitive and kinesthetic cohesion.
Aside from a few contenders **cough cough NOTRE DAME and SYRACUSE** who fell early and put many a red-line leading into my Elite Eight, my bracket is faring pretty well. I’ve got Kansas, BYU, Ohio State, and Uconn in the final four, with Kansas over Ohio State in the finals for the title. My predictions for today are as follows:
UConn over SDSU
BYU over Florida
Arizona over Duke
Wisconsin over Butler
Keep it locked on the blog Paly and try and get some homework done tonight.
