“I’ve done some pretty bad things…” — Tiger Woods, 3.21.10
That makes two of us, Tiger. Of course, while the bad things you did were
decidedly more kinky and homewrecking than my transgressions, it doesn’t
make me feel any less remorseful than you. Hey, by the way, saw your texts to Joslyn James; was it really necessary to ask a porn star if they’ve had a
golden shower? A little like asking John Daly if he’s tried a Jaeger bomb,
no? Anyway….
The fact of the matter is that I have more love for my readers in my little
finger than you will ever have for your wife, Eldrick, and the emotional,
bracketorial, and (let’s face it) financial wrongs I have inflicted upon
them with my March Madness preview are unforgivable.
To be fair, I am not alone. The March Madness 2010 graveyard is full of
blowhards like me proclaiming that we were smarter than everyone else and
that somehow our set of criteria would spit out the correct answers to the
test. And then Robert Morris takes Villanova to overtime before lunch is
even served on the first Thursday and the bad dream begins. Four days
later, you wake up hungover next to someone named “Ali Farokhmanesh” and
you’re wearing nothing but an Omar Samhan jersey and Cornell boxer
shorts. “How
in the blue hell did I get here???”
Yeah, it was a bad weekend. Many of you tweeted me as to just how bad it
was for you bracket-wise. I’ll share the best tweets in this space
tomorrow. (It’s amazing how creative people can be even with a 140-character limit; we are really advancing as a species!)
Before we examine just how bad it was, the positives for me (Trust me, this
won’t take long):
I didn’t pick Kansas to win it all. Yes, amidst the bloody carnage that
is my bracket, the one positive I can take away is that I still have a
chance to do the one fundamental thing a bracket is intended to do —
pick a
winner. Half the nation is out of the mix in that regard thanks to the
aforementioned Farokhmanesh hitting the quintessential “DAGGUH THREE”
(footnote, Mark Jackson) on the Kansas Jayhawks. Of course, my
predicted
champion (West Virginia) will likely have to knock off a Kentucky team
that
scored 190 points in its first two games, but whatever. I’m still
alive!
I was slightly dubious of this version of Kansas’ chops as a “great
team.”
as I outlined in my preview, I thought they were the best team in this
field, but indicated that they’d be underdogs to all but one, maybe two,
of
the champs from this past decade. As it turns out they were the one
seed
least prepared to advance to the second weekend of the tournament, let
alone
win the thing.
That’s it for positives. See, told you it wouldn’t take long.
The conference breakdown for the Sweet Sixteen looks like this:
Big Ten (3) – 2 Ohio State, 4 Purdue, 5 Michigan State
Big East (2) – 1 Syracuse, 2 West Virginia
Big XII (2) – 2 Kansas State, 3 Baylor
SEC (2) – 1 Kentucky, 6 Tennessee
ACC (1) – 1 Duke
Atlantic-10 (1) – Xavier
Horizon League (1) – 5 Butler
vy League (1) – 12 Cornell
Missouri Valley (1) – 9 Northern Iowa
Pac-10 (1) – 11 Washington
WCC (1) – 10 St. Mary’s
As if the list including teams from the Ivy and Horizon Leagues isn’t
disorienting enough, to give you an idea of how wacky (Vitale word) the
tournament has been, the 11 conferences being represented in the
Sweet
Sixteen are the most since the brackets went to 64 teams. Hell, even in
the
crazy 2006 tournament (George Mason Final Four run, Missouri Valley
cracking
the RPI-and-Sweet-Sixteen-code year), there were only nine conferences
represented after Round 2.
What does this all mean? Well, the Big East probably got too much
respect,
as usual. The Big Ten was a little more solid than we thought. The ACC
is
Duke and everyone else, but we knew that. Above all else, anyone can
beat
anyone, and no one is immune. I could see a Final Four of three top
seeds
and Ohio State, and I could see a Final Four of Tennessee, Kansas State,
West Virginia, and St. Mary’s (two 2’s, a 6, and a Cinderella 10).
On a side note, how pissed do you think the Mountain West Conference
football teams are at their basketball brethren? “All this progress that
we’ve made and you bastards go out and go for 0-4 getting teams to the
Sweet
16. Assholes.”
As for my predicted “Live seeds,” let’s put on our bio-hazard suits and
go
back and see how I did:
“LIVE” 16 SEED PREDICTION: Vermont
RESULT: Lost to Syracuse 79-56 in a game where the Orange steadily
pulled
away and were never really threatened.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN… Lehigh. Once again, none of the 16 seeds pulled off
the
first-round upset, but Lehigh actually jumped out to a 12-4 lead, made
Kansas use a timeout, and was only trailing by six points at halftime.
They
went on to cover the spread with ease, losing 90-74. For a 16 seed,
that’s
as live as you’re going to get.
“LIVE” 15 SEED PREDICTION: Morgan State
RESULT: Actually jumped out to a 10-0 lead on West Virginia, but
eventually
folded, losing 77-50.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Robert Morris. The other 15 seeds weren’t even
close
to pulling off the upset of their 2 seed, but Robert Morris took
Villanova
to the final possession of overtime, and if it weren’t for some shaky
officiating, might have played St. Mary’s in a 10 vs. 15 matchup Saturday
morning.
“LIVE” 14 SEED PREDICTION: Montana
RESULT: Hung in with 3 seed New Mexico, falling late by a 62-57 score.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Ohio. The Bobcats got out fast against Georgetown,
opening up a double-digit halftime lead and were never threatened in a
97-83
win. Honorable mention to Sam Houston for giving Baylor a tussle.
“LIVE” 13 SEED PREDICTION: Siena
RESULT: Lost to a Robbie Hummel-less Purdue 72-64.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Murray State. The first buzzer beater of the
weekend
came from Danero Thomas as Murray State knocked off 4-seed Vanderbilt.
Honorable mention to Wofford for giving Wisconsin a scare, and to Tom
Penders for managing to win his conference tournament, coach an NCAA
tournament game, and get fired in less than a week.
“LIVE” 12 SEED PREDICTION: UTEP
RESULT: The Miners led Butler by six at halftime, and that’s about the
only
good thing I can say. Butler decided to untie their right hands for the
second half, cruising to a 77-59 win.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Cornell. Sometimes the obvious answer is the right
one. Cornell has blown out Temple and Wisconsin in getting to the Sweet
16.
They are one win away from making Jay Bilas look like Nostradamus. The
Nard-dog approves…
” LIVE” 11 SEED PREDICTION: San Diego State
RESULT: Lost a tight one to the Tennessee Headbands, 62-59.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Washington. Came into the tournament as one of two
perceived Pac-10 pushovers, and would up beating Marquette on a late
Quincy
Pondexter bucket after coming back from a 15-point deficit. Followed
that
up with an 82-64 thrashing of 3-seed New Mexico. They’re now a threat
to go
the Final Four.
“LIVE” 10 SEED PREDICTION: St. Mary’s
RESULT: Omar Samhan scored 29 points in an 80-71 win over Richmond, and
followed that up with 32 points in a 75-68 upset of 2-seed Villanova.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. St. Mary’s. They actually had some competition
after
the first round (Missouri and Georgia Tech both won first-round games.),
but
the only 10 seed to make the second round makes the Gaels an obvious
choice.
“LIVE” 9 SEED PREDICTION: Louisville
RESULT: Fell behind California 22-4 and were never able to really put
game
pressure on the Golden Bears, never getting closer than six points the
rest
of the way. The Cardinals would bow out with a whimper, 77-62.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Northern Iowa. In the history of 64-team fields, a
nine seed has beaten a one seed exactly three times, until Saturday.
Northern Iowa led by eight at halftime and withstood a late charge from
the
overall top-seeded Jayhawks, capped off by the quintessential “DAGGUH
THREE”
from someone named Ali Farokhmanesh…
…DAGGUH THREE indeed.
“LIVE” 8 PREDICTION: Gonzaga
RESULT: Gonzaga grinded out a workmanlike 67-60 win over Florida State
in
their opener, and then were outclassed in every way by top-seeded
Syracuse
in the second round, falling behind by as much as 30 before losing
87-65.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN… Cal. The Bears also lost by double digits in the
second
round, but win out here in a weak field of eight seeds on the strength
of
the wire-to-wire win over Louisville, and at least being within striking
distance of Duke early in the second half. Tallest-midget thing at this
seed.
“LIVE” 7 PREDICTION: Oklahoma State
RESULT: Lost in the first round to an enigmatic Georgia Tech team 64-59.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN….BYU. Bad year for seven seeds when a double-overtime
win over a bubblicious Florida Gators squad and a second-round thumping
from
Kansas State makes you “live,” but that’s what 2010 was for the seven
hole.
“LIVE” 6 PREDICTION: Marquette
RESULT: Blew a 15-point second-half lead, and allowed Quincy Pondexter
about as easy a winning bucket as you can give up in an 80-78 loss to 11-seed Washington, the first leg of a Pac-10 sweep of the Big East.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Xavier, inching out Tennessee by a hair on the
strength
of having to beat a third seed in the second round. Tennessee made it to
the
Sweet 16, but had 14th-seeded Ohio as its second round matchup.
“LIVE” 5 PREDICTION: Texas A&M
RESULT: Pounded Utah State in round one before coughing up an eleven-point
lead in the second half to Purdue, losing in overtime 63-61, crushing
the
hopes and dreams of ticket scalpers in Houston.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Michigan State. Could have gone with Butler here,
too,
but Michigan State’s heart pounding buzzer beater over Maryland was a
“One
Shining Moment” Special, and in the now-thrashed Midwest Region, even
without Kalin Lucas, they may have a darkhorse Final Four run in them.
“LIVE” 4 PREDICTION: Maryland
RESULT: Completely outclassed Houston in the first round in a game
where
the Terps seemed to be toying with the Coogs in the second half, never
really allowing them to get back in the game, then lost on a
heartbreaking
buzzer beater in round 2 to Michigan State, 85-83.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Purdue. No Robbie Hummel, no problem. At least so
far. It may become problematic against Duke in the Sweet 16.
“LIVE” 3 SEED PREDICTION: Baylor
RESULT: Grinded out a win over Sam Houston in the first round before
pulling away from Old Dominion late in the second round.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Baylor. This one was correct. Georgetown losing
to
Ohio was a bracket killer, New Mexico was WAY overseeded, and Pitt did
what
they do almost every year — play way under their inflated seed.
“LIVE” 2 SEED PREDICTION: West Virginia
RESULT: Woke up late for the Morgan State game but got it in gear
eventually, and then held off a decent Missouri team in the second
round.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. West Virginia. Villanova was a train wreck waiting
to
happen; I’m embarassed for picking them. Ohio State and Kansas State
are
very solid two seeds, I just prefer West Virginia and their athleticism
and
defense.
“LIVE” 1 SEED PREDICTION: Kansas
RESULT: Kanas got Farokhmaneshed. Next.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN…. Kentucky. So much for the tight game this group
played
in the SEC being a harbinger of a possible upset. Now, it is just a 16
seed
and an inconsistent Wake Forest team that they beat, but this Kentucky
bunch
has a serious “Fab Five meets UNLV early `90’s” vibe to them. They are now
the
chalk in the tournament, like it or not.
So there you go. I was correct on who the “live seed” would-be on three
of
the sixteen. I suck, you suck, we all suck. At least this year we do.
Tomorrow we’ll look ahead to this weekend and try to do better. Sound
good?
Listen to Sean Pendergast on 1560 The Game from 3-7 p.m. weekdays on the Sean & John Show, and follow him on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/SeanCablinasian.
This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2010.
