Oh, the injustice!
Our team was left out of the tournament? We weren't a No. 1 seed? We have to travel how far? My kid didn't make the All-Everything team?
Zzzzzz...
This is the most predictable day of the tournament. Every year, without fail, the people who love the tournament the most are subjected to the drone of coaches who didn't get an invite, didn't do enough to make it and don't want to accept responsbility for any of it.
Enough already. Just win. Win and you're in. Win enough in the regular season to guarantee an at-large bid, the strongest examples being Maryland and Michigan State. No one is to blame except the players and coaches on the sideline. It was hard to stomach a one-point loss to Central Michigan to lose the MAC West Division, a double-overtime loss to Akron in the MAC quarterfinals and then watch Akron nearly beat Ohio for the MAC's automatic bid.
All I can say is Eastern Michigan, my alma mater, had its chance.
Today coach Bob Huggins thinks his Mountaineers should have been a No. 1 seed and points to the long amount of time West Virginia spent ranked in the Top 10 and the high amount of wins over ranked teams as evidence of the snub. Yet when reporters ask about rankings as they relate to a coach's team in the regular season, nearly every coach downplays the rankings by saying they don't mean much.
Is West Virgina worthy of consideration for a No. 1? Yes, but either the rankings mean something or they don't. It can't go both ways.
Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg complains the committee's standards aren't clearly defined or adhered to consistently. By contrast, Coach Bruce Weber took the high road and admitted Illinois could have won more games and eliminated the suspense themselves. Oakland University Coach Greg Kampe, who also serves as the official scorer for a handful of Golden Grizzlies baseball games, felt slighted by the No. 14 seed he received.
Yes, Oakland played one of the toughest schedules in the country, but how many of those games versus power conference schools did Oakland win? Not many. And yet, Pittsburgh owns a notorious history for fading in the Sweet 16. For that reason as much as Oakland's non-fear factor thanks to their rigorous schedule, I'm picking Oakland for a major upset in Round One.
The key to winning your bracket is being able to pick the one-and-done upsets in the first round. Those points allow you to get to the top of your bracket and take advantage of the correct picks in the later rounds, especially as you get to the regional final and Final Four.
Complaints aside, here's a few more upsets. I'm taking Steve Fisher's San Diego State squad over Rocky Top before getting bounced by the Hoyas. Give me the sworn enemy of all things Marist over Purdue. Losing Robbie Hummel was a huge loss and now guard Lewis Jackson might be injured to play as well. Siena stuns the Boilermakers.
Give me Northern Iowa over UNLV. Although I was tempted to take North Texas over Kansas State, don't be surprised if St. Mary's tops Richmond, and Wofford will upset the rarely-over-50 points Wisconsin Badgers. Neither would beat Temple, anyway.
Finally, Duke wins it all. They're peaking at the right time and coach Mike Krzyzewski hasn't been to the big show in a while. He's due, Duke's experienced starters can play inside-outside as well as anyone in the country and the Blue Devils are flying under the radar, as much as as a No. 1 seed can, that is.
Did I mention I'm the defending champion from my ESPN bracket group? I'm picking me to win again, too. I'm just saying...
Regards...
~ T.C. Cameron has been rained out of every baseball game for the past week and has a severe case of cabin fever.
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