What went poorly
1) Tennessee totally get disrespected, hosed and looked down upon. Coming into the SECT their resume was considerably stronger than Duke, Kentucky and Auburn truthfully.
2) Clear the committee put no value in the conference tournaments. Their minds were made up unless a Kentucky would have won it all and they would have subbed them for Baylor and not moved their brackets.
3) The committee did NOT value non conference schedules.
4) The committee did NOT value closing so strongly in the best conference in the country.
What went well
1) Tennessee's draw could not have been any better. This tournament is a crap shoot and has no common sense but this is primo.
I would not trade Tennessee's 1st 2 round draw for any 2 seed that wasn't Kentucky. But Kentucky will play and get beaten by Purdue in the Sweet 16. Tennessee getting winner of Colorado State and Michigan is as good as you will get in this tourney. Colorado State is a mid major. Michigan has no business being in the tournament and was gifted by the committee's love affair with the Big10 for whatever reason. Colorado St being your 6 seed is huge. That doesn't mean they can't play. They can. Everyone can.
Look at the other 3 seeds playing- Alabama/Rutgers/ND, LSU/Iowa State and Texas/VT.... yeah no thanks. Give me a mid major and a team that was 17-14 and faded down the stretch.
2 seeds playing - Duke gets Michigan State/Davidson (no thanks). Nova gets Ohio State/Loyola Chicago (no thanks). Auburn gets Souther Cal/Miami and I will be surprised if Auburn gets USC. Kentucky gets a great draw with Murray as a 7 seed playing San Fran. Both teams can play but they are mid major and will be at a huge size and talent disadvantage. However that Purdue match up for Kentucky is brutal and they won't win that game.
Again a draw only means so much. NCAAT have a life of their own. Just have to go play but for as bad as Tennessee got disrespected this was a gift.
2) Villanova- out of the 4 2 seeds. I take this one 10 times out of 10. They are good. They are experienced. They have an incredible coach. They have some really nice players. They are very beatable. They aren't big. They played in a weak conference where national media tried to convince us teams like Providence and Seton Hall etc were really good. We also get a rematch which is always an advantage. Duke has overwhelming talent with 4 1st round picks. I wasn't interested in trying to beat UK for the 3rd time. Auburn has the best player in the country and a center who pretty routintely blocks 8 to 9 shots per game. If we were a 2 seed I would rather play Villanova than Purdue which could have easily been a match up for us.
3) Pissed off- they managed to take the hottest team in the country over the last 18 games (how is that for a sample size) and totally place a huge chip right on there shoulder. Some aren't believers in this but as a former player in this world I was a huge believer in it. It takes the pressure of getting upset and turns it into screw all these idiots who they we aren't that good. Rick Barnes will play this up all week.
NCAAT in general
I predict this will be the wildest tourney in a long time. There is very little separation in seeds 1-3 and you even have a 4 seed like Arkansas who can go to the Final 4. This is totally up for grabs. Each year you almost have 2-4 upper tier elite teams. Not this year. Not even close.
This is going to come down to which teams get hot and lucky and a good draw and a lot of other stuff to make a run.
This tournament is WILD. Tennessee couldn't have asked for a better spot.
@Rob Lewis @Brent_Hubbs lets crank up some march madness podcasts. I'm in.
1) Tennessee totally get disrespected, hosed and looked down upon. Coming into the SECT their resume was considerably stronger than Duke, Kentucky and Auburn truthfully.
2) Clear the committee put no value in the conference tournaments. Their minds were made up unless a Kentucky would have won it all and they would have subbed them for Baylor and not moved their brackets.
3) The committee did NOT value non conference schedules.
4) The committee did NOT value closing so strongly in the best conference in the country.
What went well
1) Tennessee's draw could not have been any better. This tournament is a crap shoot and has no common sense but this is primo.
I would not trade Tennessee's 1st 2 round draw for any 2 seed that wasn't Kentucky. But Kentucky will play and get beaten by Purdue in the Sweet 16. Tennessee getting winner of Colorado State and Michigan is as good as you will get in this tourney. Colorado State is a mid major. Michigan has no business being in the tournament and was gifted by the committee's love affair with the Big10 for whatever reason. Colorado St being your 6 seed is huge. That doesn't mean they can't play. They can. Everyone can.
Look at the other 3 seeds playing- Alabama/Rutgers/ND, LSU/Iowa State and Texas/VT.... yeah no thanks. Give me a mid major and a team that was 17-14 and faded down the stretch.
2 seeds playing - Duke gets Michigan State/Davidson (no thanks). Nova gets Ohio State/Loyola Chicago (no thanks). Auburn gets Souther Cal/Miami and I will be surprised if Auburn gets USC. Kentucky gets a great draw with Murray as a 7 seed playing San Fran. Both teams can play but they are mid major and will be at a huge size and talent disadvantage. However that Purdue match up for Kentucky is brutal and they won't win that game.
Again a draw only means so much. NCAAT have a life of their own. Just have to go play but for as bad as Tennessee got disrespected this was a gift.
2) Villanova- out of the 4 2 seeds. I take this one 10 times out of 10. They are good. They are experienced. They have an incredible coach. They have some really nice players. They are very beatable. They aren't big. They played in a weak conference where national media tried to convince us teams like Providence and Seton Hall etc were really good. We also get a rematch which is always an advantage. Duke has overwhelming talent with 4 1st round picks. I wasn't interested in trying to beat UK for the 3rd time. Auburn has the best player in the country and a center who pretty routintely blocks 8 to 9 shots per game. If we were a 2 seed I would rather play Villanova than Purdue which could have easily been a match up for us.
3) Pissed off- they managed to take the hottest team in the country over the last 18 games (how is that for a sample size) and totally place a huge chip right on there shoulder. Some aren't believers in this but as a former player in this world I was a huge believer in it. It takes the pressure of getting upset and turns it into screw all these idiots who they we aren't that good. Rick Barnes will play this up all week.
NCAAT in general
I predict this will be the wildest tourney in a long time. There is very little separation in seeds 1-3 and you even have a 4 seed like Arkansas who can go to the Final 4. This is totally up for grabs. Each year you almost have 2-4 upper tier elite teams. Not this year. Not even close.
This is going to come down to which teams get hot and lucky and a good draw and a lot of other stuff to make a run.
This tournament is WILD. Tennessee couldn't have asked for a better spot.
@Rob Lewis @Brent_Hubbs lets crank up some march madness podcasts. I'm in.
