And just like that, the college basketball season comes to an end. A tremendous year and exciting tournament was capped off by an entertaining title game which saw Louisville become national champions. On the other end of the success spectrum is my bracket. Filled out in late March, I thought I had all the answers (don't we all). This was the year I was going to have that perfect bracket. There was no way these picks could be wrong. Well, they were. While the opening Thursday brought wins and calmness, the following Friday brought upsets and despair. Despite all the research and expert opinions, there's no way, especially in this tournament, to predict all the games. The following, however, are things I wish I would have known prior to the tourney starting.
I wish I would have known...how badly the Big Ten would perform.
Some of you may have read that and said, "C'mon man, Michigan was in the title game and Ohio State was in the elite eight." Yes, that's nice. But not when you have seven teams in the field, along with four that could have won it (Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, Indiana). I don't think it would have surprised anyone if those four teams would have represented their respective regions in the Final Four. That's how good the Big Ten was this year. Ironically, Michigan's region was the only one that I didn't have a Big Ten team reaching the Final Four. I predicted an all Big 10 title game as well featuring Indiana and Ohio State. So what happens?
Minnesota blows out a short handed UCLA team, then gets blown out by the Gators. Illinois did what I thought they would do, and that was beat Colorado and make the Miami game much closer than people thought it would be. Those two teams get off the hook. People could make a case for letting Wisconsin off the hook, but I'm not going to do that. Yes, they were facing a hot team coming off a SEC tournament title, and yes the 12-5 matchups are always a toss up. But this was a team suited to beat a run and gun team like Ole Miss. Despite taking a lead into halftime, the Badgers allowed the Rebels to drop 35 on them in the second half and lost by 11.
Indiana looked like they had never seen a 2-3 zone in their life, as Syracuse held them to a season low 50 points. Ohio State blew a golden opportunity in their region as the one, three, four, and five seeds were all out by the end of the opening weekend. They wound up being the last team the Shockers would shock. Michigan State, meanwhile, had blown out their first two opponents and looked strong against Duke in the first half. Alas, they allowed Duke to pull away and lost in the Sweet 16. Michigan gets full props for making it to the title game, but after the year the Big 10 had, it is disappointing to see a Big East member as champion.
...how right my gut was.
It is easy to say this retrospectively, but there were honestly a handful of upsets that happened that my gut said would. I didn't put them in my breakdowns because there would really be no evidence to back it up. There was just something about the matchup where I said, "Ya know, this game could be trouble for (insert high seed here)." The Harvard upset over New Mexico was one. There's still nothing to suggest Harvard should have won. It was mainly my distrust in Mountain West teams in the tournament. This hunch was correct as UNM lost, Boise State didn't make it out of the first four, UNLV got upset by Cal, and San Diego State lost in the second round to Florida Gulf Coast.
Speaking of which, FGCU was another of my gut ones. In my final bracket I had Georgetown going to the Final Four, and the only reason that made me hesitant was their first round game. Seriously. I still believe if they had beaten FGCU that they would have made a deep run. With most of these lower seeds (16, 15, 14, 13) you don't really have much to go on. They probably played a couple powerhouses during the year and were beaten handily. FGCU, however, had beaten Miami earlier in the year who was now a number two seed. I figured if they had done it before, they could do it again. Well, I wound up going with the Hoyas because one win over Miami doesn't make up for the mediocrity in between. Of course FGCU winds up winning and makes it all the way to the Sweet 16. After two 15 seeds won last year, and a 15 seed won two games this year, you can bet I'll be picking at least one 15 seed next year..
...how wrong my gut was.
Despite ignoring my gut for the above picks which turned out to be correct, I listened to my gut for the following picks which turned out to be wrong. South Dakota State was my most significant miss. I was really all-in on Nate Wolters, future NBA draft pick. I mentioned how I thought they could even reach the Sweet 16. Wolters didn't even reach 16 points as the Wolverines blew by the Jackrabbits. This seemed tailor made for a Stephen Curry-like Davidson run where an unknown player from an unknown school leads his team deep into the tourney. Unfortunately, that moment never came.
The other one I went with that was incorrect was St. Louis. Since they were a four seed, it's hard to justify this as an extraordinary prediction, but I had them making the Elite Eight. Despite being a four seed, they were from a mid major, albeit a very strong Atlantic 10, but a mid major nonetheless. To get to the Elite Eight, they would have to beat New Mexico State, Oregon, and Louisville. The latter two had won their conference tournaments and were peaking at the right time. I thought St. Louis' fundamentals and sound basketball would triumph over speed and skill. They wound up not even making it to the second weekend as they lost to Oregon. I think SLU would have been a tougher matchup for Louisville had they gotten there, but we'll never know.
...how good Syracuse's 2-3 zone was.
I already mentioned how great it was against Indiana, but it was that way throughout the tournament. Here were the points against for Syracuse from the first round to the Final Four when they were eliminated: 34, 60, 50, 39, and 61. That 39 was not a typo. 39 points against in an Elite Eight game against a team in Marquette that had scored 74 on the Orange in a game earlier in the year. Even Michigan's 61 was low considering they had averaged about 75 points per game during the regular season. Their run took me completely by surprise as I thought Indiana had that region gift wrapped for them to win. It just goes to show how committed and strong that 2-3 zone is at Syracuse and how effective it can be in a tournament setting.
...how gruesome Kevin Ware's injury was.
I actually didn't get to see this game live because it was on Easter Sunday, but when I checked my Facebook during the evening, there were multiple posts about how bad of an injury it was. Of course I had to go check it out on Youtube. Let me just say that is in the top three sports injuries I have ever seen. The other two would have to be Marcus Lattimore's injury this past year and Willis Mcgahee's injury in the National Title game in 2002. When I saw his leg flop like jello, I had the same reaction as his teammates on the bench and couldn't really believe what I saw. I was actually amazed that Louisville was able to collect themselves after that incident and went on to blow Duke out of the water. I'm sure Ware's leg felt much better last night after seeing his team win that title, but that injury was painful to see.
...how bad the officiating was this year.
Maybe I'm biased against referees or am simply magnifying bad calls, but I thought there were some key calls that were made or not made throughout the tournament. While I can't recall specifics from earlier in the tourney, there were certainly ones last night. I remember there was a three play sequence that I thought the refs blew each time. Two no calls and one against Louisville. The first was a Glenn Robinson jumper where he was clearly fouled on the elbow. Even the announcers Steve Kerr and Clark Kellogg said that it was a foul before the people at home got to see the slow motion instant replay where the evidence was there. Robinson actually made the shot, but it should have been an and one, instead of just the two point basket.
During Michigan's next possession while they were bringing it up the court, Peyton Siva, who plays a tremendously aggressive style of defense, stole the ball cleanly and had an easy layup. That chance was denied, however, by a foul call on Siva. Replay showed he got all ball and watching it while it was happening, it looked clean. Michigan got the ball out of bounds, ran a play, and got Trey Burke open for three. He appeared to be fouled on the play as well, but nothing was called. Just like Robinson he wound up making it, but he should have gotten a chance for one more.
The last, most atrocious officiating call came towards the end of the game. Here's the video, you make the call. When I saw it live, I thought it was a clean block. If Michigan would have won the title, this was going to be the play that everyone was talking about. People are talking about it, but for the wrong reason. I understand that the refs don't have the benefit of slow mo instant replay, but that was about as clean of a block as you can get. As you can see in the video, there was about five minutes left, with Louisville up by three. The Cardinals were rolling at this point and despite needing points, the Wolverines needed a big defensive stop or play even more. This was it. The best player in the country blocking Louisville's leader. The momentum shift would have been tremendous.
In the end, the ref ended up calling a foul as Siva made both the free throws. While I won't say one play alone wins or loses a game, this one was critical. Not only from a scoreboard standpoint, but momentum as well. Some people might say that Michigan got cheated in this game, but as I mentioned earlier with the Siva foul, not all the calls went the Wolverines way. Even if Burke and Robinson make their respective additional free throws and Burke's block goes down as a block and Siva doesn't get those two free throws, Louisville still wins by two. The Wolverines' main problem was their rebounding, especially on the defensive end allowing the Cardinals to snag 15 offensive boards. While the outcome might have been different had these calls been made, Louisville was still the team that made the plays they needed to down the stretch to win the title.
...how quickly this would all end.
In my opinion, the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament is the best time of the year in sports. The best. Not opening day in baseball, not the Super Bowl, but that opening Thursday through Sunday. Heck, we could even narrow it down to the opening Thursday and Friday. Starting at around 11am central time, there's at least one game on throughout the rest of the day. Hopefully your school is one of the 64 in the field and you get the chance to justify why your 15th seeded team is going to go to the sweet 16 and why the number one seed is going to lose by 40 in their first game. It is when upsets happen and brackets are broken. The unpredictability is what makes it so awesome. Memorable moments are made, as names and teams become known throughout households nationwide. Three weekends and a Monday and poof, it's all over.
There's still NBA and NHL action to satisfy the sport fan. Baseball just got underway, but how much can you really care about a game in early April? The NBA and NHL playoffs could be good, although it seems like people have already crowned teams champions (Heat in the NBA, Hawks in the NHL). March Madness is one and done. Lebron has an off night, only goes for 15 points, and the Heat lose game one. Eh, so what? It's not like the Bucks can beat them three more times. In the NCAA tournament, Otto Porter Jr. has an off night, only goes for 13, and the Hoyas lose to a 15 seed and their season is over. Goodbye, thanks for playing. Don't get me wrong, the playoffs for the NBA and NHL are still exciting, and a Game 7 in any sport acts like a tournament game with the loser going home for good. Still, the moments, history, excitement, and uncertainty all combine to create the greatest event in sports: March Madness.
Matty O
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