Hello again everyone! I hope your weekend was as wonderful as mine. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to write over the weekend because I was too busy watching all the wonderful games and spending time celebrating a friend's 21st birthday. Thursday and Friday were the opening round games and my bracket was completely shot before the end of the day on Friday. Here's my 4 points for the day:
1. Picking brackets is something that is often done better by people who do not watch any games or know the teams very well. The prime example of this is the simple fact that my girlfriend, who hates watching basketball, is doing way better at predicting this year's tournament than I did. I lost St. Johns who was my final four team in the Southeast bracket region and then on Sunday, I lost Texas who was my final four team out of the West bracket region. Although I have lost two Final Four teams out of my bracket, my two Championship teams are still alive so all is not completely lost.
2. Every year March Madness brings some unbelievable finishes and upsets and the first weekend certainly did not disappoint! Pittsburgh, who was the number 1 seed in the Southeast Region lost to last year's cinderella team, Butler on Saturday night with a very controversial ending. The game was decided on the free throw line in the last 2 seconds. The Texas/Arizona game in the West Region on Sunday afternoon was also somewhat controversial because of a referee calling a 5 second violation on a Texas inbound play that gave the ball back to Arizona with less than 20 seconds left and a chance to tie the game.
3. Sunday night was a very stressful one for me as my favorite team, the Kansas Jayhawks were playing against the Fighting Illini in the 2nd round game of the Southwest Region. I live in the state of Illinois so a vast majority of my friends are Illini fans. I received many text messages throughout the weekend with messages about the game since Kansas lost last year in the 2nd round of the tournament when they were the heavy favorite to win the whole tournament. Fortunately, Kansas won the game last night 73 to 59 and knock the Illini out of the tournament. Looking ahead as the tournament heads into the Sweet Sixteen starting on Thursday, the Southwest Region has the most surprising teams left with Kansas as the 1 seed and then Richmond (12 seed), VCU (11 seed), and Florida State (10 seed). Kansas will play Richmond on Friday night. The Jayhawks seem to have the easiest road to the final four with all higher seeds advancing but at this point in the tournament, seeding does not mean much since all the teams have been good enough to advance this far.
4. As for the rest of the tournament, this coming weekend should definitely prove to be just as good as last weekend, just without as many games. The teams are better and the competition is heating up as the pressure to make it through the weekend and get to the Final Four in Houston, Texas. Many people see Ohio State as the favorite to win the whole thing after their two impressive wins last weekend, but this weekend will show prove to be rough as they have to play a very quality team in Kentucky and then play the winner of North Carolina and Marquette in the Elite Eight. The other number one seed left is Duke in the West Region who will have to play the 4 seed Arizona and then the winner of Conneticut and San Diego State. There will be so many quality matchups this weekend that I can not wait to get to Thursday and watch them all throughout the weekend.
I will post another 4 points before Thursday with some predictions and must see matchups! Have a great week and do not forget to leave your questions and comments! Thanks for reading!
Derek
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