It’s the greatest time of the year for U.S. college basketball and even though the names change, the excitement level remains high.
It’s the time of year where "Two Direction University" and "Hyphen State" can knock off one of the big-time TV teams. Don’t you love the TV pictures of the guys on the end of the bench going wild as they have the upset squarely in the cross-hairs?
The unpredictability of the tournament is amazing. It’s in stark contrast to the NBA where teams that have nine- or 10-point leads in the final minute only occasionally let the game slip away. In college ball, the mistakes of young inexperienced players under pressure combined with the more honest - some say more inconsistent - officiating (where the star power doesn’t factor in quite as much as it does in NBA) makes for great finishes.
Easy now, I’m not trying to get you pumped up and don’t get carried away when filling out your bracket sheet as a 16 seed has never beaten a No. 1. And just how many sheets will you fill out? I’m usually good for four or five.
The record of the top dogs against 16th seeds is 92-0 with blowouts being commonplace. The last time a 16th seed came within 10 points of a No. 1 seed a Canadian played a prominent role in scaring the big boys. Torontonian Greg Francis, now a coach in the Canadian national team program, had his Fairfield squad on the verge of defeating the top-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels in 1997 before UNC rallied for an eight-point win. I remember sitting courtside in Sacramento as the Toronto Raptors were about to play the Kings wondering if I was watching history being made. It turned out I wasn’t, but it was sure fun to see the vaunted Tar Heels sweating it out.
But hey, don’t go the other way either. In the current format all four No. 1 seeds have never made it to the Final Four in one year. The closest was 1997 when three top seeds - North Carolina, Minnesota and Kentucky - all made it to the final weekend but were trumped by a No. 4 seed as Arizona won the title. It’s a great time of year to watch coming-out parties of guys you have never heard of before.
So for, ahem, recreational purposes, here is my Final Four as well as a sleeper team, defined in these eyes a team seed 10th or lower, in each region:
East – North Carolina over Louisville.
Midwest – Georgetown over Clemson.
South – Texas over Pittsburgh.
West – UCLA over Duke.
Watch out for sleepers George Mason (East), as they have already tried on the Cinderella outfit a couple of years ago, Davidson (Midwest), Kentucky (South) and Baylor (West).
But don’t hold me to this. It’s only one sheet.
