March Madness—one of sport’s most exciting and unpredictable venues—is officially here.
With the announcement of the men’s 68-team field, we now all pause our lives momentarily to fill out our impossible-to-predict-brackets with our best guesses/wishes of what will happen over the next three weeks.
In the meantime, business productivity will drop, girlfriends will be ignored, yet legends will be born, and hearts will be broken.
This year’s field features a record 11 teams from one conference (The Big East), four new first-round-play-in-games and last year’s champ, top-seeded Duke, who are attempting to become just the second program to repeat since they did it nearly two decades ago.
For the Blue Devils, they have clearly succeeded even without the play of injured freshman-sensation Kyrie Irving, who has been out with a foot injury since December.
Sunday’s win over rival North Carolina—their 30th of the season—gave them the ACC tournament title. That in itself would have been a great season for most, but there’s more to come for a program and a coach who’ve really made their mark with great tournament runs over the years.
This year promises to be a challenging path, though. Though they are the top-seed, the Dukies have been sent to the West Region where a very possible matchup with fifth-seeded Arizona, in Anaheim, could be looming as a sweet sixteen matchup.
Even more ominous though could be a regional final matchup with second-seeded San Diego State in Aztec country. San Diego State Coach Steve Fisher has had his share of NCAA tournament success as he led Michigan to three Final Fours including the 1989 NCAA Championship.
Other notable West region powers include a surprisingly lower-than-expected fourth-seeded Texas as well as third-seeded Connecticut.
The Longhorns finished second in the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament to highly-ranked Kansas (they beat them in January) and may have something to prove with this low seeding, while the Huskies reeled off five straight victories last week to capture the Big East title. Only time will tell how much those games took out of them.
Meanwhile the Big East regular season champs, the Pittsburgh Panthers, are the top-seeded team in the Southeast Region. Should they avoid being the first top-seed to ever lose to a 16th seeded team, they’ll have a possible matchup with last year’s runner up, Butler.
After a slow start, the Bulldogs have won their last nine meetings and should they down Old Dominion, they’d be a popular pick for an upset over the Panthers.
Whoever comes out of the top part of that bracket though will be watching third-seeded BYU and popular sharpshooter Jimmer Fredette.
The senior guard averages a ridiculous 28.5 points per game and is capable of carrying a tournament team the way Stephen Curry carried previously unknown Davison to the brink of the Final Four in 2008, before losing to eventual champion Kansas.
The Jayhawks were a top seed then and are a top seed now. Yet, that hasn’t always meant success for KU as only once during their previous three times as a top seed did Bill Self’s squad emerge out of their region.
The Southwest’s top seed is part of a loaded bracket including the likes of fourth-seeded Louisville, second-seeded Notre Dame, and third-seeded Purdue.
The overall top-seeded team though is the Ohio State Buckeyes. But Thad Matta’s squad seems to be paired with the hottest second-seed in the North Carolina Tar Heels, which would seem to go against the reward of being the best team.
In any case, there are plenty of other roadblocks for the East Region’s top two seeds along their way to a regional final matchup, such as fourth seeded Kentucky, third-seeded Syracuse, and fifth-seeded West Virginia. All three teams have coaches who have reached the Final Four in recent years.
Of course, there are upsets every year. No one predicted George Mason’s run in 2006, or Stephen Curry’s rise to stardom in 2008, or even Northern Iowa’s shocker of Kansas last year. That’s what makes it “Madnes,” though.
With the announcement of the men’s 68-team field, we now all pause our lives momentarily to fill out our impossible-to-predict-brackets with our best guesses/wishes of what will happen over the next three weeks.
In the meantime, business productivity will drop, girlfriends will be ignored, yet legends will be born, and hearts will be broken.
This year’s field features a record 11 teams from one conference (The Big East), four new first-round-play-in-games and last year’s champ, top-seeded Duke, who are attempting to become just the second program to repeat since they did it nearly two decades ago.
For the Blue Devils, they have clearly succeeded even without the play of injured freshman-sensation Kyrie Irving, who has been out with a foot injury since December.
Sunday’s win over rival North Carolina—their 30th of the season—gave them the ACC tournament title. That in itself would have been a great season for most, but there’s more to come for a program and a coach who’ve really made their mark with great tournament runs over the years.
This year promises to be a challenging path, though. Though they are the top-seed, the Dukies have been sent to the West Region where a very possible matchup with fifth-seeded Arizona, in Anaheim, could be looming as a sweet sixteen matchup.
Even more ominous though could be a regional final matchup with second-seeded San Diego State in Aztec country. San Diego State Coach Steve Fisher has had his share of NCAA tournament success as he led Michigan to three Final Fours including the 1989 NCAA Championship.
Other notable West region powers include a surprisingly lower-than-expected fourth-seeded Texas as well as third-seeded Connecticut.
The Longhorns finished second in the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament to highly-ranked Kansas (they beat them in January) and may have something to prove with this low seeding, while the Huskies reeled off five straight victories last week to capture the Big East title. Only time will tell how much those games took out of them.
Meanwhile the Big East regular season champs, the Pittsburgh Panthers, are the top-seeded team in the Southeast Region. Should they avoid being the first top-seed to ever lose to a 16th seeded team, they’ll have a possible matchup with last year’s runner up, Butler.
After a slow start, the Bulldogs have won their last nine meetings and should they down Old Dominion, they’d be a popular pick for an upset over the Panthers.
Whoever comes out of the top part of that bracket though will be watching third-seeded BYU and popular sharpshooter Jimmer Fredette.
The senior guard averages a ridiculous 28.5 points per game and is capable of carrying a tournament team the way Stephen Curry carried previously unknown Davison to the brink of the Final Four in 2008, before losing to eventual champion Kansas.
The Jayhawks were a top seed then and are a top seed now. Yet, that hasn’t always meant success for KU as only once during their previous three times as a top seed did Bill Self’s squad emerge out of their region.
The Southwest’s top seed is part of a loaded bracket including the likes of fourth-seeded Louisville, second-seeded Notre Dame, and third-seeded Purdue.
The overall top-seeded team though is the Ohio State Buckeyes. But Thad Matta’s squad seems to be paired with the hottest second-seed in the North Carolina Tar Heels, which would seem to go against the reward of being the best team.
In any case, there are plenty of other roadblocks for the East Region’s top two seeds along their way to a regional final matchup, such as fourth seeded Kentucky, third-seeded Syracuse, and fifth-seeded West Virginia. All three teams have coaches who have reached the Final Four in recent years.
Of course, there are upsets every year. No one predicted George Mason’s run in 2006, or Stephen Curry’s rise to stardom in 2008, or even Northern Iowa’s shocker of Kansas last year. That’s what makes it “Madnes,” though.
