Today is arguably (right ahead of the NFL Draft) the best sports day of the year that has nothing to do with actual games being played, as the draw for the NCAA Tournament is unveiled. By and large, the committee did a good job in picking the top 65 teams. I might have changed a team or two — I would have put Mississippi State in — but nothing worth complaining about.
Tonight is a time for memorizing brackets, doing a little research and getting ready for the office pool and, in my opinion, the closest thing there is to a perfect sporting event.
Just for fun, I am going to fill our a knee-jerk bracket in a little while and then a final one on Wednesday and do a little comparing.
I’ll offer up a little analysis and give you my picks by region, but for now here are some simple initial impressions:
— Boy does the committee love Duke. Winning the ACC regular season and tournament titles is impressive, but the league is watered down and the Blue Devils did not deserve to be rated the third No. 1 seed (an argument can be made for West Virginia and Ohio State, but based on the body of work I don’t have an issue) over Syracuse.
Then the Blue Devils were given the easiest region. Which brings me to….
— Right now I like Baylor coming out of the South and going to the Final Four. A very balanced and athletic team that is more talented than Duke, Villanova and, now, Purdue.
— Kansas, in the Midwest, might be the No. 1 overall seed but has the toughest draw. Ohio State and Georgetown are legitimate Final Four teams as the second and third seeds, Maryland is dangerous, Michigan State is a sleeper and Tennessee is the kind of temperamental team that could get blown out in the first round or make a long run.
— The team that underachieved more than any other in the country is Washington, which has top 15 talent but played poorly in a watered down Pac-10. The Huskies made a good run in the conference tournament and they are the team I really wanted to pick to go deep before the draw came out. They still might be able to do it, but they were given a tough road with a first-round game against Marquette and, if they can get by that, New Mexico.
— Looking to pick up bonus points in your pool? Here are double-digit seeds I like a lot to win one and perhaps two games: Cornell, Murray State and Siena.
— Possible Elite Eight surprises? Richmond and BYU (despite its run of first-round losses).
I’ll probably waffle and change my mind several times between now and Wednesday. Then again, who doesn’t?
