So, seeing a lot of red on your tournament bracket? I have, as only 9 of my projected sweet 16 have made it (only 1 of the 4 regional semifinalists in the Midwest region jeez). Both of my finalists, Kansas and Villanova (yea, yea I know), are out of the tournament.
Indeed, this has been a tournament college hoops fans will remember for a long time. There have been some great, and very close, games in this March Madness. Out of the past 49 matches, 12 have been decided by 3 points or less. But what has been even more notable has been the upsets. Top seeds have got upset by lower teams in every tournament (one of the things that make the tournament so interesting). But this year has been ridiculous.
Three of the 16 remaining teams are double digit seeds (No. 10 Saint Mary’s, No.11 Washington, and No. 12 Cornell), after 8 of them went to the second round. There have been a number of teams who were thought to be sure locks for the sweet 16 (and further) and yet have been upset, including No. 3 Georgetown (beaten by a hot shooting No. 14 Ohio), and No. 2 Villanova (outhustled by No. 10 Saint Mary’s, much to my chagrin). Of course, nothing compares to No. 9 Northern Iowa beating the number one team overall Kansas, a team many people thought unstoppable and likely to win it all (like my bro Charlie Klein, sorry mate). Honestly, if there are still people out there with perfect brackets, they deserve some type of monetary compensation.
So what’s going on this year; why are so many big teams falling short? The answer is quite simple: a series of complacencies and miscues on the part of the high seeded teams, combined with underdogs who made them pay for their mistakes with incredible performances. Take Villanova for example. Many saw Nova, a Final Four team last year, as a team that had the sweet 16 as a certainty and further progression likelihood. Yet they came into the tournament executing poorly on offense and barely survived number 15 seed Robert Morris, beating them by one possession in overtime. The poor execution continued into the second round, yet this time Saint Mary’s and their big man Omar Samhan did not let them live it down. 32 points and 7 rebounds on 13 of 16 for Samhan helped down the Wildcats, while Scottie Reynolds’ poor shooting (2 for 11) didn’t help.
Villanova should consider themselves lucky; Georgetown didn’t even get to stay in the tournament past its opening day. Their Achilles heel was poor perimeter defense combined with hot shooting (57% from the 3-point line, ridiculous) from a relatively unknown Ohio squad (that had a losing record in conference play and had not won a tournament game in 27 years).
And then there’s Kansas, best team in the country, losing to Northern Iowa, a team I had trouble picking to win their first round matchup. After a routine blowout of Lehigh, they simply did not play the level of ball we expect of Kansas against UNI. 44% FG, 26% from long range, and 9 assists are not numbers that deserve a Dick Vitale-style “O yea baby!” And then there was Ali Farokhmanesh. Don’t blame you if you didn’t know his name before, but you should know it now. After downing UNLV with a late three pointer, he did the same to deny the Jayhawks of their title dreams, drilling a trey that will surely go down in NCAA history.
There are several powerhouse teams that are still alive, including the other No. 1 seeds (Kentucky, Duke, and Syracuse). These teams have enjoyed a fairly easy trip to the Sweet 16, especially Kentucky, which beat its opponents by an average of 29.5 points. However, they should learn a lesson from teams like Kansas and Villanova: there is no room for complacency or letting up in March Madness, at least not until you cut the nets.
No comments:
Post a Comment