Madness 2011: Initial Reaction

The brackets are out. Did your team make it? Did your rivals'?

It's time to enter your pools and make one extra 5-12 upset than you're supposed to (admit it, it happens every year). Need help? Use my guide for those toss-up matches.

Here are my initial reactions and a few predictions headed into the first week of games.

 Teams I feel sorry for:

1. Massive apologies to Colorado and Virginia Tech. Maybe go to a holiday tournament next season and play some teams from another major conference.
2. I think the committee got Alabama and Alabama at Birmingham confused. Not sure what happened there.
3. Congrats to Ohio State. Your number one overall seed got you the number one overall hardest region. Your season-long effort of dominance won you the death draw.
4. Gonzaga fans are going to realize that, just like the last fifteen years, their favorite players are highly overrated. Listen, Mark Few is a great coach but he needs to get to a school that can attract players worth coaching. When is the Zag-fest going to end in this nation?

   

   Sorry, Coach. Reserving that seat will never fill it with a bigger trophy

Teams that got lucky:

1. Virginia Commonwealth and UAB both seemed to sneak into the tournament. Not really sure how they passed a couple of major-conference teams but hey.. they're in.
2. Dear Georgia: who did you pay off to get a ten seed? Somebody check AJ Green's locker.
3. Despite losing in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament and losing at home to Notre Dame (who ended up with the same conference record), Pittsburgh got a number one seed. But it doesn't end there. They also got the easiest region. Completely baffling.
4. The Big Ten in general. I don't know what makes people think that outside of Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin you still have solid programs left. Michigan State struggled through a very tough schedule but Penn State, Illinois and Michigan did virtually NOTHING to make this tournament. Coming out slightly on the top half of an extremely mediocre conference should be enough to get good seeds in the NIT.
5. Don't laugh Pac Ten fans. This goes for you too but with absolutely no heavyweights.

Predictions:

Newark: Where geese commit suicide

1. The Big East will get at least five sweet sixteen teams (more than the ACC got into the entire field).
2. On a related note, the SEC will not have a single team in the sweet sixteen.
3. Long Island will give CBS a reason to cut to their game.
4. There will be only one top-seeded team in the final four.
5. The results of the East region will be the best thing to come out of Newark. Ever.
6. Tuesday and Wednesdays games on TrueTV will have absolutely terrible ratings. Maybe we can put the games on Oprah's new network next year to hide the embarrassing expansion even more.
7. I'm by no means the first to bring this up, but it's a tragedy that Purdue and Notre Dame, an hour's drive from each other will travel well over 1,000 miles away to play in the sweet sixteen. Northern Indiana bars, however, will get quite rowdy.
8. The final four will be extremely entertaining. The three games will be decided by a total of fourteen points. Heard it here first.
9. We're all going to thoroughly enjoy this tournament. There's maybe only one or two truly elite teams. There's probably ten really good teams. Then there's the rest of the field. Wide open.

Remember guys, the minute you give someone 20 bucks and a bracket, it's no longer your money. Try to enjoy the tournament anyway.

And as always, tip your bartenders.