Time for the best two days of the year: 32 games Thursday and Friday providing plenty of thrills, chills and spills. Even the idiocy of the NCAA can't ruin something this good.
I know the tournament technically began Tuesday... but does anybody REALLY buy into the "First Four/First Round/Play-In Games/Dog and Pony Show"? On TruTV? If CBS doesn't pre-empt programming... I can't acknowledge these games as anything other than an appendix. You know those pages before the title page in the book with lowercase Roman numerals? That's the last two nights for me. Bad basketball by middling teams in Dayton.
Alma Mater Update-- the Orange will be minus center Fab Melo for the tournament due to academic eligibility issues. Decidedly not awesome. Definitely going to need extra bleu cheese dressing with those wings at Sign of the Whale.
Time for the annual "Bold" (which double digit seed makes a run?)... "Fold" (which high seed underperforms?) and "Gold" (who advances to the Final Four?) picks... done just under the wire to be eligible.
EAST-- while the Harvard "student athletes who are really students first" angle won't be overplayed at all... I was hoping Jim Nantz would get the Crimson's game with Vanderbilt so he could wax endlessly about how these kids represent the true spirit of college hoops (had to step away to throw up). BOLD-- West Virginia has played everybody tough this winter... and what a better way to go off to the Big 12 with a couple of upsets? FOLD-- Syracuse has dealt with more than a few off the court issues this winter... from Bernie Fine to drug tests to two suspensions for their center. Kansas State will be a tough round of 32 matchup-- and even if they get to Boston-- I don't see them getting to New Orleans (sadly). GOLD-- Ohio State has been bouncing around the top ten all season. Thad Matta's got this bunch focused.
SOUTH-- it's Kentucky's bracket to lose. And until last year, John Calipari's teams had never overperformed their seed. They're better and more experienced this year. John Chaney- we need your help! BOLD-- VCU was the ultimate Cinderella last season... could Shaka Smart be starring in Cinderella II- Electric Boogaloo? Ram on. FOLD-- Duke looks like after a great early season run it's beginning to hit the wall. Notre Dame plays an ugly style of ball that features scores in the 40's and players who looked like they took Brenda Walsh to the Senior Prom. GOLD-- Kentucky could win the first two games with their backups... and although I'd like to see Baylor get it done-- it's a Wildcat world.
MIDWEST-- this region draws not one... but two teams from the First Four. Thank you Cal-- for taking the game back 50 years by scoring 13 points in the first half against South Florida. BOLD-- South Florida can simply play great defense. They're the overlooked red haired stepchild of the Big East... and Augustus Gilchrist will produce in a way he didn't for Virginia Tech or Maryland. FOLD-- Kansas has a habit of getting bounced early... and whether it's Purdue or St. Mary's in the round of 32... the Jayhawks will be looking ahead to St. Louis.
GOLD-- North Carolina is the most talented team... as well as the most frustrating. They can easily be bounced if they don't bring it for 40 minutes... but you can't imagine them not reaching New Orleans.
WEST-- woe is the sad state of college hoops beyond the Rockies. The Pac-12 is so bad that regular season champ Washington didn't get an at-large berth. Football realignment has turned the Mountain West and WAC into scrambled eggs... and not in a good way. BOLD-- Davidson is next to Belmont and VCU the bandwagon underdog of the tournament. Can you be overrated in an underrated way? They're facing a Louisville team that's underperformed recently in the tournament and is fresh off four games in four days at the Big East Tournament. Plus Pitino wears those white suits. FOLD-- Missouri played one of the softer schedules this winter... and although they cruised to a Big 12 Tournament title one always wonders when the other shoe will drop. Florida is much better than their seed-- and will be a big problem for the Tigers. GOLD-- Michigan State under Tom Izzo almost always overperforms its seed. It's tough to see the Spartans not doing so again this March.
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