TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Little Madness Associated With This NCAA Tournament

The Associated Press

Derrick Brown celebrates Xavier's second-round win against Wisconsin. The fourth-seeded Musketeers could give Pitt problems this week.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 23, 2009

Updated: 03/23/2009 10:52 am

TAMPA - If you see Madness walking around, looking lost, please alert the authorities.

March is looking for its missing partner. A reward is offered.

Yep, there hasn't been much March Madness so far.

You can get excited about 12th-seeded Arizona advancing if you wish, but the NCAA men's basketball tournament has been mostly March Blandness, so far. Sure, there were a handful of highlight-reel finishes on the first weekend of games, but mostly the tournament has gone to form.

For the first time, the top three seeds in each region have advanced to the Sweet 16. Pitt hasn't exactly looked like a No. 1 seed, and everyone in Chapel Hill, N.C., is sending healing vibes in the direction of Ty Lawson's toe. He sure looked fine in the second half of Saturday's game against LSU, but you can't be too sure.

And, of course, Siena put a scare into top-seeded Louisville.

A scare, though, doesn't equal Madness.

Madness is what we saw in Tampa last year at the Forum, when lower-seeded teams won all four games on the first day and blew brackets all to pieces across the country.

What we're seeing now is what the selection committee told us we would see – and don't you just hate it when they get it this right?

Granny Bracket

This has been the kind of tournament where your grandma could fill out a bracket and clean up. Where is the mystery in something like this? You have to go all the way back to, oh, last year to find something this predictable.

Yeah, I know. I mentioned all the upsets at the Forum last year as proof of how cool this tournament can be. But it is also a fact that the Final Four featured all four No. 1 seeds last year, and that had never happened before.

I don't think it will this year, either.

In fact – crossing my fingers, here – this tournament could go from bland to grand in a hurry, starting Thursday when the regionals begin.

The way Pitt is playing, the Panthers could lose against fourth-seeded Xavier. They fiddled around with East Tennessee State until the final minutes, threatening to be the first team to lose to a 16th-seed since the tournament began. They had to work hard to dispatch Oklahoma State in the second round.

Xavier, on the other hand, is taking care of business. For those who don't know, Xavier is the "second school" in Cincinnati, ranking behind the UC Bearcats in terms of endearment from the local populace. While they may be No. 2 in the hearts of their hometown, the X-men are definitely No. 1 on the court.

Besides, they have the coolest nickname left in the tournament: the Musketeers.

To me, this game represents the best chance for a No. 1 to fall.

Big Dogs Take Over

We celebrate March Madness as a triumph for the Morehead States of this world, and when they hang with Louisville for a while – as Morehead did – we think it's cute. The truth is, though, that a 65-team field got whittled to 16 in just four days.

So saddle up.

It's showtime.

North Carolina-Gonzaga on Friday night could be the best game of the tournament.

That is, unless the best game is Memphis-Missouri on Thursday night.

Only the big dogs are left. The mutts have gone home

None of it has the Madness that happens when a 15th seed knocks off a No. 2, but it's a lot better basketball. Maybe there is hope for this year's tournament, yet.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT