2015 NCAA Tournament- Duke Keeps My Bracket Hope Alive

The field of 64 has been narrowed down to two, and I couldn’t be happier. After all, not only did Kentucky lose to Wisconsin, thus ending its perfect season, but I still have a legitimate shot to win the office tourney pool. Even better than that is the possibility that I could win $300 in my friend’s bracket challenge as well.

And while the majority of my friends and co-workers might be rooting for the Badgers on Monday night, I will most certainly be in Duke’s corner. It doesn’t matter that Wisconsin represents the Big Ten, or they will more than likely be the underdogs.  Also of little importance is that guard Traevon Jackson is not only from Ohio, but also happens to be the son of former Ohio State standout Jimmy Jackson.

(As a side note, while I would normally root for the Big Ten, even at the expense of my own bracket, when you wager $50 to win $300 in a winner takes all format, your perspective kind of changes.) 

The fate of my brackets rest on the ability of the Dookies (sic) to get Coach K his fifth championship, and his third in Indianapolis at that. Duke already defeated Wisconsin once this season, but this is not the same Badger team. It should also be pointed out that Duke is not the same team, either. Is it possible that team that beat both Michigan State and Wisconsin in the regular season by 10 points apiece has played even better in the postseason? Not only is it possible, it seems downright plausible.

So the million-dollar question then becomes, how did I end up picking the Blue Devils to win it all, when most everyone and their brother had the Wildcats? Is it because Duke is not only the one of my favorite teams(according to this blog), and unlike Ohio State they had a legitimate chance of advancing? I wish I could say that was the case, but my affinity for the Blue Devils had little if any affect on my decision. What about freshman sensations Tyus Jones and Jahlil Okafor? I must admit the blue-chippers, the former averaging 11.5 ppg and 3.5 apg and the latter averaging 17.5 ppg and 8.6 rpg, are a rare inside-outside combination. But alas, as I watched less than a handful of Duke games, I didn’t know much about the duo.

So how exactly did I end up picking Duke, when less than 20% of the nation even had them in the national finals? Let’s just say that like most other people who have won their tournament pools in the past, I went with my gut. While other people agonized from 30 minutes to several hours on their bracket, I filled out mine within 10 minutes. And although it’s safe to say my round-by-round performance isn’t stellar (I’m currently 44-18 through the final four), it doesn’t matter how you start, only how you finish.

Yet it is far from a given that Duke will win their fifth title tomorrow night, or that I will win my first tournament pool ever(in what I have estimated is over 25 years of filling out an entry of some form, whether it be for school or work or online just for fun.) This time around not only do they have to account for a fully healthy Sam Dekker, but if they are going to win they must do so without the services of junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon, dismissed from the team before the regular season had even ended.

A tall task for the Blue Devils (literally and figuratively), but my gut tells me they have one more win left in them. After all, in an imperfect bracket, they are the only team that has been perfect for me thus far.

2013 NCAA Tourney: Harvard Wins, And Chaos Reigns

Round one of the NCAA tournament is over and my bracket is busted.

Not really, but it almost happened yesterday afternoon. With Georgetown falling to previously unknown Florida Gulf Coast, at least one of my brackets is bound to lose.

You see, I filled out four different brackets before the tournament started. And while the one I feel most confident in is still in play (Louisville, Ohio State, VCU, and Miami are my final four), in another bracket I had the Hoyas going all the way to the final. And they totally blew it.

Of course, right now you are saying how much confidence can I have in any of my brackets if I completed four different ones. To be honest, I don't really know what is going to happen. Neither does anyone else. Which is why less than 5% of America correctly predicted that both Harvard and Florida Gulf Coast University would advance to the second round.

The point is that this tournament is wide open. The fact that two no. 1 seed, Kansas and Gonzaga, barely survived and advanced to the round of 32, only emphasizes this point. Which is, of course why I don't have either team in my final four.

Among the highlights of this year's first round:

Kentucky will not repeat as National Champion.

As a matter of fact, the Wildcats, not even selected to this year's tournament, will not win the NIT. They lost to Robert Morris in the first round on Wednesday.

All four no. 1 seeds still remain intact.

Although it seemed for a while that Gonzaga and Kansas might become the first top seeds to fall to a 16 seed.  For now, however, the possibility of an all chalk final four still exists. Whether that remains true after the second round is something that even Charles Barkley can't tell us.

Harvard once again proved that schools with the smartest kids can also produce athletes.

Try telling that to the New Mexico Lobos. According to one report, the Crimson's win provoked one writer to quit according to reports from Yahoo . But it'll take more than that to get rid of me, even if I lose every one of my brackets, and Ohio State gets booted on Sunday (but they're not, of course.)

Not only did Ohio State score more points than any other team, but they also provided us with the highlight of the first round:

Well, maybe not just one highlight. From Aaron Craft and Lenzelle Smith making diving saves that end up in Buckeye points, to Sam Thompson's high flying acrobatics, the No. 2 seed in the West dazzled the thousands of fans that made the trip from Columbus to Dayton. To go deep into the tournament this year, they will need more than just fancy plays. They must continue to play the hard-nosed defense that has help them win their last nine contests.

OSU Basketball: Thad Matta's Championship Problem

Well, with only a few more weeks left 'til the end of the college football season, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share my thoughts on The Ohio State University men's basketball team. I understand that many of you prefer football to basketball anyway, but I don't care.

So as I was listening to the Buckeye cagers' only exhibition game versus Walsh last night (yeah, it wasn't on TV because the Big Ten Network is so lame they would rather show a rerun of a football game played last weekend) it got me excited about the team's chances this season. Sure, when they play for real a week from tomorrow against Marquette they will look nowhere near the No. 4 team in the nation, but they do have talent.

That got me to thinking, the Buckeyes have had an awful lot of talent come through their program the last few years, but, ultimately, they have come up short in their quest for a national championship. Last season they came oh so close to getting an opportunity to be bested by the Kentucky Wildcats once again, only to fall to the Kansas Jayhawks in the national semifinal.

On the surface, the loss to Kansas can be easily explained, as in the end Ohio State had neither the height nor the depth needed to move on to the national championship game.

But why does Ohio State, seemingly advancing farther in the tournament each season, fall short of the ultimate goal each year?

On the one hand, there are those who would point the finger directly at head coach Thad Matta. They argue Matta's reluctance to play more than five or six guys on any given night leads to tired legs come tournament time. Matta has insisted that until his guys learn to play defense, they won't see the court. Critics then wonder why Deshaun Thomas played so many minutes last season when defense didn't seem to be a word in his vocabulary.

Then there are the Matta apologists, who would point to his overall record, consecutive 20 win seasons,  number of Big Ten Championships, and the fact that he has taken his team to two final four appearances in eight seasons, something more than 75% of all NCAA Division I head coaches cannot claim.

Yet both Mike Krzysewski (sp) and Roy Williams could say the same thing. So what makes them elite coaches? That's right, they both have won multiple national championships.

So we again come to the question, why does Matta's Buckeyes fall short year after year?

Maybe a look at last year's champions, the Kentucky Wildcats, could provide some clues. While personally I can't stand head coach John Calipari( or Cal as he is often referred to) I have to give him credit. Not only did he assemble a group of 19 and 20 year olds that could possibly beat the Charlotte Bobcats, he also got them to believe in the good of the team before individual glory.

That in itself should be considered a coup for Cal, more so especially given the fact Kentucky is assumed to be a one year farm system for the NBA. Coincidentally, folks who believe that UK only recruits athletes with questionable academic backgrounds might be surprised to learn of the story of Brandon Knight, former Wildcat point guard who only played one season for Calipari. I have it on good authority from someone who scouted Knight in high school that he had the grades to play anywhere in the nation. Yet at the end of the day he chose to call Lexington, Kentucky his home for a year. Not that there is anything wrong with UK academically; but it certainly doesn't carry the reputation of a Duke or North Carolina.

But I digress. The point is that Kentucky did not win on talent alone; each team member had to sacrifice a little something of himself along the way.

I think that is a key point because it is why I believe Thad Matta's Buckeyes' do not have a championship. In recent years, Ohio State like Kentucky, has had its share of players who have only stuck around for a season or two before moving along to the NBA. Most of them, like Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Jared Sullinger, etc, have bought into the concept of team first.

But I believe Matta's greatest failure to date may be that he cannot convince all of his players to buy into the 'team first' philosophy. Take the example of former Buckeyes center BJ Mullens, for instance. It was clear that Mullens already had one eye on the NBA even before the Big Ten Tournament rolled around during his freshman season. Matta tried to bench him in an effort to convince Mullens he wasn't ready for the pros, but, ultimately, that was a lesson BJ would have to learn on his own.

Going further back, we can also look at the story of Daequan Cook. Part of the 'Thad Five' recruiting class that included Mike Conley, Greg Oden, Dave Lighty, and Othello Hunter, Cook was considered a lottery pick even before lacing them up for the Buckeyes. Cook would see signficant playing time at the beginning of the 2007 season; ultimately Matta relegated him to a reserve role after he realized the Dayton native wasn't going to play ball.

Finally, let's consider the plight of sophomore swing guard Laquinton Ross last season. Ross, who wouldn't join the team until mid season due to academic issues, was touted as one of the top recruits in the nation out of high school. The hype surrounding this kid was almost surreal, with former OSU point guard Scoonie Penn  calling him 'the best Buckeye on the court, hands down.' Naturally, all the press would go to Ross' head, leading him to issue a tweet whining for more playing time. After a conversation with the coach, Ross would delete the tweet, but by then the damage was done. From that point on the only playing time the freshman would see was at the end of a blowout.

All of this behavior would seem more befitting of Kentucky than Ohio State. Yet when the NBA collective bargaining agreement states amateur athletes must spend one year in college before entering the draft, even the Buckeyes can find it hard to avoid such players. Unfortunately for Thad Matta, until he can convince some of these guys that 'the present' is more important than 'their future', a championship may elude Ohio State.