2006 NCAA March Madness Thread

College Basketball threads seem to die a quick death here while baseball threads multiply like rabbits, even in the off season. Still, I'm surprised no one has commented on the brackets, being Selection Sunday and all. This is my favorite time of the year.

My Final Four looks something like this right now:
LSU
Memphis
UCONN
Ohio State

There are a lot of good looking first round matchups too. I am really looking forward to Syracuse-Texas A&M, Arkansas-Bucknell, Marquette-Alabama, Kentucky-UAB, Arizona-Wisconsin, BC-Pacific, Oklahoma-Wis-Milwaukee, and Georgetown-Northern Iowa.

Any one else have thoughts on this?

I'm in too.
Memphis def. LSU
UConn def. Ohio State

Memphis def. UConn, 68-56

Can someone please explain the appeal of Boston College to me? Sure, they swept a Freshman-packed UNC team this year and made the ACC tourney finals, but why do half of the people in my office pool and several people here have BC in the Final Four? BC has Villanova, Big Ten Champ Ohio State, SEC tourney champ Florida, and a very dangerous Nevada team in its region. Not to mention a first round matchup with Pacific, a team with a solid record of pulling upsets in the last two tournaments. They don't really have any bad losses, unless you count losing by 18 to NC State. I just can't see them beating Pacific, Nevada, Villanova, and Ohio State/Florida/Georgetown in consecutive games.

Good points. But I think of the top four seeds in the Minneapolis Region, BC has the toughest first and second round games. They have to run a tougher gauntlet than OSU, Florida, and Villanova to get to the Sweet 16. That's as it should be, given the seeding. I just don't see anything all that special in BC and don't understand why so many people think they will take Villanova, OSU and/or Florida.

Now we have to see if BC takes it as a wake-up call or if it a sign of things to come. Either way, Nevada in the Sweet 16 is looking pretty good to me right now.

Montana is just about to put away Nevada. Marquette has stormed back and is now down just one with under a minute to play. Nevada and Marquette are both Sweet 16 teams for me. Looks like I'm taking it in the shorts this year.

My Hoosiers escaped. Not that I got to watch much of it. My CBS affiliate in Salt Lake was showing the Washington-Utah State game in its entirety. So, instead of seeing Syracuse getting bounced, Southern hanging with Duke for 25 minutes, or the close high-scoring IU-SDSU game, I got to see about 40 minutes of turnovers, off-balance three point attempts, and blown lay-ups. It was a real treat.

My bracket is kind of screwed right now. I still have all my Elite 8 teams in, but two of my Sweet 16 teams are already out.

So far the SEC is 4-0. Who would've guessed? The Big Ten is 2-0, the ACC is 2-0, the Big 12 is 1-1, and the Big East is 0-3. Of course, the Big East teams who lost were the last three teams from that Conference to get in. It's just funny that after the first day of the tournament, the Missouri Valley, the A-10, the Big Sky, the WCC and the Horizon Conference have more wins than the best conference in the nation.

For those who grew up watching Alford, he is a freaking institution in that state. He was the best high school basketball player in Indiana's history until Damon Bailey came along. He lead IU to the National Title in 1987. That's a lifetime of goodwill to the Hoosier faithful right there.

In addition, he did a great job turning around a joke of a Div III program in Manchester College (which I attended during the Alford years), taking them to a #2 national ranking and the national title game in his third full year as coach. He did it through recruiting Div I and Div II transfers. One of the stars on that team left behind a scholarship at North Carolina. Alford then took SW Missouri State to the Sweet 16 with a bunch of former Indiana high school prospects (Including Indiana Mr. Basketball Kevin Ault) he recruited at the expense of IU and Purdue. His performance at Iowa is almost beside the point.

The Hoosier faithful want their Golden Boy to come home. The idea is that he is a competent coach who learned at the feet of the General who would be able to recruit a lot of the top Indiana high school prospects in state. A lot of IU fans haven't forgiven Mike Davis for not landing Sean May, Greg Oden, Josh Smith, and others. They think Alford + IU = Recruiting Success.