2015 NCAA Tournament thread

First world problems

 

Chuck's deal isn't so much that he doesn't know, it's that he doesn't care.

I like his ads with Spike Lee and Samuel Jackson. His studio work? Turrible.

 

On another board, one of my friends has a bracket that's in the 99.7 percentile of ESPN submissions. This will shock you, but she's not a huge college basketball nerd, so outside of being told to avoid picking 15 or 16 seeds to advance, she mostly did it at random.

 

2 7 seeds an 8 and an 11. Not exactly a stretch. If you filled out a chalk bracket, like I did on ESPN, you are in the 85.8 percentile. But I have other brackets that are the same or close but have more possible future points.
Wichita State is the only 'Mid Major' team playing above its seeding and Gonzaga is the only other 'Mid Major' still playing. Neither is a legitimate dark horse, under dog, Cinderella... If Kentucky wins it all, it will be a memorable tourney, otherwise, its like good soft core porn; no redeeming value but kind of fun and kitchy in short spurts.

Most games have been competitive and exciting. But if you are looking for quality, you can miss the the first weekend.

 

It's been a very good tournament so far. I don't think either No. 7 seed in the Sweet 16 is much of a surprise. Both teams probably should have been no worse than No. 5 seeds and they both had matchups against teams that had struggled a bit lately or had dealt with injuries. It's pretty funny when the biggest "Cinderella" and I say that in jest is the most successful program in tournament history. It was the same thing last year when people were comparing Kentucky to the 1985 Villanova team because of the No. 8 seed... Uh, no... Sorry...

If you had told me before the tournament that no No. 12 seed would win, I would probably have guessed that it would be a pretty mediocre tournament, but I've thought this has been a pretty damn good one thus far.

 

UCLA also might be the luckiest team in tournament history. Win Round 1 on a phantom goal-tend, win Round 2 against a 15-loss team.

 

Yeah, hard to argue with that one. It's amazing how that the luck of 1. Making the tournament, 2. Getting a gift of a win and 3. Getting an incredibly favorable game in the Round of 32 can turn UCLA's season into a perceived success. It's also not absurd to think they can beat Gonzaga.

 

Michigan State and Wichita State are both favored against No. 3 seeds.

 

Wichita v. Notre Dame will be a terrific game.

 

Someone's got to knock off Kentucky now.
It's a better story if the prohibitive favorite doesn't win it all.

 

I was thinking maybe Wichita State could be the one to knock off Kentucky. A lot of tournament experience on that team, but then I think about Kentucky's size and not sure the Shockers can handle that. Maybe Arizona has a shot to do it.

I wouldn't mind seeing Kentucky lose, but it would be pretty cool if they ran it out 40-0. Something we haven't seen in almost two generations. Either way, it should be an entertaining watch.

And I will say I really enjoy watching Ron Baker play the game.

 

I have a couple of rooting interests in Kentucky (I covered one of their players in high school and my mom's whole family is from not far from Lexington), but I always root for history unless my team would be on the losing end. Same reason I was pulling for the Patriots to go 19-0.