The Final Four is Set and No One is More Surprised Than I Am

Saturday morning things were starting to look pretty rosy for my bracket. I had Kansas State, Kentucky and Baylor, and can’t believe none of those teams won.

I’m even more shocked that 200 people have all four final four teams correct on espn.com’s tournament challenge.

Butler beat Kansas State in almost the exact same way as they beat Syracuse. They got out to an early lead (20-10). They forced a lot of turnovers (20). They gave up the lead late in the second half (52-51). They went on a run (12-4) to seal the game and scored the same amount of points (63).

West Virginia beating Kentucky to me is one of the biggest surprises of the tournament. I still don’t know how they did it so easily. Joe Missoula picked a good time to have the best game of his career.

Tom Izzo is a fuckin genius. In the last 12 years he made the Final Four 6 times. He’s done it as a favorite, a 1 seed three times and a 2 seed last year. He's also done it as a 5 seed without beating any higher seed teams (this year). And he's done it as a 5 seed by beating the #1 and #2 seeds (2005, when he played Vermont in the second round, fresh off their upset of Syracuse). The only time he lost an Elite Game they were a 7 seed. The numbers on Izzo and Michigan State are just amazing. And since he’s done it with three distinct groups of players he has to have at least some hand in the success.

I'm still impressed with Baylor even though they lost. LaceDarius Dunn and Tweety Carter are awesome, and Epke Udoh is one of the most athletic big men in the nation.

I think they got screwed by a bad call. With 4 and a half minutes left Quincy Acy drove and hit a teardrop over Greg Zoubek. But he was called with a questionable charge. I think Zoubek was still moving. The call completely changed the game. Instead of a 4-point lead, Baylor was up 2, and down 1 a few seconds later.

Duke did nothing to dispel its reputation as a team of annoying white pussies. Kyle Singler didn't show up, missing all 10 shots from the field. Scheyer also looked like a little bitch when he swung his elbows and started a minor incident which inexplicably ended with only Quincy Acy getting teed up.

But I will give Duke credit, they are tougher this year than most Duke teams have been, and their work on the offensive glass won this game for them.