Bracket Breakdown

The first post of the most wonderful week of the year. March Madness is back and as always, The Poop will have you covered.

I think the Committee got the #1 seeds correct. Florida and Arizona are obvious on all aspects of their resumes, and Wichita State definitely deserved a #1 with their performance. Virginia was a deserving top seed because they won a tough conference in the regular season and in the tournament. Clearly they were the 4th #1, and got credit for finishing strong after 5 early losses (though 3 were to top 15 RPI teams, VCU, Wisconsin and Duke).

But why didn't Louisville get the same respect for finishing strong? Because they have a week resume, only 19th in the RPI, no top 20 wins, their best wins are UConn 3 times and Cincy once. Most of the teams they were competing with played and won tougher games out of conference and in.

The American Athletic Conference had 5 strong teams, but also 5 very weak ones. And the 8th place conference ranking clearly cost SMU an at-large berth. Their only big wins are UConn twice and Cincy, and had no other wins to speak off. Not only that, the bad losses piled up, South Florida, Temple (they went 9-22 this season, worst in school history) and Houston in the conference tournament.

One of the last teams in, and most controversial was NC State, because they had 13 losses. But 7 of those were to top 30 teams.

But it keeps the Committee's trend of rewarding teams with worse records and tougher schedules, in and out of conference.

Southern Miss and Toledo got left out with RPIs in the 30s and SOS in the 130s. Xavier and Iowa made it in however. Iowa was the lowest RPI team (#64) to get an at-large bid. But they will play in the play-in games.

Note: This is a good time to mention that until they expand to 96 teams I will never call the first round the first round. It will be play-in games. I hope you will join me in my silent protest of the NCAA's assault on tradition, common sense logic and everything that makes filling a bracket out fun and easy.

I think the South is the strongest region, at least up top because Florida is the best #1 and if Joel Embiid is healthy, and he may be by week 2 of the tournament, Kansas is the toughest #2 seed.

Everyone thinks the Midwest is murder because of Duke and Louisville as a 3 and 4 but I think Wichita State and Michigan are vulnerable top seeds.

The East with Virginia and Villanova is definitely the weakest, so much so that #4 Michigan State is the 2nd choice in Vegas to win the whole thing.

Stephen F. Austin over VCU is the popular 12 over 5 upset pick. If you believe the extra game helps teams, then maybe you like the NC State/Xavier winner over St. Louis. I would also keep my eye on North Dakota St. vs Oklahoma. But Cincinnati probably has too much size to let Harvard win a second straight first rounder.

A 13 has beaten a 4 six straight years. If we love Michigan State and Louisville then our choices are New Mexico State over San Diego State or Tulsa over UCLA. 20 years ago Tulsa beat UCLA in a 12/5 game and then beat the 4 seed too to make the Sweet 16. Tulsa was coached by Tubby Smith. The current coach of Tulsa, Danny Manning.