2011 NCAA Tournament Picks

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I've set out on a quest on different stracketagies to mold and form the perfect bracket this year. I officially submerged myself beyond the extent of reality more so than ever before, which sounds like enough of a reason to celebrate to me. A sampling of different stracketagies applied this year:

• Bass-ackwards - Picking a National Champion first, then working it inside out like a Blooming chrysanthemum. To see (hopefully) click here.
• Coin Flip - Pretty standard. Flip a coin for every game. Bet a dollar against Dave's coin flipper (although I could probably handle his real one too). My Final Four was Kentucky, Cincinnati, Illinois, and UC-Santa Barbara baby! Kentucky wins it all. Dave's has St. John's over Temple.
• Probability Coin Flip - The most extensive bracket of my career. I set probabilities on each game by multiples of 10% (for example: Xavier 60% over Marquette, Michigan vs. Tennessee 50%) and proceeded to let 10 dominoes carry out those percentages (for example: if Marquette had 6 dominoes turn up in its favor, then they advanced). Don't worry, I don't expect you to understand. Hell, I didn't even understand. I knew what I was taking part in was bigger than me, bigger than life itself. However, I must warn you the National Championship takes a nasty, vicious turn for KU fans. To see, (hopefully) click here.

The Dirkness' Bracket (Main Bracket):

East Region:

~First Round winners: Ohio St, George Mason, West Virginia, Kentucky, Xavier, 'Cuse, Washington, North Carolina
~Sweet 16: Ohio St, Kentucky, 'Cuse, UNC
~Elite 8: Kentucky, UNC
~Regional Champ: North Carolina

West Region:
~First Round winners: Duke, Michigan, Arizona, Oakland, Cincinnati, UConn, Temple, San Diego St
~Sweet 16: Duke, Arizona, UConn, Temple
~Elite 8: Arizona, Temple
~Regional Champ: Arizona

Southwest Region:
~First Round winners: KU, UNLV, Richmond, Morehead St (!), Georgetown, Purdue, Texas A&M, Notre Dame
~Sweet 16: KU, Richmond, Purdue, Notre Dame
~Elite 8: KU, Purdue
~Regional Champ: Kansas

Southeast Region:
~First Round winners: Pitt, Old Dominion, K-State, Wisconsin, Gonzaga, BYU, UCLA, Florida
~Sweet 16: Pitt, K-State, 'Zaga, Florida
~Elite 8: Pitt, Florida
~Regional Champ: Pittsburgh

Final Four:
~North Carolina over Arizona
~Pittsburgh over Kansas

National Championship:
~Pittsburgh over North Carolina

Up to my hambone in brackets,
His Bracketness

Kansas' NCAA Tournament Mindset

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By now, I'm sure you have heard all of the post-bracket release chatter about Kansas drawing the toughest region of the four. It was the lead off to every ESPN show on Monday. Now, I believe they have the toughest bracket when examining as a whole, but most of the scary teams come from the bottom half of the Midwest bracket opposite of Kansas. As I stated last entry, I believe Kentucky has the toughest path to reach the Final Four (of the top seeds DBZ), and Ohio St or West Virginia has the biggest gripe. The committee gave those four teams, the best four teams in the country right now, no love. However, I don't see this as a negative thing for Kansas at all, and in fact think this will benefit them.

Now how could facing a bigger challenge than another team be a good thing? Well, realistically, it doesn't make sense. Tangibly, it does not make sense. So how does it make sense? Mentality. Instead of going into this tournament with the mindset of being the overall favorite, with anything short of a National Championship being considered a choke job, they go into it with an extra chip on their shoulder. Remember, these kids are watching the exact same sports shows we are watching. They are wandering why we got screwed just as much as Kansas fans everywhere. Hopefully, this means that they are not focused on 10 of the 13 talking heads from ESPN picking Kansas to win it all. I will forever be convinced that a team will play with more heart when their attitude reflects an "us against the world" mindset. Mentality.

Let's take a look at the recent history of KU bringing a 1 seed into the Tournament: 1995- Lost to 4th seeded Virginia- don't remember. 1997- Lost to 4th seeded Arizona- possibly best KU team ever losing to the eventual National Champion. 1998- Lost to 8th seeded Rhode Island- worst of the batch, especially since in came to the dislikable L'Odom. 2002- Lost to 1 seed Maryland in the Final Four- Nothing too shabby. 2007- Lost to 2nd seeded UCLA- technically an upset, but UCLA was the better team. 2008- National Championship. The trend seems to be on the upswing, with most of the big upsets occurring in the 90's, but I assure you if you asked an avid Big East fan their perception of Kansas, it would not be too kind. Perception.

I see this tournament as Kansas' chance to forever move past their mantra of being soft favorites come March. Maybe it's just me that is still caught up on this. Maybe most Kansas fans moved past it with the 2008 National Championship. But, they were not the favorite in that tournament. They were a one seed, but the lowest ranked of the one seeds. They thrived in the underdog role once reaching the Final Four. They almost gagged with being the huge favorites against lil' Davidson. I now want that exact same path for every future KU team because I've seen it work. Triumph.

A National Championship completely erases anything ugly from the recent history of Kansas basketball. They would find themselves sitting atop this generation of College Basketball. They have an opportunity to triumph over their perceived image, in the exact situation that led to that image. Hopefully, the tough draw has provided them with the correct mindset necessary to win it all. Mentality. Perception. Triumph.

Dirkness

NCAA Tournament Thoughts

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The brackets have just been released and I'm debating whether my favorite sports time of the year are the days between Selection Sunday and the first game tip-off, or the actual first four days of the Tournament. I love me some brackets. They get me feeling like this....

I plan on doing many entries over the next week, so for now I'm just going to throw down some early thoughts and discoveries on what we got here:

~I'll start by stating for the record just how against the idea of Tournament expansion I am. I think its a terrible, terrible, terrible, turrrrrible idea. You're altering the most perfect thing in sports if you do.

~All I hear about is how tough a job the selection committee, but I think they gave a lame effort, especially concerning the 1-2 seed matchups. Matchups should go 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 in terms of overall rankings. Yet, somehow, the two best 2 seeds (West Virginia and Ohio St.) got matched up against the top two overall seeds (Kansas and Kentucky.) The chairman even admitted that West VA was the top rated 2 seed in the tournament, yet drew the second overall team in Kentucky. Matchups should have been as follows: KU-Villanova, Kentucky-Kansas St, Duke-Villanova, Syracuse-Ohio St. I'm available and would love a seat on the committee by the way...

~I don't understand why the committee removed the use of teams' last 10 games as a part of the evaluation process. Opposed to College Football, where I believe the season should be judged as a whole, College Basketball is all about the Tournament, and the teams playing the best right now should be selected.

~My rank of the toughest regions overall: 1. Midwest, 2. East, 3. West, 4. South

~I think Kentucky got stuck with the toughest path to the Final Four, when examining possible Texas-Wisconsin-West Virginia path. They have to hope Texas doesn't regain their swagger (or find where Dexter Pittman is hiding). They will be forced to play fundamentally sound against Wisconsin, led by the most underrated coach in the country, Bo Ryan. West Virginia comes next, and lets just say that last night I imagined my National Championship matchup to be Kentucky-West Virginia. I hope that showdown occurs. It reminds me of the Michigan St-Iowa St Elite Eight game from 2000, where the two best teams may have met before the Final Four (Shout-outs to Mateen Cleaves and Marcus Fizer).

~~No idea how Duke got a higher seed than Syracuse with more losses in a way worse conference. Then they are awarded with the easiest region? Despite that, I will not be picking Duke to go far.

~Greg Anthony embarrassed himself on national television by picking all 1 and 2 seeds to make the Elite Eight right after they were announced on CBS. Greg, you realize a robot could make those picks right? Anyone sharing the same picks as Greg: Please don't talk to me the next four days. That includes you Digger.

~4 of the 5 Chalk Monsters on ESPN picked Kansas to win it all. Scary. If they can overcome the high expectations by, lets say, atleast getting to the Final Four, then it is inarguably time to separate KU's questionably soft stigma into Roy Williams-era Jayhawks and Bill Self-era Jayhawks.

~Beware of the upsets that are being overpicked, especially the ones called out on the Selection Show. Remember, those teams are watching the show, which can provide an edge in motivation throughout the week.

More coming this week including a breakdown of KU's path to the Final Four, first round upsets that I like, and possible second round matchups that have me excited.