Prognosticating Poorly

If you would have asked me before the NCAA men's basketball tournament if Richmond, Va. would send two teams to the Sweet 16, I would have responded: "Richmond has more than one Division I basketball team?"

Regardless, VCU and Richmond are headed to San Antonio and stand two wins away from the Final Four. Toss in Florida State and the Southwest Region has three teams that weren't high on the list of prospective Sweet Sixteeners. It may not matter if Kansas plays like Kansas and blows out the #10, #11, and #12 seeds on the way to Houston.

As the title of this entry has indicated, my bracket is sort of in shambles (depending on how you evaluate such matters). Three of my Final Four teams are still in tact, with Pittsburgh being the lone letdown (which is almost to be expected now, year in and year out.) Purdue was gone in the third round, mainly because VCU was on a roll and when you have coach Shaka Smart playing the hardest defense on the court and he's in a tie, the Rams will be in the game.

I claimed that Michigan State would put together a run. That didn't happen and they did all they could to pull within two points as the final horn sounded in a loss to UCLA. (Think about what would have happened if Izzo would have taken the Cleveland Cavs job. My goodness. He would be so angry at all of the terrible players in Cleveland and Michigan State probably wouldn't have sniffed the field of 68 this year.)

However, my claim about Kemba Walker and Jimmer Fredette carrying their respective teams has never been more apparent and they will be huge for whatever run those teams can get on this weekend.

Some Other Tourney Thoughts

• Time to stop doubting Butler. Brad Stevens is probably a top-5 coach in the land. Or the top coach who looks like he's under 25. (For the record, he's 34.)
• I'm most psyched about that Southeast region. BYU vs. Florida, Wisconsin vs. Butler. That will be undoubtedly awesome.
• I liked the four-channel setup. Long overdue and I liked having the control of what game I was able to watch. Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith are nice addition, even though the Round Mound doesn't always know what he is talking about. (He does give Rick Pitino a piece of his mind here.) 
• I would have liked to see Oakland pull out that game versus Texas but the Golden Grizzlies didn't have enough to do the trick. Too bad, because OU and the Summit League could have used a win or two.

Women's Wrap-up
The Jackrabbit women are done for the year, after a 74-56 loss to second-seed Xavier. I would go into deep analysis but the Musketeers were really good, even though they dropped their second round match-up with Louisville.

It's hard to think of this season as anything but a success, with the Jacks notching their third conference championship in as many tries. For where this team was in the middle of January, another trip to the dance will sit well with SDSU over the summer. 

Some Twins thoughts will be coming in the next few days, along with whatever else I can think of. However, I won't make any weather predictions. Thanks for reading.