Let the Madness Begin

Well here we are again - easily the most exciting sporting event on television year in and year out. Gotta admit, this one kind of snuck up on me this year. Pretty good series of conference tourney games - was fortunate enough to catch some of the good games. Great thing about this year is that there are a handful of really good teams and another half dozen good teams - but not a single team that is head and shoulders above the rest. I predict madness in many, many brackets this year as I think this is a year when there are 5-6 teams that have a legit shot of taking it all.

Let's start with this obvious tid-bit - Colorado got absolutely sucker punched. I wonder if the good people in Boulder are off of suicide watch yet....I'm sure they've got some herbal "supplements" to help them cope. Either way, would have liked to have seen them play in the tournament.

Here are my takes by region....

East Region:

• For the overall number one seed, Ohio State sure pulled a tough region with four Big East teams and UNC as the number 2 seed, and make no mistake they are peaking at the right time. Throw in Kentucky and a dangerous Washington team and these guys didn't necessarily get an "easy" path to the final four. But again, lot of depth in this tournament.
  
• Some killer potential second rounders in this region - W. Virginia and Kentucky, Marquette and Syracuse, and Washington and UNC. Could some great weekend ball.
  
• I've got Ohio State as one of the first 1 seeds to fall, and I've got Kentucky in my championship game - so kind of big one for me.
  
• Syracuse pulled a crappy draw for a 3 seed.
  

West Region:

• I will admit the 4 seed is a little crazy for Texas, but I get the thinking - but body of work is far more impressive than the 3 losses late. With that said, a pretty favorable draw. I've got them going to the Elite 8 and losing to UCONN.
  
• Call me crazy, but Texas matches up well with Duke. If they play defense like they did during the month of February, and with their physical play inside, they'll be a beast for Duke to face for 40 minutes. That's IF they can focus and play with intensity we know they can do.
  
• Assuming Zona wins the first round against Memphis, Texas will throttle them.
  
• Final note on Texas - don't sleep on Oakland, they have a good inside game...not saying Texas will lose, but they won't walk away - they'll fight for their win. Talent gap is simply too large.
  
• Admittedly haven't seen San Diego State play, but have read some about them - looking forward to seeing what they can do.
  
• This region is UCONN's to lose - they are so talented, battle tested and have a player in Walker who can single-handily win you games (which he's done a half dozen times this year).

Southwest Region:

• And here's the bracket where my champion comes from - Notre Dame. Call me crazy, but I'm going with it...
• This region has my token 12 over a 5 with Richmond taking down Vandy.
  
• Kansas, to me, looks like the overall number 1 seed with that draw - Boston U, Illinois/UNLV, and so on, and so on....run the scenarios - that's an easy draw, relatively speaking.
  
• Georgetown is interesting - I don't think they're as near as dangerous as most other Big East teams, but yet look at their draw. Again, favorable any way you cut it. Assuming they get by VCU they would then get (likely) Purdue. Not a bad path to the Sweet 16. The Big 10 is awful.
  

Southeast Region:

• Here's one of my few strong gut feeling proclamations for this year's tournament - Wisconsin will knock off Pittsburgh with their defense. The Panthers will struggle to score and that will kill them.
  
• Remember my point on Syracuse as 3 seed? Look at BYU - that's not a bad draw at all - I've got them in my final four for a reason. Florida is by and far the most overrated 2 seed which is big for the Mormons.
  
• Yeah, Florida is going to struggle. BYU will take this region and run away with it.
  

Final Four:
Kentucky over UCONN
Notre Dame over BYU

Notre Dame over Kentucky in finals.....not betting $$ this year, but if I were, this is one of those "high risk/high reward" brackets.

NBA:
OK, I'm getting real excited for playoffs to start. Lakers have had a GREAT run since that piss-poor ending before the All-Star break. They won't catch the Spurs for the top spot, but they'll catch and pass Dallas, that's almost a given. Dallas always crumbles and they'll do it again.

I think the west will be far less daunting this year than it has in past years. When Melo and Chauncey went to New York it really shifted the balance in the West. Still have Spurs, Lakers, Mavs and Thunder, but after that it gets sketchy. Not buying Denver in the playoffs, nor am I thinking Portland is going to make any noise.

East is a juggernaut - barring a major injury I'm still putting my money on Boston with Chicago, Miami and Orlando very close behind. The Bulls look TOUGH right now. Not a ton of playoff experience, but enough - wouldn't be surprised at all to see them in the Finals.

PS - Derrick Rose is the MVP and there's not a close second.

Non-Sports Thoughts for the Week:
Flew Frontier Airlines for the first time this past week - pretty good experience. However, one weird moment - leaving Denver for Austin and the flight was at 7:15pm with boarding time coming at 6:40. Having a drink before the flight and at 6:48 we pay our bill and head to our gate. Arrive at gate at 6:52 and there's not a soul there and the door is shut. The guy asks us if we're on the flight to Austin and we say yes. He responds, "well, we just called final boarding a couple of minutes ago, you've got to hurry". He opens the door and we run down the tunnel where we make it in time....we were the last ones on the plane. Here's my question: If you were really boarding at 6:40pm, how in the hell did you get all of those people on that flight so fast? I've never experienced/seen anything like that before.

One final note - when the flight attendant was going through her routine and she says, "flight time is scheduled for 2 hours and 4 minutes, but our pilot thinks he can do it in an hour and 39 minutes....so we'll see." Huh. By the way, we made it in about an hour and 39 minutes.

Enjoy the madness....