A tournament full of losers

Florida, UCLA, Georgetown and Ohio State.

These are the survivors of this years madness that is the NCAA tournament. I say survivors because in all honesty that's what it comes down to. You don't have to win. You just have to not lose.

There is a difference.

Most of the teams that advanced to this week's Final Four did so by simply not losing their games. But just look at the teams that didn't make it, and you'll understand my point. Here's just two examples.

North Carolina -
The Tar Heels held an 11-point lead over the Hoyas in the second half, and decided that they had it won. They took the rest of the night off. Seriously. They made two field goal - two! - in the final seven minutes of regulation and overtime. With all due respect to Georgetown, UNC just flat out lost this game.

Kansas -
I love my Jayhawks. I picked them to win it all. But I've never seen a team lose it like KU did against UCLA. Missed lay ups. Fumbled passes. Blown dunks. Was I watching a JV game? It sure seemed like it. UCLA did play a solid game, but Kansas didn't come close to providing a challenge once the Bruins made a second-half surge. UCLA didn't win that game. Kansas lost it.

Similar things can be said for Texas, because even though USC played one of their best games of the season, the Longhorns not named Durant didn't show up. Losers. Hell, one round later, USC blew a 16 point lead to UNC. Foul trouble and sloppy basketball contributed to USC losing.

Xaiver had beaten Ohio State. They were up by three and Ohio State had only a prayer of a chance to force overtime. Foul a Buckeye, they shoot two free throws and Xaiver advances to play Tennessee in the Elite Eight. Instead Xaiver doesn't foul, Ohio State gets a buzzer-beating three pointer. Buckeyes advance, Xaiver lost it.

The one team that got to the Final Four without the help of another team just flat out losing is Florida. I know they've had close calls, and as a 1-seed they should be winning these games, but their opponents have all played them tight. Their opponents haven't purely folded like a cheap plastic chair you set out for a PTA meeting in the school cafeteria. There hasn't been amazing wins so much as there have been catastrophic loses. The loses are defining this tournament.

So congratulations to the final four participants of the tourney. Florida, UCLA, Georgetown and Ohio State. Perhaps this weekend it won't be a court full of losers.

Seeds of doubt not to be found in this tourney

Half of the Elite Eight is set.

No. 1 Ohio State versus No. 2 Memphis. No. 1 Kansas versus No. 2 UCLA.

I still don't know what to make of this tournament. I guess it's easy to say that the seeding committee "got it right" this postseason. But with the possibility of all four top seeds making the Elite Eight, this tournament seems a little bland.

Don't get me wrong. The games are still exciting. It's fun to keep track of the whole tournament on my now scratched up, screwed up bracket. But with the lack of upsets in this tournament, it really does make you appreciate the George Mason-type teams that make completely unexpected runs to the Final Four.

If USC gets past UNC, or Oregon or UNLV can upset Florida, that will bring about the same effect. But if the Elite Eight consists of three 1 vs. 2 match ups and a 1 vs. 3, this NCAA tournament will have one thing that you don't see when Cinderella schools are still playing at this point in the tournament.

Better match ups. Tighter games. More exciting outcomes.

In the Final Four last season, Florida essentially pulled down George Mason's pants. Of course, it wasn't really an embarrassment for an 11-seed who I believe was just happy to be there. But the game was never close. The only people who were happy about the blowout in the championship game last season live in Gainesville.

Maybe that was just because Florida was that good, or that George Mason and UCLA weren't the complete teams that we see in this year's tournament. The complete teams had been upset earlier in the tournament.

But with no major upsets (except No. 7 UNLV over No. 2 Wisconsin) in this tournament, the Elite Eight and Final Four games will be a lot closer and a lot more exciting for the fans.

Determining a champion

It's crazy. It's insane. It's pure madness. The NCAA men's basketball tournament is set. But this week - before the tourney tips off - is arguably more fun for fans than some of the actual games. Now is the time to make your picks and determine your bracket.

Some analysts (and some of my friends who think they could be analysts) will spend the next few days reading all sorts of online articles, studying scoring trends, and double-checking game-sites to make sure they have the correct picks to win their particular pools.

Others I know - mostly females - who still like to participate in the pools will be using a few different methods.

The coin-flip: heads, the higher seed wins; tails, the lower seed wins.

Style: which uniforms look the best (so much Oregon making a run at it).

Mascots: determining which animals or mascots would win in a fight (who knows, maybe the Davidson Wildcats will pull off that upset against glorified turtles in Maryland).

Geography: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas A&M - Corpus Christi, and - eh - Kansas (close enough). And if A&M or UT can't make it, perhaps the Mean Green of UNT or the Red Raiders of Texas Tech could fill in. Talk about state pride.

And there's just so many other ways to do it. How did I pick my bracket? The same way I do it every year: not straying from my roots of being a homer. I have several Texas-based schools in the elite eight. I have Kansas winning it all. This year the guy at the Jayhawks hotel better make sure they get their wake-up calls.

But with all these other "creative" and seemingly ridiculous ways of determining a March Madness bracket, I decided to give it a shot. So this year, I'm going to try to have a few bonus brackets I fill out - just for me, just for my own amusement - to see just what would happen if I leave it up to a penny to decide, or who my "fashion sense" tells me who will win. Sorry, Longhorns, but burnt orange ... it's not looking good. Then again, nothing looks better than Cardinal and Gold.

Let the madness begin.

National Bracket

And for anyone interested in the percentages in the national bracket of the percentage of people who thought Bucknell would win, here's the numbers:

3. Kansas (98.1%)
14. Bucknell (1.9%)

NOW TELL ME HOW THE CRAP BUCKNELL COMES OUT THERE AND PULLS AN UPSET? WHY NOT ANY OTHER TEAM? DID SOMEONE JUST DROP AN A-BOMB ON LAWRENCE, KANSAS?

I'm sure Bucknell fans are going to be upset with what I'm saying, but to them I must ask:

Did you really, honestly believe you had a chance at winning before the game?

NO!

Of course you didn't!

Don't worry. I don't blame you. Let's say the roles were reversed and USC was playing Kansas in the first round. I'd pick against 'SC because I'm a realist. 'SC has a bad team and nine times out of 10 wouldn't beat KU. Well nine times out of 10 clearly doesn't mean shit in March because all it takes is one.

Bucknell????

When I got online and checked my bracket, I couldn't believe my eyes. Who is Bucknell? I didn't even remember seeing them when I filled out the bracket. That's because I was too busy moving Kansas into the final four (or at least the elite eight)!!!

I filled out five brackets, each with a few upsets thrown in the mix. None of those upsets were a first-round Kansas loss to some school whose name I didn't bother even reading while filling out the bracket. I looked them over as if they were a 16 seed.

You know how you never even look who the 16 seed is. You just take the number one seed and put them through to the second round. Granted, a 16 has never beating a 1, and 14 seeds have taken down 3's, but Kansas was the preseason No. 1. Where the HELL did Bucknell come from?

I can't believe this. I don't even wanna watch the rest of the tourney after that. A second round loss by Kansas...I wouldn't have liked it, but I'd understand. I'd get over it. But a first-round exit to a team that no one except perhaps the most die-hard Bucknell fans picked, how was anyone supposed to see that coming.

I'm not complaining because they single-handedly ruined my bracket (I have plenty of other teams to thank for that), but I'm a KU fan as well. What a rough year for the Jayhawks. At leat, what a rough ending.