March madness returns

Posted by admin on Mar 21, 2007 in Sports | 0 comments

There’s nothing that gets the heart rate climbing and your GPA falling quite like March Madness.

Every year this action-packed tournament keeps us glued to our couches as we watch basketball that ranges from epic to all right to downright unwatchable. Day one of the tournament would mostly fall under the category of the latter. The “brick-fest” between Michigan State and Marquette actually managed to put me to sleep. March Madness? More like March Badness!

But the reason you endure games like that is because every so often a game comes along that you would never forgive yourself for missing. Last year, I was forced to miss the UCLA versus Gonzaga game and had to listen to everyone telling me how great it was and how I will never see another game like it in my life. It was not fun.

Day one of the this year’s tournament had one of these can’t-miss games. Watching Virginia Commonwealth beat Duke University was the most fun I have had watching basketball in a long time. Everyone loves to see upsets, especially upsets involving a school you’ve never heard of beating a school whose head coach is the star of an American Express commercial.

Sure Duke may not have had their best team this year, but they’re still the evil Duke Blue Devils. Do you think any of Duke’s NCAA poster boys could have picked Eric Maynor, the guard who hit the winning shot, out of a police line-up before this tournament started? No way. And that’s why it’s so much fun to watch these games. We might not see any of these Virginia Commonwealth players in the NBA. We might not even see them in the NCAA tournament next year (last year’s cinderella, George Mason University, didn’t make it back this season). But on this one night, Virginia Commonwealth made a name for themselves, putting their school in the national spotlight.

And now that I’ve shared that heartfelt story, I will give you my final four picks. Keep in mind, these predictions are being made last Friday afternoon, so even as you read this, everything I say may have been rendered moot already. Nonetheless, I will extract some wisdom out of my crystal ball.

My top choice for the win is North Carolina. This year’s UNC team reminds me of the group that won the tournament a few years back. They are young but as talented as anyone in the field. I also like their sophomore forward Tyler Hansbrough, who plays with the intensity of a wounded Viking warrior.

I am expecting the Oregon Ducks to emerge out of the Midwest, even though I just watched them squeak out a win against Miami of Ohio in the first round. The game was certainly not the way a team wants to kick off the tournament, but I think they will get it together and make a run. Point guard Aaron Brooks gives them an experienced leader in the backcourt.

The last two of my final four is the UCLA Bruins, the team that reduced Adam Morrison to tears in last year’s tourney, and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Look for these teams to make some noise this coming week, if they haven’t been muzzled already. And remember, if UCLA and Gonzaga have taught us anything, it’s that every game is a must see.