Ohio State Gets Two Seed In Bracket Of Death
Midwest Region
Oklahoma City
Thursday, March 18
(1) Kansas vs. (16) Lehigh
(8) UNLV vs. (9) Northern Iowa
Spokane
Friday, March 19
(5) Michigan State vs. (12) New Mexico State
(4) Maryland vs. (13) Houston
Providence
Thursday, March 18
(6) Tennessee vs. (11) San Diego State
(3) Georgetown vs. (14) Ohio U.
Milwaukee
Friday, March 19
(7) Oklahoma State vs. (10) Georgia Tech
(2) Ohio State vs. (15) UC-Santa Barbara
At this point, I don’t have much insight to provide other than to marvel at the depth of this bracket compared to the laughable one that Duke heads. The bracket has the no. 1 overall seed, Kansas followed by the no. 2 Buckeyes, which has the leading candidate for the Naismith Award. Beyond that, the no. 3 seed is Georgetown, which has a strong post presence in Greg Monroe and is catching fire at exactly the right time. The no. 4 seed is Maryland, the co-champs of the ACC and no. 5 is Michigan State, coached by Tom Izzo (one of the best, if not the best, tournament coach around). No. 6 is Tennessee, who boasts victories over two no. 1 seeds (Kansas, Kentucky). Further, the winner of the 7-10 matchup — Oklahoma State (who beat Kansas) or Georgia Tech — provides the Buckeyes (likely winners over UC Santa Barbara) a tougher matchup than they would get from any of the other 7-10 matchups (Clemson-Missouri, Richmond-Saint Mary’s, Brigham Young-Florida).
Very exciting for the basketball fan, but one wonders how the Selection Committee managed to load so much into one bracket. Compare the talent pool of the Midwest to the talent pool from South. The Midwest has Evan Turner, James Anderson, Xavier Henry, Cole Aldrich, Greg Monroe, Derrick Favors and some quality players like Chism and Hopson from Tennessee. The South, by comparison, does not appear to have a lottery pick.
More to come, obviously, but the suspense is over and Ohio State knows when and where it’ll be dancing.
Minor Thoughts
- Wisconsin gets Wofford in a 4-13 matchup that I’m pretty sure was set up by Bret Bielema.
- I know they beat Michigan State and Tennessee, but I can’t justify Florida being in. They bottomed out down the stretch and still have that loss to South Alabama staring at them. I also speak out of lots of spite. You go to hell Joakim Noah, do you hear me?
- Marquette wins the selection show for being live, via satellite, from an Applebee’s.
- Winthrop wins the silver medal of the selection show for dressing in totally mismatching polo/khaki combinations, very much indicative of that weird “dress code” my high school team had on the day of a game.
- Kentucky v. Texas should be very, very interesting, provided Texas can dispatch Wake Forest.
- Syracuse-Vermont as a 1-16 seed is interesting, if only because Vermont had its best victory in program history against Syracuse, upsetting them in a 4-13 matchup in 2005.
- The Pac-10 tournament champion is an 11-seed. The regular season champion is an 8-seed. Ouch.
This is why I oppose a playoff for DI. Even counting the sabotage called refining of the BCS by removing strength of schedule and such. The brackets were set up so Syracuse and Duke would have it easy. There is no other explination. Speaking of the ‘Cuse, they and their coach are the most over rated program. Carmello isnt’ bribed enough, and all Boehim has is a bunch of early “upsets” by lower seeds.
Wow, the Midwest bracket looks pretty strong. I guess that if you are going to be National Champion, you’re going to have to beat these guys at some point, so might as well get it done in your own Region. Having said that, yeah, the Duke region looks pretty weak, and the Kentucky one doesn’t look much stronger.
Florida also lost to Richmond early in the season…. they are NOT good……. NO dominant teams this year–ANYONE of these teams CAN be beat and OSU playing its best B-ball at the right time….. I like OSU to the elite 8– and then a little luck to the championshiop game.