I’ll get into in-depth looks at each of
the four regional brackets and offer Thursday and Friday first-round matchup
projected winners later.
For now, though, on late Sunday
night/early Monday morning, some quick reactions to the 65-team field and
pairings that were announced on CBS Television Sunday evening:
*The East, on first (and brief)
inspection, appears to be the strongest of the regionals.
As the top seed, North Carolina is,
arguably (and as we’ve heard and read so often this season), the deepest and
most “talented” team in the country, with multiple standout players, especially,
in the freshmen and sophomore classes.
But are the Tar Heels the “best”
team in that regional?
Based on its play over the past
month or so (15 wins in their past 16 games since Jan. 17, including a 23-point
wipeout of Pittsburgh in the Big East final Saturday night), Georgetown very
well could be the best team, not only in the regional but in the entire field as
well.
Also in the East field: the best
player in the college basketball, Kevin Durant (and his Texas teammates),
a Washington State club whose success was the most surprising in the country, as
well as another quality Pac-10 club (USC).
And the East also has a Hall of
Fame coach (Bob Knight of Texas Tech, whose Indiana teams won three
national titles), and the coolest coaching “matchup” in the first round:
Michigan State and Tom Izzo against Marquette and his former assistant,
Tom Crean.
*There is little to fault in the
choice of the NCAA selection and seeding committee, chaired by Gary Walters,
of North Carolina, Ohio State (South), Florida (Midwest) and Kansas (West)
as the four regional No. 1 seeds.
UCLA seemed to have the No. 1
“overall” seed (which went to Florida) wrapped up – that is, until the Bruins
dropped consecutive games to Pac-10 foes Washington and California, neither of
which are in the NCAA Tournament or the National Invitation
Tournament.
But Ben Howland’s team, as
expected, has a path to Atlanta and the Final Four that it would only have to
travel by way of California (Sacramento, and, if the Bruins win two games, San
Jose).
*What do we call the showdown of 5
seed Butler and 12 Old Dominion in a Midwest game in Buffalo on Friday
afternoon?
How about The Mid-Major
Special?
How much did the Notre Dame-to-Indiana-to-Tennessee-to-Gonzaga four-win combo in November mean to
Butler (which lost in the Horizon Conference tournament final to Wright State),
in terms of the seed it got as an at-large selection?
And how important was the 75-62
victory at now-sizzling Georgetown on Nov. 19 to Old Dominion racking up one of
the very last of the at-large bids doled out?
Those are called “rhetorical
questions”.
*Stanford getting in (as a No. 11
seed that will play Louisville Friday in Lexington in a “Cardinal vs. Cardinals”
kind of deal) didn’t surprise me at all, even as some others, nationally and
regionally, assumed Coach Trent Johnson’s team was NIT-abound after four
losses in its most recent five games, including the OT defeat to USC Thursday in
the Pac-10 tournament in Los Angeles.
The Cardinal’ at-large resume – 10
wins in Pac-10 play, including those against UCLA (No. 2 seed), Washington State
(3), Oregon (3) and USC (5); and a victory at ACC co-champion Virginia – was
just too hard to dismiss.
And a couple of down-to-the-wire
recent losses (to Arizona and USC) came when Johnson’s best perimeter scorer,
Anthony Goods, was sidelined with a severe ankle sprain.
Also, apparently like everyone
else, I found Drexel’s absence from the at-large selections the most eyebrow
raising.
*Duke (as a 6) and Arizona (an 8)
got more advantageous seeds that I had anticipated, considering their records of
late.
The Blue Devils have lost seven of
their past 11 games; the Wildcats, nine of their past 17.
Obviously, the committee gave more
positive stock to their solid early starts (Duke 13-1, Arizona 12-1) than it
downgraded them for their recent play.
That being said, based on the
recent play of the other clubs in their respective brackets, Duke has a much
better opportunity to win multiple games in the tournament than does
Arizona.
If the Wildcats get by Purdue
Friday in New Orleans, their Sunday opponent (barring an upset of stupefying
proportions, Jackson State over Florida) would be the defending national
champion.
Ouch.
Inducted into the USBWA Hall of
Fame in April, 2005, Frank Burlison is Scout.com’s national basketball expert and is
also a columnist for the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram. He can be reached at
frank.burlison@presstelegram.com. Read more of Burlison’s pieces at
www.frankhoops.com