The Destin Log is the twice-weekly newspaper devoted to covering the crown jewel of the Emerald Coast.
Every Bottom Line reader is invited to join The Bottom Line Bracket Challenge on Facebook. If you’re a registered Facebook user, just click the link below and sign up. The winner of the challenge will receive a shout-out right here on The Bottom Line and a summation by yours truly on their un-ending genius in the art of bracket selection. Good luck!
For those of you who believe all of the NCAA allegations to be gospel, truth and absolute, consider this story today out of Norman, Oklahoma:
“An NCAA appeals committee partially overturned its ruling in the infractions case involving former Sooners quarterback Rhett Bomar.
The NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee said Oklahoma should not have been found guilty of separate violations for failing to detect football players were working at a Norman, Okla., car dealership and failing to monitor those students’ employment.”
The NCAA had originally vacated the eight wins the Sooners earned in 2005. Those wins have been reinstated.
Day 1 was a pretty good day for me. I think it’s my best day in recent memory.
My only two losses were:
VCU 79, Duke 77
Easily the best finish of the day and was also my first loss of the day. As much as I would have liked to run the day 16-for-16, seeing Duke head out of the tournament in the first round was totally worth it. Pitt struggled with Wright State last night but I don’t think that the Panthers will have any trouble disposing of the Rams. I don’t see this year’s Colonial champs as a repeat of George Mason.
Michigan State 61, Marquette 49
(I think I like this picture so much because it looks like Tom Crean is singing) Plainly, Marquette just didn’t show up. You’ve got to give some credit to Tom Izzo. This is obviously one of Izzo’s least talented teams in recent memory but he has this kids believing in the system and playing great defense. They held Marquette to just 31% percent from the field and judging by the way North Carolina let Eastern Kentucky back into the game in the second half last night, the second round showdown between Roy Williams and Tom Izzo becomes a whole lot more interesting.
The question of the moment for all the bracketologists (Thank Christ the field was announced.. something about Joe Lunardi’s smug smile made me want to hit him in the face with a waffle iron) was Who is this year’s George Mason?
My answer is that we hopefully won’t have one. I firmly believe that upsets.. like the one’s we saw last year’s are bad for fans and bad for the tournament. A couple of upsets into the first weekend makes for exciting games and chatter about shattered brackets but who wants to see a sweet 16 match-up between Ohio St. and Albany? Not this guy.
People who fancy themselves as college basketball fans like to try to pick upsets. It’s the challenge of the bracket and frankly it’s the reason people like it so much. The chance to pick an upset that no one saw coming is the reason why people are Oral Roberts to beat Washington St.
But that being said, here’s a couple of my upset specials before the games tip-off.
As much as I hate the Crybaby, Bruce Weber has his team playing good basketball at the right time of year. When you match the Illini with the wildly inconsistent Hokies of Virginia Tech, I think it’s completely plausible that the 12-seed Illini bump off 5th seed Virginia Tech.
The only 10-seed that I have beating a 7. I think this team, between Thaddeus Young and Javaris Crittenton has the potential to run a team out of the gym. UNLV is a tough defensive team but I think the Yellow Jackets have seen a tougher schedule and are frankly better than the Runnin’ Rebs. Had the Paul Hewitt’s team played in the Mountain West, who fielded just two teams in the tournaments, their record would have been significantly higher. This team could be dangerous and a very tough out for Wisconsin in the second round.
With March Madness tipping off Thursday (sorry play-in game participants).. everyone in your office or class becomes Andy Katz or Digger Phelps. But I guess that’s what makes this event great, right?
After looking at the brackets, there are certainly some interesting match-up possibilities. Of course, those matchups could be completely torched by upsets (i.e. last year) but here’s a couple as my bracket predicts.
Midwest Regional: Oregon/Wisconsin - Drinking the Pac-10 Kool-Aid is something I vowed never to do again but I’m awfully impressed by this Oregon team. The chance to see the Ducks, who handled any and all comers in the Pac-10 tournament, square off against the Badgers (see: POY-candidate Alando Tucker) is a game I’d pay to see. Oregon/Florida - Every one of the Worldwide Leader’s talking heads are picking the Gators to return to the Final Four but I’m not sold. The SEC fielded an unspeakably weak field this year and I’m not sure the Gators have what it takes to beat Arizona, Maryland and Oregon but this game could potentially be a classic. Taj Porter, Aaron Brooks and Bryce Taylor vs. Joke-kim, Brewer and Horford.
West Regional: Of the four regionals (go Hoosiers) this is probably the weakest and least exciting (go Hoosiers). The only potentially exciting matchup would be the elite 8 showdown between Kansas and UCLA. Though I have Kansas in the Final Four, I think they’re the most enigmatic. Bill Self’s resumé in Lawrence has been far from excellent and but I think the Jayhawks will have a relatively easy time disposing of everyone in their half of the bracket. The possible Pitt/UCLA storyline has people excited but I think Saturday night Pitt showed that if they don’t get good looks from the perimeter and Aaron Gray is defended well in the post, they’re easily beatable.
East regional: Hands-down the most exciting bracket in the tournament. Anyone of these match-ups will be worth watching: Texas/USC, Texas/UNC, BC/Georgetown, Washington St./Georgetown, Georgetown/UNC. If this weekend proved anything, it was that Georgetown is the real deal. The low-post combination of Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert might be the best in the country. I’m picking Georgetown to emerge from this impressive pack but I wouldn’t be at all surprised I were wrong.
South regional: O-H-I-O. That’s really all you need to say about this bracket. Memphis is the hottest team in the country, Texas A&M and Acie Law could be a tough out but the Buckeyes will be Georgia-bound when it’s all said and done. This is the bracket with the least amount of intriguing potential match-ups. Ohio State’s biggest challenge will be its own youth and inexperience and even though they’re awfully young — they’re awfully good.
My final four picks:
………..NOT SO FAST UCLA
Considered by many to be a number 1 seed going into the start of conference tournaments, UCLA squandered what credibility they had with a bad loss to Cal last night in the Pac-10 quarterfinals.
I’m certainly guilty of East Coast bias. The Pac-10, both football and basketball, are on way too late for me and I watch the league on probably a dozen occasions in both sports each other. (NCAA tournament and bowl games notwithstanding).
About halfway through January, the buzz started. The Pac-10 is, top to bottom, the best league in college basketball. It was tough to argue with that. UCLA was a powerhouse once more. Washington State was the surprise of the year. Aaron Brooks had Oregon looking really tough and Arizona was a sleeping giant.
With UCLA’s loss to a Cal team that is not even NIT-bound, you have to assume that the league took a serious hit in the eyes of the basketball watching public and, more importantly, the NCAA’s selection committee.
The only way that UCLA gets a number one seed is if Wisconsin, Ohio State, Kansas or UNC fall early in their conference tournaments — and I don’t see that happening.
Based on last night’s performance, or lack thereof (Aaron Afflalo), you’d almost have to believe that the best team in the Pac-10 is Oregon, who manhandled a pretty decent Arizona team.
The Pac-10 is like the sexy girl at the bar that you walk up to only to find out that she’s from Staten Island and has the accent to prove it.
There’s a new header on The Bottom Line. Being the proud IU alum that I am (Class of ‘06), I figured I’d make my allegiance to the Cream and Crimson known as March Madness heats up.
GO HOOSIERS!
Michigan forward Brent Petway shaved his head to look like the Michigan football helmet… niiiiiiice.
Losers of three of their last four, the Florida Gators, the defending national champions, are officially on a slide.
The Vanderbilt loss was tolerable but the losses at an LSU team that shot 52 percent and were playing without Glen Davis and at Rocky Top to a Tennessee team that I’m picking to make a first round exit come tournament have to make you wonder if this team really has what it takes to make a deep tournament run.
The problem with this team is simple: chemistry. Dickie V’s comments about a private conversation he had with coach Billy Donovan may have caused a permanent fissure between Donovan and “star” Joakim Noah. While he could have gone to the NBA last year and been a lock to go top 5 in a compartively weak ‘06 draft class, Noah would be lucky to go top 15 in a draft class that could include Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Aaron Afflalo, if he declares after this season. Quite simply, averaging almost 13 points, 8 rebounds a night… the chest-pounding forward from New York City is one of the most overrated “stars” in all of college basketball. I can’t say I disagree with Donovan when he said NBA scouts would be crazy to take Noah over the 6′10″ Horford.
But all is not lost in Gainesville. If this team can pull together and make a deep run into the SEC tournament, they’ll be right back on track. In spite of this recent slide, I’d say the Gators are almost a can’t-miss to make it to the sweet 16.
Posted in NCAA, SEC, Vanderbilt | Comments Off
