Love the Action

Significant upsets at tourney time seem to increase with each passing season. Parody around campuses and the fact that mid majors have gotten stronger by keeping quality coaches, and non-stop coverage on TV can make any team a contender with a couple quality players.  However, for defining purposes of the official NCAA men’s Final Four Records Book, significant upsets are defined as “when the winner of the game was seeded five or more places lower than the team it defeated.”
 
Based on this, the 2008 NCAA Tournament was full of them.  There were only four in the first round, (12-Nova over 5-Clemson, 11-K-State over 6 USC, 13-Siena over 4-Vandy, and 13-San Diego over 4- UCONN), with another couple of other major scare including a one point victory by 2-Duke over 15th seeded Belmont.  In the second round, we saw Duke lose to a 7th seed West Va, and 10th seeded Davidson knock out a 2 seed in G’town.   In the 3rd round, Davidson continued its run knocking out 3 seeded Wisconsin… and then the Cinderella run was over.  That's eight teams in the first 3 rounds... almost 15%.  That is pretty good.  I might have to go back in and see what the underdogs did in the first couple of rounds against the spread… look for that coming in the next couple of days…
 
When you look at the big picture though, there is always a couple of big time upsets and some of the power conference schools either underestimate the David’s of the world, or the Goliath’s just fall flat in the one and done tourney.
 
This is what makes it so great.
 
I remember in 6th grade (1982) when my Missouri Tigers were loaded and they went up against one of what I believe to be the best teams in the history of college hoops.  Phi Slama Jama.  Phi Slama Jama was the nickname of the University of Houston Cougars men's basketball teams from 1982 to 1984. As coined by former Houston Post sportswriter Thomas Bonk in a January 1983 article, the nickname was quickly picked up by the players and even appeared on team warm-up suits by the middle of the 1982-83 season. Phi Slama Jama was coached by Guy V. Lewis and featured future Hall of Fame and NBA Top 50 players Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. "Texas' Tallest Fraternity" was especially known for its slam dunking and explosive, fast-breaking style of play.  This team put away my Tigers by a point and then moved on to the Final Four eventually losing to North Carolina in Jordan’s championship year.  I rooted so hard against them again in 83 and was ecstatic when Jimmy V’s Lorenzo Charles got the alley-oop to win the title over the “Fraternity”.  I digress…
 
Well my Tigers are back this year and this is what makes the NCAA tourney so special!  One solid year and hope is back.  Some others are the great players that you’ve never heard of who you root for… the giants who have to be awakened in the 2nd half of a 1st round game because some small school is handing them their lunch… and the heart wrenching back door covers that cost you a game, a pool, or your voice as you scream frenetically at the TV thinking that someone will listen to you to cover the cheap layup.  Does it get any better than this?  I have had near heart attacks in Vegas on a 3 day bender riding the roller coasters of emotions.  One game your rooting against your best friend who has the other team and next thing you know, you are hugging like two little leaguers that won a state title after hitting a 3-teamer… only to watch it all go away on that one match up that was supposed to be a MORTAL LOCK in the tournament that is all but a loser at half time.
We now are starting to get a sense for the bracket for the 2009 and start to do our due diligence in choosing a few dark horses who will be making their impact on the field. Who is this year’s sleeper?  Who is this year’s most overrated?  Who is hot going into the tournament, and who is in a free fall?  It’s hard to predict whether this tournament will be upset heavy or if it will stay more true to form on the seedings.  My personal opinion is that this is going to be a year of monumental upsets.  I truly think that there are many more equal teams that are in the back of the pack (15-45) the than the front runners who should be able to easily handle their business in the first round.  I can easily see a couple more 4-13 and 5-12 match ups going to the lower seeds and possibly a 2 or 3 seed going out in the first round.  Round 2 is where the shock and awe is going to come from.  Although I don’t think you will be seeing big spreads in the 2nd round either.
 
As for the conferences to watch for, I think the Big East might be the most balanced with   the Big 10 the 2nd, and the ACC 3rd.  The Big 12, Pac10, and the SEC are all just okay this year and I wouldn’t be surprised for any of those in the top 25 among those conferences having some troubles.
 
Keys to the games?  I could sit here and hand you a bunch of clichés, but what you need to really look at in the match-ups for the games that you are on the fence of is free throw shooting percentage.  Tourney time gets tenser than any other time of the year.  It is imperative that teams make free throws to close out games.  Why do you think it is called March Madness?  The longer you let a team stick around, you know what is going to happen.
 
Just Remember…
These athletes aren’t paid. The emotion is crazy and real. You either love or hate Duke. It’s win or go home.  2 minutes is a ton of time.
 
(1)  With the economy the way it is… make sure to get in some type of pool, you might just get lucky!  Hell, we’ve got a free one on the site, or you can build your own for free on our site.  (2)  Become a basketball geek for a week… crunch numbers on the web, and check out the teams that you might want to throw a couple bucks on and see what their free throw percentage is.  (3)  But no matter what you do, get together with some buddies and head down to the local watering hole to enjoy the games.  There is nothing better than this time of year and it’s a sin if you don’t take some time out of your busy schedule to soak some of it in.