Joe Lunardi: Sugary food 16 ideas, and the terrible taste Kentucky
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Joe Lunardi, Elder Author, ESPN.comMar 26, 2024, 09:26 AM ET Close Resident college basketball bracketologist for ESPN
- Factor to SportsCenter, ESPN Expert
- Released very first public bracket in 1995
Sixteen sweet ideas, observations and hot takes before another extraordinary weekend of basketball:
No. 1: The selection committee appears to have gotten the leading 10 groups in the men’s NCAA tournament exactly right. That’s how far you need to go down the committee’s seed list to find a group (Kentucky) that didn’t make it through the first weekend. All informed, 13 of 16 squads on the leading four lines of the bracket are still alive. Kentucky and fellow SEC giant Auburn were the early losers, both heading out in the preliminary. The staying high seeds were 13-1 in the second round, which is truly outrageous.No.
2: All who believed the East Area was the hardest of the four can go to the head of the class. Regional fans in Boston will welcome the East’s 1-2-3-5 seeds to TD Garden, headlined by protecting champion UConn. The Midwest Regional in Detroit likewise includes 1-2-3-5 seeds, while the West Area checks in with its 1-2-3-6 seeds. That’s a lot of chalk. Just the South Region bracket, where 11-seed NC State resides, is from another location busted.Top stories
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No. 3: Enable me a word– numerous, actually– on the ACC. Fans of the conference consistently– and properly– countered my season-long description of its decline by firmly insisting the league would be just fine when it mattered most. And, when again, a conference ranking fifth, 5th, seventh and 5th considering that the pandemic has been more than fine in the NCAA competition. An 8-1 record through the very first weekend can just be applauded. Moving forward, it stays to be seen if the conference will make the necessary scheduling changes to counter the continued weakening that’s coming in the form of Stanford, Cal and SMU. Further, the league’s four Sugary food 16 entries have no connection to the pre-tourney résumés of Pittsburgh or Wake Forest. By that reasoning, Pitt and Wake ought to be double-dinged by Virginia. Fortunately, it does not work that way.No.
4: Big East media shills have actually been even more obnoxious than their ACC equivalents, which is actually stating something. UConn, Marquette and Creighton– all seeded to be precisely where they are– have absolutely nothing to do with Seton Hall, St. John’s or Providence missing the tournament. The reality is, thanks to the extraordinary volume of quote stealers at the end of Champ Week, we had what amounted to a 31-team at-large pool (instead of 36 or, more properly, the 34 or 35 spots we ‘d have with an average variety of conference tourney upsets). The Big East would have gotten at least two and maybe three of the slots that vanished. There’s no conspiracy here, just bad math and misfortune. Follow the lead of your classy commissioner and overcome it. Sometimes things don’t exercise. (Just ask Kent State.)
No. 5: I favor Matt Painter’s recommended IQ test for college basketball media, but it has nothing to do with Zach Edey. It involves competition choice. You want a certain group in the field? You are needed to state– at the same time– who is out! Otherwise, any and all criticism of the committee (or the Bracketology community) is null and void. Charge: No web for the month of March.2024 Guys’s College Basketball Champion Odds
No. 6: Opening the transfer portal the early morning after Choice Sunday wasn’t the dumbest thing I saw recently. Put me in the same camp as Tom Crean and Fran Fraschilla. Declining an NIT bid on account of said website is even dumber (not to discuss extremely insulting). Have a look at the puffed up number of team member on a high-major bench. You imply to inform me there aren’t adequate assistants to both keep an eye on the website and prepare for a game? These schools ought to be ashamed and penalized in a future postseason.No.
7: Speaking of “middling” majors, power conference at-large teams that didn’t crack.500 in their respective leagues have gone 3-5 in the NCAA competition and 12-13 in the NIT, with the latter playing almost completely at home. Meanwhile, the real mid-majors that got or would have received the most at-large factor to consider had they required it– Grand Canyon, James Madison, McNeese and Indiana State– posted an aggregate 4-3 record throughout both competitions (consisting of 2 massive NCAA wins). I point this out not to overdo the similarity Greg Sankey– after all, one of his SEC teams had the gross injustice of being paired with one of the 7 natural wonders of the world– however to remind everyone that we regularly overrate one class of team (“middling” majors) at the cost of their real mid-major counterparts.No.
8: Not shocked by the first-round success of: Colorado, James Madison.No.
9: Even less shocked by the first-round issues of: Florida Atlantic, Mississippi State, McNeese, South Carolina.No.
10: More shocked by: Clemson, Yale, Duquesne, Dayton, Oakland, Utah State.No.
11: Upset by: Auburn, Saint Mary’s, Charleston, New Mexico, Nebraska, Texas Tech.
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No. 12: A classification all their own: NC State (good) and Kentucky (bad).
No. 13: No need to play a Sweet 16-only bracket. My original Final 4 of UConn, Houston, Tennessee and Arizona are still alive. So, I’m sticking with my pre-tournament call of UConn over Houston for the title.No.
14: Can you name the only group up until now in this postseason to win numerous true roadway games? That would be VCU. The Rams have actually won NIT first- and second-round contests at Villanova and South Florida, respectively. They will now go to Utah on Wednesday in the quarterfinals with a trip to Hinkle Fieldhouse as the reward, and I like their opportunities. For what it deserves, the Utes would not play Utah State when present VCU coach Ryan Odom was the Aggies’ head man.No.
15: No true buzzer-beaters yet, but we’ve had four overtime games (consisting of the Creighton-Oregon double-overtime classic). There wasn’t a single additional period in the whole first weekend last year.No.
16: Lastly, there will be a complete 2025 bracket published not long after the Final Four. It’s a fool’s errand, to be sure, making me the best guy for the job.