Okay, so who still has a chance to win their NCAA Tournament brackets pool?
Chances are good that somebody picked Connecticut against North Carolina, and surely some Midwesterners and Big East fans might have Michigan State against North Carolina, but how many folks saw the Villanova freight train coming?
If one team has been the surprise dominant team it’s those boys from the great cheese steak capital of the world, Philadelphia, as the Villanova Wildcats have made chopped onions of their opponents and sprayed them with Cheese Whiz for good measure.
Connecticut has pretty much played up to their best expectations. Sure lots of folks picked Memphis, a very strong #2 in this bracket for all the glory, but Memphis looked pretty dull fighting #3 Missouri who had little fight left in them facing Connecticut.
Michigan State gives folks around the Motor City some much needed cheer. In the sports world, the misery of how god-awful their NFL Lions performed suffering a miserable winless series makes the Detroit Tigers incredible playoff run in 2006 but then total collapse against the St. Louis Cardinals seem like ancient history while the region suffers with the plight of the auto industry fearing what will become of General Motors and Chrysler. The Midwest regional was supposed to be Rick Pitino’s big party. While much talk focused on lower seeds, Wake Forest and last year’s champ, Kansas, but the Demon Deacons lost in one of the tournament’s most stunning upsets in recent history falling to lowly Cleveland State while Michigan State clearly outpaced Kansas. The Spartans might be the first team from the Wolverine State to celebrate in Ford’s Field whose grand spectacle was the 2005 Super Bowl featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers and Rolling Stones as the big shots of the day.
Speaking of Pittsburgh, weren’t they, not Villanova supposed to be heading for the Final Four?
That leaves us with the North Carolina Tar Heels who are exactly where they’re supposed to be as the team most would have predicted to win it all when the 2008-2009 season began, and while proving to be a little less than invincible, the Tar Heels have played a magnificent season with only their failure to win the ACC tournament in the quarterfinal to Florida State largely due to star guard, Ty Lawson sitting out with a sore toe. Once Lawson returned in the second round of the big show, Carolina has looked dominant laying to waist LSU, Gonzaga, and Oklahoma en route to the Motor City madness.
While we mourn the ruin of our three bracket sheets, two of them picking Carolina to win it all but up against two vanquished potential foes, Memphis and Louisville, it would be hard to call any of the four teams still standing winning the tournament an upset. We’ll stick with Carolina realizing Villanova has pushed all the right buttons with such precision that will be a very tough fight. On the other side of the bracket, we’ll go with Michigan State knowing Connecticut is probably the better team. We just can’t stand cheering for a New England or Big Apple area team and we feel compassion for the folks in Michigan who haven’t had much to celebrate recently, but our mid-Atlantic sensibility makes the Tar Heels our pick to hoist the banner when the tournament champ is crowned Monday night.
Chances are good that somebody picked Connecticut against North Carolina, and surely some Midwesterners and Big East fans might have Michigan State against North Carolina, but how many folks saw the Villanova freight train coming?
If one team has been the surprise dominant team it’s those boys from the great cheese steak capital of the world, Philadelphia, as the Villanova Wildcats have made chopped onions of their opponents and sprayed them with Cheese Whiz for good measure.
Connecticut has pretty much played up to their best expectations. Sure lots of folks picked Memphis, a very strong #2 in this bracket for all the glory, but Memphis looked pretty dull fighting #3 Missouri who had little fight left in them facing Connecticut.
Michigan State gives folks around the Motor City some much needed cheer. In the sports world, the misery of how god-awful their NFL Lions performed suffering a miserable winless series makes the Detroit Tigers incredible playoff run in 2006 but then total collapse against the St. Louis Cardinals seem like ancient history while the region suffers with the plight of the auto industry fearing what will become of General Motors and Chrysler. The Midwest regional was supposed to be Rick Pitino’s big party. While much talk focused on lower seeds, Wake Forest and last year’s champ, Kansas, but the Demon Deacons lost in one of the tournament’s most stunning upsets in recent history falling to lowly Cleveland State while Michigan State clearly outpaced Kansas. The Spartans might be the first team from the Wolverine State to celebrate in Ford’s Field whose grand spectacle was the 2005 Super Bowl featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers and Rolling Stones as the big shots of the day.
Speaking of Pittsburgh, weren’t they, not Villanova supposed to be heading for the Final Four?
That leaves us with the North Carolina Tar Heels who are exactly where they’re supposed to be as the team most would have predicted to win it all when the 2008-2009 season began, and while proving to be a little less than invincible, the Tar Heels have played a magnificent season with only their failure to win the ACC tournament in the quarterfinal to Florida State largely due to star guard, Ty Lawson sitting out with a sore toe. Once Lawson returned in the second round of the big show, Carolina has looked dominant laying to waist LSU, Gonzaga, and Oklahoma en route to the Motor City madness.
While we mourn the ruin of our three bracket sheets, two of them picking Carolina to win it all but up against two vanquished potential foes, Memphis and Louisville, it would be hard to call any of the four teams still standing winning the tournament an upset. We’ll stick with Carolina realizing Villanova has pushed all the right buttons with such precision that will be a very tough fight. On the other side of the bracket, we’ll go with Michigan State knowing Connecticut is probably the better team. We just can’t stand cheering for a New England or Big Apple area team and we feel compassion for the folks in Michigan who haven’t had much to celebrate recently, but our mid-Atlantic sensibility makes the Tar Heels our pick to hoist the banner when the tournament champ is crowned Monday night.
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