This is March!
by Matt Shanley
Welcome to March. Yes, we’ve been in March for a little more than two weeks now, however, it can be debated that the month doesn’t truly start until the NCAA conference tournaments are over, and the big tournament to conclude the season finally arrives.
With Selection Sunday finally over, and the brackets finally out for all to see, it is easy to say that this tournament can turn out to be the most surprising, or most predictable in recent memory. And I, like most who take the time to fill out brackets, am stumped on many matchups. However, in this blog, I will give some insight on which teams I believe can make some noise and turn this tournament upside-down.
Let’s start with the Orangemen. At first glance, you’re probably sitting there amazed at how I could sit here and say that a Syracuse could be a Cinderella team as a number three seed. However, before the Big East tournament, who was Syracuse? Exactly. Sure, they were ranked number twenty in the nation, but who cares? They lost the games that mattered. They lost their games against Pitt. They lost their games against UConn. They lost their games against Louisville. Granted the Big East was arguably the toughest conference college basketball has seen in a few years, Syracuse could not hold their own. What that tournament proved was that Johnny Flynn is one of the nation’s top players. He’ll show you that this month.
Let’s move from the Big East to the Big 12. With my next possible surprise team, I’m taking Texas to open some eyes. As a number seven seed in the East Bracket, I can see them cruising into the Final Four with only Pittsburgh standing in their way as a real obstacle. If point guard AJ Abrams is on top of his game, and Dexter Pittman can hold his own against the Panther’s man-child DaJuan Blair, look for the Longhorns to take that trip to Detroit.
Alright, we’ll go with one more. And what better way to leave this post then with an absolute nobody. Mississippi State. They’re a thirteen seed. They have no real studs on their team. They had to win their conference just to get into the tournament. They killed it in the SEC tourney. They won a close, but controversial championship game. They’re in. They’re going to the Sweet 16. Yeah. You heard me. They’re going to beat Washington in the first round. Then they’re going to beat Purdue in the second round. Then in the Sweet 16, they’re going to scare UConn out of their Nikes. They led the Southeast Conference in three point shooting. They have the conference’s best shot blocker in Jarvis Varnado. Their biggest weakness may be defending guards, but their biggest challenge will be defending Hasheem Thabeet down low. I don’t expect them to win against the Huskies, but I do expect them to prove their worth in the tournament.
Upper Deck Underdogs 