The Last ONE Standing

Out of the number one seeds from each region 86% of the brackets picked Kansas, 65% picked Syracuse, 67.1% picked Kentucky and 56.1 % of the 5.4 million brackets completed on ESPN.com picked Duke to reach the final four.

The Blue Devils are the last one standing.

Baylor’s size worried Duke Fans. Baylor’s average size outranked Duke by five inches. That’s a huge size difference and an advantage in college basketball. If this was baseball, Baylor would have been mentioned in the Mitchell Report.

The Bear’s held junior Kyle Singler to just five points the whole game. The close game back and forth had Duke fans praying to Christian Laettner Gods. No coincidence that it was the 18th anniversary of his game-winner that beat Kentucky in 1992. But the Laettner Gods didn’t send a miracle, instead they sent an untouchable Nolan Smith who scored 29 points- a career high.

It came down to last three minutes of the game and Baylor’s size didn’t matter as Nolan Smith hit a 3-pointer and John Scheyer followed putting Duke on top 67-61.

Duke won 78-71 and will return to the final four for the first time since 2004.

O-D-Who?

The first game of NCAA tournament and we are already on upset alert!

But was it really an upset? Of the brackets completed on ESPN, only 14.9 percent of them picked ODU to advance although they were the slight favorite.

The 11th seed Old Dominion University Monarchs knocked off the 6th seed fighting Irish of Notre Dame. The luck of the Irish held for most of the game until a 3-point attempt from Carleton Scott in the closing seconds that rolled off the rim and the Monarchs to a 51-50 victory and a second round game.

But for those of us who know anything about college basketball we know that the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) is a conference that can make a lot a noise. Remember the Cinderella story of 2006? We were all cheering for George Mason as they upset Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State and Connecticut.

VCU upset Duke in the first round of last year’s tournament (only the second time Duke has ever lost in the first round in the last 25 years).

In the last six seasons, ODU won 145 games; a school record and the most wins among Virginia’s division I schools. No wonder Virginia Tech’s Seth Greenberg ended their contract to play Blaine Taylor’s Monarchs; the Monarchs are 4-1 over the Hokies.

Greenberg knows the chant goes O-D-U!

The beauty of March Madness is when your brackets are busted! Who would have thought the Sweet 16 would be without Georgetown, Villanova AND number one seed Kansas? Who would have thought Cornell and St. Mary’s looked so sweet? I LOVE it!

I admit, I’ve been a DUKE fan for as long as I can remember and I expect them to play smart and to shoot well. To me, Cameron indoor is one of the 8th wonders of the world and it’s an experience that any college basketball fan should add to their bucket list. But, the next best thing in college basketball is the MADNESS of March Madness.

Today is my favorite holiday: Selection Sunday!

This is the time of year when suddenly, EVERYONE becomes a college basketball fan. And while I love that March Madness brings out seasonal fans, I know that the true fans were apart of the madness that took place all season.

Finally, DUKE swept a 16-16 UNC and reclaimed the ACC Championship! John Scheyer’s facial expressions became the official hazing banner for all ACC home games and the defending Champs- UNC didn’t do much defending or scoring the whole season.
Maryland fans still fear the classroom as their only crowd chant is the F bomb followed by the visiting school’s name or player(s) name. Clemson, Georgia Teach, Wake Forest, and Florida State all proved they are still competitors in the ACC.

But does being a fan the whole season boost your bracketology? There’s always that one person in your office bracket that didn’t watch a game all season and they pull off the biggest upset of the year by selecting who has the best dancing shoes.

I like to treat Selection Sunday as a national holiday and I dedicate the entire day to bracketology. Before the teams are announced I wonder if the best 65 teams will get an invitation to the big dance and why isn’t Coach Knight on the selection committee? While most of the committee members are college Athletic Directors, have they had time to really watch the season outside of their conference games?

As the teams are announced I start thinking: Will Wofford (who upset South Carolina and George and almost pulled off the upset on Pitt) be this years Cinderella story? Or could Siena, Cornell or ODU be the mid-major upset? No one wants their brackets to bust, but it’s so exciting to see a mid-major upset!

Can Tennessee standout more than Pearl’s orange blazer? Can Syracuse and their seven starters get their endurance back; will Kansas State knock them off? Will DUKE’s shooting and coaching outrank Villanova’s athleticism or Kentucky’s size?

So many possible outcomes and only one bracket: let the Madness Begin!