Oh The Madness!

For as long as I can remember, filling out a NCAA bracket has been a St.Clair family tradition. I’ve grown from picking teams based on where I’d rather go to school to picking teams based on who I think could actually win. It’s safe to say that I get my sports blood from my father after this conversation with my mother:

Me: (laughing) “Mom, you’re in the 7% on ESPN’s bracket” (100% is the best)

Mom: “Well…. Byron asked me if I was sure about my picks, but I thought he was just trying to trick me. I thought Kansas Sate was really good.”

Me: (still laughing) “Mom, you pick Kansas not Kansas State.

Oh mom, she’s so cute. My dad remains in ESPN’s 73% while my twin and I are still in the 90+% after rounding out the final four. My bracket is on the brink of sweeping all three bracket polls, again, but I’d trade first place for last place to reverse the controversial call on Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes with six seconds left in a one point, Sweet 16, game.

Tennessee vs. Michigan was a great game, until the refs blew it, literally.

The VOLS were down 15-points with ten minutes left in the game and then that SEC, tougher breed exploded to put the ball back in the hand of Stokes with six seconds left and only being down 72-71. And then Michigan’s Jordan Morgan, guarding Stokes, should win an Academy award for embellishing contact from a moving Stokes shoulder and drawing the call that ultimately ended the game and the dream of being the first Tennessee team to reach the Final Four.

The bleep words were flying out of my mouth (sorry mom) and then seeing the senior leader, Jordan McRae, eyes glossy and him laying on the court, I just wanted to cry with him.

Win or lose, this team deserved a better ending. They were considered a “bubble” team and then listed as the last four to make the field of 68 as an 11^th seed. An overtime win against Iowa, a 19-point win over UMass from the Atlantic10, and then dominating Mercer with a 20-point victory to send the Vols to the Sweet16. The Vols finally found their rhythm, were playing to their potential, and busting brackets everywhere. They fought too hard to have their season ended by controversial charge.

“To lose how we did, after how we fought back, it really hurts,” McRae said after he lead the Vols with 24 points in his final game in the Orange & White. Oh, and it was also McRae’s birthday. “With the magnitude of this game,” he said, “I don’t think you can call a charge at that point.”

Jarnell Stokes had this to say: “With the new rules, I had no idea that could potentially happen. I felt like (Morgan) anticipated that to happen. What’s done is done. I’m kind of sick about it, but it’s already done.”  

Oh my heart is heavy knowing that we will never see this team play together again. It was one hell of a team. They competed, they dug deep late in games to keep fighting, and they sure knew how to send your blood pressure through the roof. This team put Tennessee back on the map in college basketball and will have Michigan fans scared very time they hear “Rocky Top”. The future is bright in Knoxville and I pray to the sports gods that Stokes and Coach Martin are still there to take us to the dance next year.

Hoo Knew!

The University of Virginia Cavaliers swept the ACC regular-season (first title in 33 years) and won their first ACC tournament title in 38 years! (Yes, Duke, UNC, and Syracuse are still in the ACC), but Hoo knew this would be the Wahoo’s year to do something that even Ralph Sampson couldn’t do.

The number one seed Hoo’s play my alumni, the number 16 seed Coastal Carolina University Chanticleers in Raleigh, NC. Being a 16^th seed isn’t the best place to be on a bracket, but being one of the 64 teams selected to represent college basketball as one of the best 68 teams in the country is still something to be proud of!

(I still think that eight and nine seeds are the worst! This is mostly because I never know how to decide who will advance on my brackets. The three teams who bust my bracket year after year, after year are Gonzaga, Pittsburgh, and Memphis. So of course, the selection committee has ALL three of my bracket buster nightmares listed as 8 or 9 seeds in this years tournament. Thank you for eliminating my bracket from winning back-to-back championships before the first games has even started.)

Coastal may not have a shot at upsetting a number one seed. A 16 seed has never beat a number one seed, ever. But Coastal is magical place. It’s a hidden gem in the world of college experiences. Anything can happened… tradition starts now.

The only game I watched UVA play was against the University of Tennessee and the Volunteers gave the Wahoo’s their biggest beat down of the year losing by 35 points. UVA’s only other four losses totaled 26 points. (Hashtag ROCKYTOP!)

Charles Barkley may not know how to swing a golf club, but he knows the game of basketball. His thoughts on the Madness “The one team that can go deep in the tournament is the University of Tennessee”!

March Madness has officially begun and the bracket will make bring out your blood sweat and tears. Each pick counts and the more time you spend analyzing and forecasting the more emotion you will show when your bracket quickly is busted. Suddenly, your genius strategy will explode, leaving you to question everything you know about sports and life.

If there are any tips I can give you when creating your perfect bracket its to only do one bracket with an adult beverage, and don’t over think it. Last year I won all three of the bracket pools I was in with the same bracket that I had entered seconds before they were due. (I may or may not have been in Vegas during this time and got an early morning phone call to enter my picks. Yes, I was still in mindset of the night before and clearly vodka was a great teammate.) 

For more direction when making what feels like major life decisions, consider that only once have all four number one seeds all played in the final four. Only three times has a number one seed not advanced to the final four (1980, 2006, and 2011). Mid-majors have made the final four six times in the last eight years.  And for those thinking Syracuse is going to cut down the nets in Texas; only one team in the last six years has gone on to win the National Championship after losing four games after February 1^st. Syracuse started the season 25-0 then lost five of their last seven games.

But Hoo knew the bracket could break down your pride one game at a time, year after year, and still, its one of the most exciting events in sports.

Choose wisely.

We’re Going Shaggin’

Costal Carolina University finally beat Winthrop 76-61 in the Big South Conference Championship game to earn the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 21 years. (Most of the CCU roster wasn’t even born before 1993.)

As a Chanticleer alumni, (the proud and fierce rooster that dominated the barnyard in the Canterbury Tales), there are two things that all students have in common; we had the best college experience (we went to college where you vacation) and we do not like the Winthrop Eagles.

The rivalry runs deep between the two South Carolina programs. It hurts to type this, but Winthrop owns the Big South in Men’s hoops with ten conference titles (Coastal now holds 4 titles). Coastal lost a 51-50 heart breaker to the Eagles in 2006 and again in 2010 64-53.

As a student attending games, I remember making fun of previous Winthrop head coach, Gregg Marshall, with my neighbor Courtney. I’m glad we never played a drinking game for every time Marshall threw a tantrum from the sideline or we would never made it to halftime. It was like watching a little kid constantly complaining to the refs “he’s touching me”. Currently, Marshall is the head coach of Wichita Sate who just had an undefeated 34-0 season. I’d love to see the Chanticleers end that steak during the big dance.

Coastal has only made two NCAA appearances in school history. In 1991 as a 15^th seed and lost to Indiana 69-79 and again in 1993 as a 16^th seed to lose to Michigan 52-84.

The Carolina Shag is the dance in the south and most southerners refer to dancing as “shagging”. With selection Sunday less than a week away there is already a party down south and for all Coastal alums across the country. We’re going shagging!

Here’s some beach music by the Embers to get you in the shagging spirit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26DAINZoPVI