 |
| My tattered shattered bracket after four rounds. dwm photo 3/26/2023 |
My last two teams - Xavier and Gonzaga - didn't make it to the final weekend. Xavier lost in the Sweet Sixteen, getting dumped by Texas while Gonzaga lost it's Elite Eight match to the University of Connecticut by 28 points.
My best pick, it turns out, may have been Drake to win in the opening round over Miami. Their loss to the Hurricanes was the smallest winning margin for Miami than any of Miami's other wins in round 2 or the Sweet Sixteen and matched the difference over Texas in the Elite 8. If Miami keeps the momentum going for two more games, Drake gets a consolation prize (of sorts) of their defeat coming at the hands of the eventual National Champion.
U Conn has been the experts darling since teams were seeded three weeks ago, and I've come around to realizing they have an outstanding team which has boat-raced the four team they've faced. This school has won four championships, so it's difficult to adopt them as my favorite, I'd rather see another team win but it will take a major effort.
The right side of the bracket featuring U Conn and Texas will be a heavyweight fight with the winner favored Monday night.
The left side of the bracket wins is interesting - Florida Atlantic and San Diego State will fight it out to reach the big game. These are teams only the most ardent fans chose but here they are.
San Diego State is an experienced, veteran team that beat Charleston by 6, Furman by 23, top seed Alabama by 7, and then Creighton by a point to reach their first Final Four and be the first team from the Big West Conference to make it this far. They're a good looking team, similar to Florida Atlantic in terms of being considered a "mid-major" school that's better than the experts thought.
Florida Atlantic, a school in Boca Raton, got its biggest break when Purdue, the number one seed in the East lost it's first round game, leaving them to play Fairleigh Dickinson instead in round two. Looking back from the second weekend, I think the Owls of F.A.U. could have taken the Boilermakers anyway. In their Sweet Sixteen match, Florida Atlantic handled Tennessee, which was a top 16 team coming into March Madness, then the Owls knocked out Big 12 team Kansas State to make the semi-finals. They have a lot of older, experienced players and more talent than experts thought.
The semi-final between the South and East champions will be a terrific and unexpected battle.
In my final forecast, with all my original teams gone, I'll take Florida Atlantic and Miami to reach the 2023 National Championship. The schools, 54 miles apart in south Florida have played 25 times, the Hurricanes winning 24 of them. It will go a long way to even the score when the Owls defeat Miami.
National Invitation Tournament
The Wisconsin Badgers didn't make the big dance but they are going to the sock-hop in Las Vegas facing North Texas in the NIT Semi-Final. On paper, the Badgers are the kind of school that should take home a trophy. Based on the games I've seen (which is most of them), it's difficult to be confident in the Badgers but I would love to see it - go Badgers!
Comments
Post a Comment