March Madness Ramblings

There is no better sports weekend than the opening weekend of the NCAA men's basketball tournament and this year lived up to the hype. The overall top seed, Kansas, got bounced by Northern Iowa. Big East powerhouses Villanova, Pittsburgh (2nd Round) and Georgetown (1st Round) failed to make it to the second weekend. The Pac-10, which only sent two teams to the Dance, is still alive with 11th seed Washington advancing to the Sweet 16. The Ivy League is also crashing the Sweet 16 with 12th seed Cornell. The drama of the first weekend is always the best. 64 teams start out on Thursday afternoon and by Sunday night, there are only 16 teams still dreaming the ultimate dream. When a team like Murray State can knock down a buzzer-beater to upset Vanderbilt, you have to jump up and down with them. When Cornell plows through Temple and Wisconsin, you have to sit back and smile for them. When Northern Iowa shocks perennial powerhouse Kansas, well, you can't do anything but nod your head in congratulations. The weekend was not entirely about upsets. Traditional powers like Duke, Kentucky, Syracuse, and Michigan State are still alive. They will be joined by fellow top seeds West Virginia, Kansas State, and Ohio State. Even with the excitement in the opening rounds, the odds are that one of these teams will be moving on to the Final Four in Indianapolis and cutting down the nets two weeks from tonight... Here is TheBostonInsider's All-Tournament Team through the first two games: First Team C - Omar Samhan, St. Mary's F - Wesley Johnson, Syracuse F - Evan Turner, Ohio State G - Ryan Wittman, Cornell G - Ali Farokhmanesh, Northern Iowa Coach - Ben Jacobson, Northern Iowa Samhan, Wittman, and Farokhmanesh carried their underdog teams to the Sweet 16. Johnson and Turner continued their excellent seasons to help their squads avoid upsets. Jacobson had his team prepared and confident that they could knock off Kansas. Second Team C - Brian Zoubek, Duke F - Da'Sean Butler, West Virginia F - DeMarcus Cousins, Kentucky G - Jacob Pullen, Kansas State G - Jordan Crawford, Xavier Coach - Steve Donahue, Cornell Zoubek is giving the Blue Devils the inside presence they need to make the Final Four. Butler and Cousins destroyed the respective hopes of Missouri and Wake Forest. Pullen refused to let BYU knock off the Wildcats and Crawford continued his amazing year with a tremendous weekend. Donahue's work in getting Cornell to the Sweet 16 will get him noticed by school's searching for a new coach. It was a toss up between Jacobson and Donahue for 1st Team coaching honors but beating the top seed in the entire tournament gave Jacobson the edge... As for my predictions for the Swwet 16 and Elite 8 (as if you couldn't wait any longer): East Regional 1. Kentucky over 12. Cornell 2. West Virginia over 11. Washington 1. Kentucky over 2. West Virginia South Regional 1. Duke over 4. Purdue 10. St. Mary's over 3. Baylor 1. Duke over 10. St. Mary's West Regional 1. Syracuse over 5. Butler 2. Kansas State over 6. Xavier 1. Syracuse over 2. Kansas State Midwest Regional 2. Ohio State over 6. Tennessee 9. Northern Iowa over 5. Michigan State 9. Northern Iowa over 2. Ohio State Let's just hope this weekend lives up to the hype like this past one did...