Among Other Things, Basketball Alive and Well in Richmond

After the first weekend of March Madness, here are some observations, statistics, and opinions:

-Is your bracket shot?  Mine probably is, but I’m going to pretend like it’s not for just a little longer.  After an epic Thursday afternoon where I was just about perfect, I had a very bad evening.  Still, a flawless Friday kept me in the game, and I saw my record 23/32 after the first record.  (Take out the southeast and I was 20/24)  Saturday and Sunday killed me though, as I am left with 8 teams correctly in the sweet sixteen.  I’ve won pools with less, but I don’t like my chances to beat my placing in my yearly Governor’s School Pool, which I finished in the top three of last year.  Here’s to a UConn-Kansas NC game to bail my sorry bracket out.

-Doesn’t it feel like the sky is raining upsets?  Evidently it’s not.  I filled out an all-chalk bracket on ESPN just to see how it would compare to everyone else’s.  (For the sake of clarity, I had all four #1 number one seeds in the final four on this bracket, with the NC being between Ohio State and Pittsburgh.)  The results after two rounds?  That bracket is currently in the 92^nd percentile of all brackets, so it’s doing pretty well.  It seems like there have been a lot of upsets because the upsets have been so epic- 13’s beating 4’s, 8’s beating 1’s, and two 11 seeds in the Sweet 16- but by and large chalk has held.  The east features a 1, 2, and 4.  The west features a 1, 2, 3, and 5.  The southeast features a 2, 3, and 4.  The only region which is looking insane right now is…

-The southwest region:  holy freaking crap.  Everyone thought the southeast was going to be upset city, but clearly it’s the southwest.  Aside from Kansas winning comfortably in both of its games, we’ve had gigantic chains of upsets.  Notre Dame, a team that many (me not included) had going very far in the tournament, was knocked out in the second round by FSU, who also knocked off Texas A&M.  VCU, who slid all the way through their season finale (against JMU, might I add), came out of the gates in the CAA tournament.  Even though they lost to ODU in the tournament final, they never really turned off the juice.  They have absolutely decimated opponents, beating their three opponents (USC, Georgetown, Purdue) by a combined 49 points.  In fact, the only team blowing teams away in more grandiose fashion has been some team named Ohio State, that little old number 1 overall seed.

-Speaking of VCU, how about the city of Richmond?  Left for dead by the selection committee, Richmond was vastly underseeded as a #12 and playing against a nationally ranked team.  VCU was relegated to play-in purgatory and left for dead against a southern Cal team that has been up and down all year.  It’s now one week later, and we’re living in a Sweet 16 world where Richmond has survived to face Kansas, and VCU has proved to the critics that they belong by rattling off three straight wins.  Richmond is not exactly the Mecca of sports, featuring little more than an oddly named minor league baseball team and a notable racetrack.  But my guess is that several thousand more people will follow college basketball a little more closely in the foreseeable future.  The first step is certainly to step up the excitement level in the city, and people are making strides toward that.  Friends of mine at both universities have informed me of a joint VCU/U of R pep rally by the Canal this upcoming Wednesday afternoon.  If you’re in the area, think about stopping by and enjoying the frivolities that come with living in a city that is, for once, actually relevant in the sports world! 

Oh, and watch out.  I love VCU to beat to beat Florida State, and make the regional semifinals.  But Richmond to take out Kansas would be a huge surprise.  You know what?  To Hell with my bracket.  Let’s go spiders!  If there’s an all Richmond elite eight game, the city might just explode from sheer, epic excitement

-My final word for the day: why hate on the big east?  An army of pundits seem to be highly critical on the league’s two remaining bids.  While expectations were certainly higher, it mathematically makes a lot of sense.  Unlike the regular season, where 300+ Division 1 teams can be on entirely different planes of existence, teams playing in March are all relatively on the same level.  10 of the best 37 teams came from the Big East.  That reflection of the regular season technically has no say on how those teams will stack up when playing against the other 27 teams because, as said before, all teams are within range of potentially beating each other.

From a mathematical perspective, 50% of the teams should have been eliminated by the end of the round of 64.  Expected amount of teams left?  5 or 6.  Actual amount of teams left- 6.  By the start of the Sweet 16, only 2-3 teams should be left.  Here we are with two teams left- two of which had to get there by beating another Big East team, which could have meant a potential four teams in the sweet sixteen- so the Big East has done more or less everything expected of them.  Not to mention many of the losses- Pittsburgh, Louisville, Syracuse- came down to final plays and/or questionable officiating.  All of these things lead me to one conclusion.  Has there been unfulfilled expectations?  Yes.  Has the conference underachieved?  Perhaps.  Is that conference a bust?  Absolutely not… yet.

Teams remaining by conference:

ACC: 3
Big East: 2
Big 10: 2
SEC: 2
MWC: 2
Big 12: 1
Pac10: 1
CAA: 1
A10: 1
Horizon: 1