My bracket was shot to hell after the first day. I had one Final Four team eliminated the first day. It was shocker after shocker. Last year, there were upsets galore. This year, there were even more! This is only the third time since the modern tournament format was adopted in 1979 that no Number 1 seeds made the Final Four (1980 and 2006). There are some people who are ripping this Final Four because it is some kind of fluke, that teams like VCU and Butler have made it and got lucky; and the Dukes, Kansas', and Ohio States of the world are not in the Final Four and should be because they are overall better teams. A lot of college basketball experts, talk show radio hosts, and other talking heads believe that this is bad for the tournament. I Disagree!
First off, let's look at each team in brief....
Kentucky: A nationally recognized perennial power, which is rooted in tons of basketball tradition and always has high expectations every year. Is it surprising to see them come out of the bracket they were in? Possibly, but it definitely wasn't a shock. They started playing well at the right time.
UConn: This is a team that no one thought would do anything this year. In the big, bad Big East, no one thought that they would compete like they had in previous seasons. People mostly thought this because of their youth. Then they won the Maui Tournament behind some guy named Kemba. Then they put a string of wins together during the season and absolutely RAN through the Big East tournament. Again, they did it behind that Kemba guy. I picked them to go to the Final Four when the brackets were released (the only Final Four team I got right). People should not be shocked by this team. They are legit.
Butler: No one really has a problem with the UConn/Kentucky side of the bracket. The hate is on the other side of the bracket. I don't know why people have a problem with Butler being in the Final Four. In case anyone forgot, they lost to Duke last year in the title game by the slimmest of margins. Sure Gordon Heyward left, but a lot of the pieces from that team last year are on the team again this year. I shouldn't have doubted them in the first round against ODU. Let's embrace the fact that Cinderella has come back to the dance.
VCU: This is the big one. No one, and I mean NO ONE thought VCU would make it this far. NO ONE. If you did, you are either a homer for VCU or you filled out your bracket while smoking the whacky tobacky. Many people thought they shouldn't even have been in the tournament. Then they just ran through the tournament and have won their games by an average of 12 points per game so far, including a beat down of one of the tournament favorites, Kansas. It's not often that we see two Cinderellas are dancing on nearly empty dance floor. VCU has that hardcore underdog mentality, which is the driving force behind their success in this tournament.
The question that everyone is asking is 'Is this good for college basketball?' I say aabsolutely. You are going to have either an 8 seed or an 11 seed in the National Championship going up against schools that have a great amount of tradition attached to them. David will play Goliath again and people will watch. Oh yes, people will watch. America loves the underdog and this year is no different. If Butler wins, then it will be the story of "The Comeback Kids," coming back for another shot. If VCU wins, it will be the story of "The Little Engine That Could," because no one thought that they could make it.
Enough prose, here are my predictions:
UConn over Kentucky
Butler over VCU
Butler over UConn.
Butler wins the National Championship because they can play defense and Brad Stevens has those guys incredibly focused. I think they will do just enough to slow down Kemba Walker.
Now, those predictions may be crazy, but isn't that what this tournament has been for the past two weeks? You really can't blame me.
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