College Basketball
Hive Killer
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia Tech athletics have seen better days.
During the 1990’s through early 2000’s they were good in both football and Men’s basketball. They were accustomed to playing in the post season almost every year.
Fast forward to now and both are in trouble. The Yellow Jackets have not played in the NCAA Tournament since 2010. Tech is currently 10 – 12 and 12th in the ACC. There are 15 teams in the conference.
The most recent game was an 80 – 72 loss to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are only 4 – 6 in conference play but they swept Georgia Tech this season.
“You can’t leave points off the board because (the Irish) will make you pay because of their offensive skill set,” coach Josh Pastner said after calling Notre Dame perhaps the best offensive team in the ACC.
“We did a great job with 20 offensive boards, a good job in the red zone (paint, 44-18). The bottom line is they hit some tough 2’s and they made nine 3’s. We didn’t make enough 3’s (4 for 18). Not having Mike Devoe hurts us because it takes away a shooter.”
The first person we have to look at is Josh Pastner. He’s been the head coach in Atlanta since 2016. The best record he had was 21 – 16 in his first season. Since then they have had losing records and won less than 15 games each season.
Based solely on the product on the court he is not right for the job. He also has additional personal issues that have negatively affected the program.
The NCAA announced that they have banned Tech from the 2019-20 postseason, put the school on four years probation, placed recruiting restrictions on the staff, forced the program to vacate wins, and fined the ACC institution an undetermined amount of money.
The question is what did he do to cause this? He brought his friend Ron Bell around the team and he committed major violations. This was reported in November 2017 when jilted former friend Bell shared this with the media.
According to the school, Tadric Jackson accepted benefits totaling less than $525 while Josh Okogie accepted benefits totaling less than $750.
Bell turned over documents to CBS Sports that show he spent $233.40 on a plane ticket for Okogie, sent him three pairs of shoes totaling around $444 and ordered him two shirts totaling $56.
Bell also provided CBS Sports with documents that show he spent $233.40 on a plane ticket for Jackson, sent him two pairs of shoes totaling around $271 and ordered him New York Knicks apparel worth $80.
Those documents add up to around the estimates Georgia Tech self-reported, and any incongruities could be chalked up to estimation differences, which are allowable by NCAA rules.
What I do not understand is why Pastner has not been fired yet. He is not getting results on the court and he has baggage. It looks like a safe bet that they will not be able to qualify for the NCAA Tournament even if they were eligible.
They need to part ways from him after the season and hire the right coach. They can get back to being a contending team in the ACC with the right leadership.
Flying To Mountain Top?
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For most of the last four seasons, the book on Georgia Southern men’s basketball has been the same.
The Eagles are an athletic team with plenty of talent and – injury permitting – a lot of depth.
They’ve consistently out-performed preseason predictions and have been a mainstay near the top of the Sun Belt standings and have earned one of the top four seeds in the conference tournament in four of the last five seasons.
But for all that success, the Eagles have never quite been able to reach the top of the mountain.
Shooting woes and a difficulty in winning road games have popped up at the worst times and the Eagles have seemed to be on the wrong end of most ‘must-win’ games.
The result is still a solid Georgia Southern squad – but one that is now closing in on 30 years without an appearance in the NCAA tournament.
So, while this season’s team has all the looks of a possible contender, it will be battling nearly three decades of demons along with the rest of the Sun Belt.
To be fair, the deck is stacked against the Eagles, as well as most other programs not fortunate enough to play in one of the power conferences.
Despite the Sun Belt quickly improving its overall statistics as a league and pulling off a pair of first round NCAA victories in recent history, the postseason continues to take more and more power conference teams with at-large bids.
So, while the Sun Belt has a handful of viable league title contenders this season and the ability to make some noise on the national stage, it’s already written in stone that only the league’s tournament champion will get an invitation, regardless of the resumes of the others.
In a way, that makes things a bit easier for Georgia Southern. To paraphrase the all-time classic movie ‘Major League’, “There’s only one thing left to do… Win the whole thing.”
That’s much easier said than done, but it’s an attainable goal for this season’s Eagles and one they’d do well to set their minds on right now.
Of course, coach speak rules the day in any sport. No amount of success or struggle will get GS coach Mark Byington to talk about a conference title in December – or in January or February, for that matter.
But the truth of the matter is that if the Eagles want to make the big dance in March, they need to start putting themselves in position for it right now.
The team has taken the first steps with a pair of wins in its’ first two Sun Belt games. A good conference tournament seed will likely net a more favorable run of opponents during the must-win games.
As the season goes on, the team also needs to consider rest for players, as everyone will have to be prepared for what could be three or four straight days of single elimination play.
More Cinderellas
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The first month of the NCAA basketball season has been wild as it pertains to the national polls.
For the first time ever, two No. 1 teams have lost home games to unranked opponents in the same season.
Four different teams claimed the top national ranking within the first five releasings of the national poll and the annual rush of marquee tournaments and made-for-TV matchups have delivered a handful of top-10 matchups already.
Without a doubt, the early weeks of the 2019-20 season have been filled with fireworks.
It’s just too bad that none of it will matter much over the next few months.
With nearly three times as many teams competing for the Division I basketball title than the FBS football championship, it stands to reason that more teams are involved in the final tournament. And over the last few decades, ‘March Madness’ has become a billion-dollar moneymaker for the NCAA.
But for all the buzzer-beaters and Cinderella stories that emerge each spring, the fact remains that the deck is stacked against the little guys of basketball as much as with any other sport overseen by the NCAA.
All 32 Division I conferences own an automatic bid to the tournament, but 21 of those leagues received just that one guaranteed bid, with two of the conference champion auto-bid recipients placed in the tournament’s play-in round.
The perennially dominant leagues like the ACC, Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 routinely end up cutting down the nets. And no one can argue that the top teams from any of those conferences should be thought of as top seeds and favorites in any given tournament.
But for the sake of parity and fair play, those conferences really need to stop sucking up all the air in the bracket.
While some conferences are admittedly weaker and should only get one bid into the national tournament, that number of conferences certainly doesn’t comprise two-thirds of the national landscape.
Far too often, the tournament selection committee gets it in its head that a certain conference will only get one team into the bracket and is then left scrambling for reasons to justify snubbing a dominant team with 25-plus wins that just happened to fall short during its conference tournament on the way to an auto-bid.
The plight of smaller conferences won’t find much sympathy outside of leagues with similar problems, but the growing gap between the haves and have-nots is hurting the game itself.
For every extra at-large bid a power conference vacuums up in March, the sport as a whole becomes less relevant during the regular season.
Sure, bid scarcity will fuel some incredible regular season and tournament games in smaller conferences, but for every intense game with huge repercussions in small conferences, there will be a dozen more regular season meetings between middling power conference teams that routinely sleepwalk through some games with the assumption that even a modest record will be enough.
That’s not what the NCAA tournament should be about.
Each season, the NCAA churns out dozens of highlight reels, making sure to emphasize the little guys and tout ever punch a David can deal out to a Goliath. The NCAA and its tournament would do even better by all parties involved to include a few more of those long shots.
No one remembers the 8-9 game between two power conference also-rans. Meanwhile, the upsets and names involved with them are talked about decades after the fact.
The same elite group of programs are likely to contend for – and win – the title each season. But there’s no reason not to ensure that every good team gets a fair chance at tournament glory.
The SEC Fortune Teller
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As sportswriters, we love to make predictions, especially when we don’t revisit our assumptions afterwards to see how well we did.
So, in the spirit of trying to hold myself accountable, here are three semi-bold predictions for the upcoming SEC basketball season, that I’ll come back to at season’s end to see how I did.
1- Florida, not Kentucky, will enter the SEC Tournament with the best conference record. On the surface it’s easy to dismiss this as an overreaction on my part to Kentucky’s loss to Evansville; I promise it’s not.
Don’t get me wrong, as much as I enjoy watching a John Calipari coached team lose that type of game, the outcome will have absolutely zero bearing on the team they’ll ultimately become.
The reason I’m going with Florida is, besides the dearth of talent on the Gators roster, Kerry Blackshear Jr.
Normally, the expectations for a graduate transfer aren’t quite that high because if they were that talented to begin with, they would’ve either already been drafted, or would still be with their original team; Blackshear is the rare exception.
Having watched him play at Virginia Tech for the past few years, he is a better than average talent who will bring experience and tenacity to the Gators.
He’s that “heart and soul” type player you want on your team in big time games, because in most instances he’s going to deliver. He may not be the best player in the conference, but he could wind up being the most important.
2- Anthony Edwards will be the SEC Player of the Year. I say this about Edwards for two reasons.
The first is that I genuinely think he may be the most talented player in the country. In a freshman class that is underwhelming compared to the last few years, Edwards is one of the few players that would’ve been a top tier talent in those earlier classes.
The second, and what may factor in as much as his talent, is that Tom Crean is going to make sure Edwards is showcased as much as he can.
It’s like if you were the owner of Willie’s Wee-Nee Wagon for a day, would you spend it advertising the burger and hotdogs, or would you push the pork chop sandwich?
You’re going to go with what works best, right. (By the way, Cole Anthony is going to get the same treatment at UNC that Edwards will get.)
Edwards has the potential to be a program changing recruit, so you know Crean is going to give him every opportunity to put up numbers. Edwards won’t be the most efficient player in the country, but he may turn out to the best.
3- Only 5 teams from the SEC will hear their name called on Selection Sunday. Out of the three predictions, this is the one most likely to come back and bite me.
College basketball is so wide open this year it’s difficult to find a team, let alone multiple teams, you feel confident in.
This may be the season all those whose clamor to see more mid-major teams in the tournament get their wish.
Regardless of whether or not any of these predictions come true, this season promises to be an entertaining one. It’ll just be a little bit easier to revisit in a few months if I happen to be right.
Awesome ACC
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The college basketball season begins this week.
Last season was very exciting because we expected Duke to win it all. Instead, Virginia bounced back from an epic collapse from the previous year and won their first national championship. Let’s take a look at the ranked ACC teams.
#4 Duke: The Blue Devils had one of the best recruiting classes of all-time last year led by Zion Williamson. Duke started the season ranked No. 1 and maintained that ranking for most of the year. They lost by one point in the Elite Eight to Michigan State.
The 2019 recruiting class features five recruits and the class is ranked third nationally.
Three of them are five-star players; center Vernon Carey, small forward Wendell Moore and power forward Matthew Hurt. The other two are both four-star recruits; shooting guards Cassius Stanley and Rejean Ellis.
They bring five top 40 prospects to Durham and point guard Tre Jones is returning for his sophomore season.
Duke opens the season against No. 3 Kansas at Madison Square Garden.
#5 Louisville: The Cardinals start the season with a conference game at Miami.
The football team is also playing the Hurricanes this week.
Junior forward Jordan Nwora was voted preseason ACC Player of the Year. He averaged 17 points and 8 rebounds per game last season.
Freshman guard Samuel Williamson is a four-star recruit and he should make an immediate contribution. I expect him to be second on the team in scoring. Senior forward Dwayne Sutton is also a key contributor.
This is the first time in the post Rick Pitino era that Louisville is a serious contender.
#9 North Carolina: The Tar Heels always expect to compete for a national title. The thing that surprises me is they don’t get the elite recruits that you would expect for a program of their caliber.
Their 2019 recruiting class was ranked ninth. That’s behind inferior programs like Memphis, Oregon, USC and Florida.
The recruiting class consists of four players and two of them are five-star recruits. Point guard Cole Anthony and center Armando Bacot are joining an experienced UNC team.
Last season ended in disappointment with a Sweet Sixteen blowout loss to Auburn.
They also begin the season with a conference opponent, Notre Dame. The first ranked team on the schedule is in game 6 versus No. 18 Ohio State. The second game after that is at No. 8 Gonzaga.
# 11 Virginia: Virginia has finished outside the nation’s top 10 once in the last six basketball seasons, and its 89-19 ACC record during that span is historically dominant.
The Cavaliers are replacing four starters, including their top three scorers.
“We know it’s going to be a big challenge,” senior forward Braxton Key said. “We know the X is going to be on our back every game, but we’re excited for it.”
The season opens against a tough Syracuse team.
Virginia is the ACC’s 15th men’s basketball national champion. It’s traditionally the best conference and I think that will be the case this year. I believe the team that wins the national championship this year will be from the ACC.
Looking To Fly
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
With less than two weeks to go before tipoff of the 2019-20 season, the Georgia Southern men’s basketball team is already in high gear.
The Eagles have proven to be a consistent winner in the Sun Belt Conference, but have yet to attain the ultimate goal of winning the conference tournament and advancing to the school’s first NCAA tournament since 1992.
All of the pieces seem to be in place for the Eagles to take another crack at things as nearly every preseason poll has them pegged as a favorite to be one of the top two seeds.
But the Sun Belt’s NCAA bid won’t be awarded for another five months, and there is a lot of work to be done by Georgia Southern until then if it wants to be the team left standing in March.
“I think that all our guys know that preseason hype means absolutely nothing,” GS coach Mark Byington said. “The goals are bigger than what projections are in October. We’re trying to climb the mountain and everyone is starting at the bottom.”
As preseason practices have started, one trend has clearly emerged. The Eagles are looking for a better defensive showing this time around.
Byington stated that most of his practices lean heavily on shutting down the opposition.
“We’re really getting after it on the defensive end,” guard David Lee Jones Junior said.
“We need to focus on it,” guard Calvin Wishart said. “It’s 30 seconds where we have to be locked in. If we do that, we know we have the talent to score on the other end.”
The players’ assessments of what they’re being coached up on definitely aligns with what Byington is trying to impress upon them.
“We had success last season in getting a lot of steals,” Byington said. “When we were in our half-court defense, we weren’t as good. We know that we have a lot of very talented offensive players. We need to improve defensively and then we trust that the scoring will be there for us.”
While many players will be returning to the court this season, there’s no missing the fact that Georgia Southern’s modern-day leading scorer Tookie Brown has graduated.
There’s likely not a single player that will be able to match Brown’s numbers as a four-time All-Sun Belt performer, but the Eagles project to be as tall and athletic as ever with plenty of bench depth to spare.
But that talent needs an identity and a culture – things that can be damaged when a star and leader like Brown move on.
Luckily, Georgia Southern was able to build up some of that in style. The Eagles travelled to Spain over the summer break, playing some local squads and doing some sightseeing while spending a week overseas.
“I think it was a great experience for them, and important for us that we all experienced it together,” Byington said. “It accomplished what I wanted it to. Seeing different ways to live and different ways to do things, it exposed us to a lot. Doing it together can show our strengths and weaknesses as a group and that’s what we use to grow on.”
Georgia Southern will play a pair of exhibition games in the coming weeks before tipping off its regular season Nov. 5 at Auburn.
Special Breed
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
College basketball teams can have the perception of their program altered more than any other sport, based off of a single recruit.
We’re still an entire football season away from the start of the college basketball season, but it’s not too early to talk about how important Anthony Edwards could be to Georgia basketball.
To say that UGA hasn’t been a popular destination for top level basketball talent is a bit like saying Winterfell isn’t a popular vacation destination for anyone with the last name Lannister.
Even though Georgia has done a decent job in the past of recruiting within the state, they have struggled when it comes to bringing in top level talent.
There have been a number of in-state recruits that listed Georgia, or Georgia Tech for that matter, as one of their final schools only to spurn them for another program. (Most of these recruits never seriously considered staying in state, but the consensus thought is that by listing them it would give the schools a little notoriety and maybe help with lesser recruits.)
As big a deal as it was to get a Top 5 recruit like Edwards to sign, it carries even more weight since he’s from Atlanta.
Let’s assume Edwards has an All-SEC type season and helps lead Georgia back to the NCAA Tournament- all expectations that normally follow a recruit ranked this high- it could open numerous opportunities for the Dawgs on the recruiting trails.
For one, Tom Crean would be able to use Edwards as a recent example of the program’s ability to showcase one and done talent while preparing them for the NBA.
More importantly, it will be much easier to entice some of the higher rated 4-star recruits to come to Athens. I highly doubt Georgia will be able to compete with schools like Duke and Kentucky on the recruiting trail, but if they can start landing the kids ranked in the 30-50 range consistently, you’ll start seeing a program making deep runs in the tournament.
North Carolina made it to back to back championships with those same second tiered players, and Virginia did this year, to an extent.
If Edwards happens to struggle this season and his draft stock falls, it will undoubtedly have a negative impact. Programs that bring in Top 10 recruit after Top 10 recruit can afford to miss on one every now and again. When you’ve only had one, it’s hard to recover if it doesn’t work out.
It’s kind of like dating; if you have a lot of good times, you’ll overlook the toilet seat being left up or the hour and a half it takes to get ready. If not, go ahead and leave one scoop of ice cream in the carton and see how that works out.
And look, I’m not saying that if Edwards doesn’t work out quite the way Georgia hopes that all is lost and they should just shut down the program and go home. More than likely things will continue to be status quo; a middle to lower level SEC team that considers making the tournament a huge win.
No matter where the program is five to six years from now fans will be able to look back and see how pivotal a role Edwards played. All it takes is one player to change the future of a program, for the good as well as the bad. After years of trying, Georgia finally has that player.
March Madness Roller Coaster
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2019 Men’s NCAA Tournament is one of the most surprising in as long as I can remember.
Duke looked like a lock to win it all when the season began. After Zion Williamson was injured in February, the team struggled. Once he returned for the ACC Tournament, the Blue Devils were back on track.
Other than the first round, Duke struggled in the tournament. They barely beat UCF and Virginia Tech. Then they lost to Michigan State in the Elite 8.
North Carolina is another No. 1 seed from the ACC that was expected to reach the Final 4. They only advanced to the Sweet 16 and lost 97-80 to Auburn.
The Tigers were the lowest seed (No. 5) to reach the Final 4. They are known as a football school that typically has a poor basketball team. They beat a few blue blood programs in the tournament like Kansas, UNC and Kentucky.
No. 3 seed Texas Tech had a great season. They won the Big 12 regular season title. Kansas had a streak of 14 consecutive Big 12 titles that the Red Raiders snapped. Texas Tech ranked third nationally in scoring defense, only allowing an average of 58.8 points per game.
They beat a very good No. 2 Michigan State in the Final 4 to advance to the national championship game. Virginia had also never won a national title before. It was the first title game where both teams had not won before since 1979.
Virginia has to be the most resilient team I have ever seen. Last season they were the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 — the one thing that had never happened in a tournament where anything can. They did not just lose; they were blown out by 20 points against University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). That was an embarrassing loss that the Cavaliers tried to overcome all season.
Going into the tournament, I did not have any faith at all in Virginia because of that. It looked like they were going to do the same thing this year. In the first round against No. 16 Gardner-Webb, they were down by 14 points in the first half. The Cavs cut the deficit to 6 points at halftime.
It looked like history was going to repeat itself. UVA did not panic and they came out in the second half and outscored the Runnin’ Bulldogs 41-20. They are led by their defense which was the best in college basketball, only allowing 55.5 ppg.
The road to the championship was difficult. They beat No.3 Purdue in the Elite 8 in overtime 80-75. They beat Auburn in the Final 4 63-62.
Sophomore guard De’Andre Hunter helped lead them this season. He averages 15 ppg, 5 rpg and he shoots 52% from the field. In the championship game, he scored 27 points and had 9 rebounds. The Cavaliers won in overtime 85-77.
“Surreal,” Hunter called it. “It’s a goal we started out with at the beginning of the season. We knew we were going to bounce back from last year. We achieved our dreams.”
They went from the lowest point last season to the pinnacle one year later.
“I told them, I just want a chance at a title fight one day,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “That’s all I want. … You’re never alone in the hills and the valleys we faced in the last year.”
This might have been the best season of college basketball in history with all of the upsets and storylines.
Coach Em Up
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
At the end of every season, regardless of the sport or the level of competition, there is turnover within the coaching ranks.
While a school like UCLA, who fired Steve Alford over three months ago, is still searching for his replacement, SEC schools have been hiring coaches as if they were contestants on “Supermarket Sweep.” In the span of basically two weeks, they filled their four vacant positions.
Alabama: Nate Oats. I don’t follow the inner workings of the Alabama basketball program, so unless there was some sort of internal dysfunction taking place, I was a bit surprised to see them let Avery Johnson go.
Putting my initial reaction aside, I think the Oats hiring has been the best hire, up to this point. The two time MAC Coach of the Year exceeded expectations at Buffalo and has already made an impact in Tuscaloosa, convincing John Petty to take his name out of the transfer portal and stay at Alabama.
His biggest task though is being just as persuasive with All-SEC player, Kira Lewis, whose name is still in the portal. If he can convince Lewis to return, Oats’ inaugural season with the Crimson Tide could be a very successful one.
Texas A&M: Buzz Williams. The former Hokies coach is certainly an upgrade from Billy Kennedy. In his eleven years at Marquette and Virginia Tech, Williams’ teams only twice failed to win 20 games, and only missed out on the NCAA Tournament three times.
It may take a year or two for that success to transfer to the Aggies, but there’s nothing in his past to make you think it won’t ultimately happen.
He doesn’t always have the best demeanor with fans and the media, and while that has absolutely nothing to do with his team’s on the court performances, it should make for some interesting columns in College Station.
Vanderbilt: Jerry Stackhouse. This was an interesting hire just because Stackhouse hasn’t been a name thrown around in the college circles that much, but I have to give Vanderbilt credit for thinking outside the box.
Stackhouse has minimal head coaching experience- he had a short stint in the D-League where he did win Coach of the Year in 2017- and I have no idea how he’ll do on the recruiting trail.
He does have a very good reputation on the NBA level though, and obviously did a good job developing his players in the D-League; hence the COY award.
Personally, I’ve always liked Stackhouse- as much as a Duke fan can like a Carolina player- so I hope he’s able to succeed.
Arkansas: Eric Musselman. Musselman’s a decent coach, but besides Nevada’s Elite 8 run in the tourney last year, I’m not sure there’s anything in his coaching past that makes you think he’s going to be the answer.
I guess when you haven’t made the Sweet Sixteen since 1996 you’re kind of forced to take whomever you can get. I’m not wishing for the guy to fail, but if you were to ask me which of these four will be the first to go, my money would be on Musselman.
The level of play within the SEC has drastically improved over the past few years, so all four coaches have their work cut out for them.
The question now is “Will they make the grade, or will they be forced back on the shelf, waiting for the next coaching cart to swing by and pick them up?”
Survive And Advance
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
One of the great things about the NCAA Tournament is its unpredictability. On the flip side, that unpredictability can sometimes lend itself to a less than exciting Final Four.
If you’re a fan who enjoys those football games that are a defensive battle, ending in a score of 6-3, go ahead and pop some popcorn and get snuggled in because this year’s Final Four is your “Citizen Kane.” If you’re not, it’s your “Gigli”.
While it may not be the most exciting set of games when you compare it to what may have been, it doesn’t mean they won’t be entertaining, or that any of the four teams aren’t deserving of being there.
Let’s go ahead and start with, in my opinion, the least intriguing matchup of the two, Texas Tech vs. Michigan State.
The Red Raiders have been college basketball’s most efficient team on the defensive end for most of, if not the entire season, and they are every bit as good as their ranking.
Offensively however, outside of Jarrett Culver, there’s not much there. Think it’s more enjoyable to watch Virginia team of years past, but with the same low scoring results.
Michigan State on the other hand, doesn’t do anything great, but doesn’t really have a glaring weakness. You pretty much know what you’re going to get from them; rebounding, tough defense, and meticulous execution.
If Cassius Winston can create enough space to get his shot off with any type of consistency, the Spartans have a chance. If not, I’m going with Texas Tech in a game that’s score not make it into the 60’s.
The Virginia/Auburn game has the potential to be great. As much as people want to bemoan the Cavaliers pack-line defense, and with good reason, their offense is underrated.
They’ve struggled on the offensive side throughout most of the tournament, but they showed in the second half of the Purdue game what they’re capable of doing.
And Auburn is like a real life version of NBA JAM, if it consisted of college teams. They are so feast or famine on both sides of the ball, the anticipation leading up to their games is like buying a lottery ticket; you could win the jackpot or lose all your money, but either way the excitement is all in the finding out.
I’m leaning towards Virginia, but after Auburn ran through the gauntlet of Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky in pretty convincing fashion, I also feel like Auburn should be the favorite.
Honestly, I have no idea how a Tigers fan makes it through the season without breaking a tv in a frustration one minute and then running through the streets naked in complete adulation the next. (For the record, I’m going with Virginia over Texas Tech in the championship game.)
The point is made almost every year that as much as we yearn for that Cinderella run the begin the tournament, we want the best teams in finish it off in the Final Four. There may not be any of the “Bluebloods” in this year’s Final Four, but all four participants have had strong seasons and been impressive in their respective tournament runs.
I’m sure there aren’t too many brackets that had these pairings, and while it may not be the Final Four most of us expected, that unpredictability may be just what makes this year’s event more exciting than predicted.
