Room at the Top

Mid February I was ready to say this could be the year that all four #1 seeds could make the Final Four. I'm more confused and now more confident this will not happen. Mostly because some of the best teams took losses and may have to play from a #2 seed. I would have been willing to bet UNC, Florida and UCLA were locks, with Wisconsin or Ohio St, being the fourth. I felt very comfortable thinking it could be a clash of the titans in Atlanta.

It's been a wishy washy type year... I have felt since the beginning that there are only 8 really good teams in basketball and the rest are just pretty good. The above 5, Kansas, Arizona, and a combo of non power conference schools to make one team. (It is a known fact I do not like the term mid major...it hits my ear wrong, and I typically disrespect non power conference teams, its a form of power conference snobbery I subscribe to). I was wrong about Arizona, although with enough talent to beat the Celtics they don't look like they can win it all unless...(we'll get to that later). Kansas is just outside of the big 5, if this were a big six good teams then maybe, but these are the really good teams.

Okay, so my theory all year has been UNC, UF and UCLA were the best teams, until I saw Wisconsin and Ohio St. At that time I could see a final four of Wisconsin, UNC, UF and Ohio St. UNC would play Wisconsin for all the marbles and Wisconsin would win in that Danny Manning, Carmelo Anthony sort of way...one superstar against a heavy favorite.

Now its a different ball game. The beauty of college basketball is that the season has such tremendous importance. Maybe wins and losses aren't very important to UNC and UF, or UCLA, but their momentum certainly is... they must regain that immediatly, Florida more than anyone. With these teams reeling, and some late bloomer surging it has my mind all a flutter.

It's a kerfuffle if you will. I don't want to give away my trade secrets or give the teams I'm really looking at hard for making a run, because you never know, some of my competitors might make an effort to read this for once. I'll tell you this though. I feel stronger than ever that the four teams I predicted for the final four, UNC, UF, Wisconsin and Ohio St. will not be there together. I don't know if UF or UNC have the heart. We've got a couple of games to figure this out, but they've got a ways to go. I'm starting to feel like some of their rivals are wanting it more, playing with more desperation. So with out the big reveals, I'm watching teams like Arizona as mentioned above...they are loaded, they should be better...Texas A&M, Marquette, and Georgetown, teams ranked nearly all year...they've survived...

One week from today is Selection Sunday, one of the best days of the tournament. I love scribbling out my bracket on scratch paper to get a head start on the pools...I really want to see if all the teams that were bounced from #1 seeds a week ago, losing together helped them regain their position. I also doubt that it will help very much. This year could be the most shaky set of #1's in a long time.