Some NCAA Tourney Thoughts

• Drexel got robbed. Plain and simple. 14 road wins, including Villanova, Creighton and Syracuse. They may have only gone 1-5 against Hofstra, VCU, and Old Dom, but those are good teams. Drexel should be dancing this week.
• In addition to Drexel, Syracuse and either Kansas State or Florida State should have made the field over Illinois, Arkansas, and Stanford.
• Yes, I think Duke got seeded slightly too high as a #6. But they legitimately could have been a #7 so stop complaining.
• The ACC team that really got too high a seed was Virginia, who should have been around a #6, not a #4.
• Other teams that were seeded too high were Butler, USC, Oregon, Xavier, Purdue, and Albany (how do they get a #13 over Penn?).
• Teams that were seeded too low in my opinion were Louisville, UNLV, BYU, Winthrop, Creighton, and Nevada.
• I do not like that there are less mid major than there should be (only 6 at larges) and some are playing each other (Southern Illinois v. Holy Cross, especially Nevada v. Creighton)
  Everyone on the planet is picking VCU to knock off Duke. Yes, they have some athleticism at the guard spot especially in Eric Maynor that can cause some challenges defensively for the Devils. On the flip side, they have little inside presence and the Dukies should have a nice advantage there. I think the game will be fairly close, but I will be surprised if it is one and done for Duke.
• Vegas seems to have made the lines lower than ever in an attempt to get you (the bettor) to play all favorites. Do not get sucked in. When in doubt, take the points. There is more parity that ever in college hoops, and it is about matchups, experience, coaching, and guys that can carry their teams when they need it. Do not fear the dog, even if it is a #12 seed only getting 1-2 points against a #5 seed.
• Nevada v. Creighton is a ridiculous first round game. Two teams that probably both were underseeded, this is more like a #4 v. a #7 matchup. Either team (especially if Shiloh is healthy for Nevada) could give Memphis all they can handle in the second round.
• The tweener time slot is back for the tourney, meaning there are effectively 5 different slots of games for the degenerates who cannot get enough. The two best games ever in this slot were Drexel knocking off Memphis back when they still had the State in their name behind Malik Rose, and St. Joe beating Pacific during Arthur ‘Yah’ Davis’ one and done career (I believe 1997).
• Since you asked, and since I am tired of every media person picking chalk all the way and seeing a bunch of #1 v. #2 regional finals, I am picking a #1, #2, #3, and #4 seeds for my final 4: Kansas, Georgetown, Texas A&M, and Maryland. I have Kansas cutting down the nets by beating Georgetown and Jeff Green, who the Sports Guy evidently never heard of until he started watching college hoops like three weeks ago.

Back tomorrow with some more first round game breakdowns and predictions….