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 Monday, March 12, 2001
Quite the bracket
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
Never mind the sleepless coaching staffs bunkered down in the slums of Bracketville such as UNC Greensboro and Monmouth. You know which group of people are in the most precarious position this week? Sportswriters, that's who.
Whether you write for sportsarewickedcool.com or a daily in L.A. or New York, you're doomed for failure the moment you pass in your bracket for the NCAA tourney. For one, you will never win. Especially in a large office where a triumph in a bracket pool means you're a clueless alum who happened to pick your school to make an unlikely run no matter what seed was next to its name. That's just the way it is and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
Secondly, you will be asked all week about not only which teams make up your Final Four, but also about every No. 5 vs. No. 12 game. And unlike the majority of the rest of the bracket-watchers, you'll hear about it after every wrong selection.
Anyone remember hearing these beauties?
"This is what you do for a living. How did you not know about Richmond?"
"I'm ahead of you in the standings and I don't even watch basketball unless UVA is playing."
"Even I could have told you that Southwest Missouri State would make the Sweet 16."
"I knew Purdue was way better than a sixth seed, didn't you?"
Then, if you happen to correctly call all those impossible 8-9 and 7-10 games that make or break you in the first round along with picking the right fifth seeds to fall to the always-trendy 12th seeds, it's because you are supposed to.
|  | | Duke's Shane Battier is likely to end his college career in Minneapolis. |
Even though it's a no-win situation and my various entries have as much chance of securing me bracket pool immortality as Dick Vitale has in sleeping 10 hours this weekend, I wouldn't have it any other way. But because of that, you do have to sit through my picking process region-by-region.
East
Biggest first-round upset: I'm going with No. 9 Missouri over No. 8 Georgia. Ooooohhh, aren't I crazy? I'm not particularly fond of Mizzou, but how does one go with a bubble team that lost to LSU in the first round of its conference tourney?
Biggest upset down the road: The fact that I don't have BC beating Kentucky even though I hail from the Bay State and watched them in person on Saturday night when they blew out Pitt is surprising. If any team is to easily solve Al Skinner's three-quarter court zone trap, it's the Wildcats with Saul Smith and Keith Bogans in the backcourt.
Upset I nearly went with: Kentucky beating Duke in the Regional Final. Hey, even Satan felt bad for the Wildcats in '92. Something tells me that the basketball gods are making it too perfect to match them in the same region on opposite sides of the bracket with the final being in the same city where Christian Laettner ended what was the greatest game in NCAA Tournament history.
Pick that scares me the most: Having UCLA get by Ohio State in the second round. I mean, does it ever feel safe to go with Steve Lavin's team?
Part I hesitated most on: Writing in Iowa's name. I left the Hawkeyes' first-round matchup with Creighton blank until the end (UK was pencilled to the Sweet 16 regardless) because I don't want Iowa's impressive victory in the Big Ten title game over Indiana to over-influence the decision over such a strong three-point shooting team with nothing to lose.
The Richard Hatch: Duke. Alright, the Blue Devils can't shoot free throws. But who cares? They hit everything else.
West
Biggest first-round upset: No. 11 Georgia St. over No. 6 Wisconsin. This will be a popular selection throughout the country. For pure bracket pool purposes, this is the type of upset that's safe to go with since neither team is going to beat Maryland in the second round.
Biggest upset down the road: No. 7 Arkansas getting all the way to the Elite Eight past No. 2 Iowa St. and Maryland along the way. For those who haven't seen Nolan Richardson's latest group of defenders led by T.J. Cleveland, you're in for a surprise.
Upset I nearly went with: Arkansas over Stanford in the Regional Final. Something tells me that star forward Joe Johnson could carry this team to a Final Four out of nowhere.
Pick that scares me the most: Maryland over Arkansas in the Sweet 16. Though I love the Razorbacks, the Terrapins can beat any team in the nation on a given night. And there are only a select few teams anywhere including Stanford, Duke, Arizona, Kansas and Illinois one can say that about. If they solve the Razorback press, they could make a run to the Final Four.
Part I hesitated most on: Having No. 5 Cincinnati move on to the second round over No. 12 BYU. It's hard to get excited about a Bearcat team that couldn't win the Conference USA Tournament.
The Richard Hatch: Stanford. The Cardinal just has too much firepower for Arkansas. With size on the inside due to the Brothers Collins (Jarron and Jason), depth, great coaching and an All-American gunner like Casey Jacobsen, they should survive at least until Minneapolis.
South
Biggest first-round upset: No. 12 Gonzaga over No. 5 Virginia. This will be another fashionable pick by the several Johnny-Come-Latelys that surface each March, but the Zags are held in even higher regard by those of us who have watched their midnight telecasts on lonely weeknights throughout the winter. Casey Calvary gets all the ink, however, either Blake Stepp and Dan Dickau could be the key players against the Cavs if their three-balls are dropping.
(I also have No. 11 Temple getting by No. 6 Texas, but no John Chaney-coached team is ever an underdog in March.)
Biggest upset down the road: North Carolina getting to the Final Four. The Tar Heels were embarrassed down the stretch and openly called-out on national television for their lack of pride and effort. Don't think they won't strike back with vengeance much like what we saw last March?
Upset I nearly went with: Temple over Florida in the second round. You never know how a sharp-shooting squad like the Gators will react to a matchup zone the way Temple plays it. After a furious run to the A-10 title, this is the type of team that shouldn't shock anyone with a run to the Sweet 16.
Pick that scares me the most: Taking Gonzaga over Oklahoma in the second round. The Zags can play with them, but the Sooners are riding high after winning the Big XII title.
Part I hesitated most on: Selecting No. 9 Fresno State over Cal. It's one of those games that will surely be 50-50 in pools. The Bulldogs deserved a higher seed in my book. They have enough horses, a solid inside game and play the type of pressure defense that will disrupt a one-man team like the Sean Lampley Bears. What made it hard to put pen to paper on this one was knowing Fresno St. is coming off of a loss to Hawaii even though the Rainbows committed 25 turnovers.
|  | | Brenden Haywood hugs Julius Peppers after beating Georgia Tech on Saturday.
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The Richard Hatch: North Carolina. With get-back-on-track wins over Princeton in the first-round and Penn State in the second-round, I got a weird feeling that the Tar Heels can pull it all together to make another Final Four run. They have all the requisite parts with size, experience, an unguardable scorer and depth. It'll just come down to how Jason Capel and Joe Forte are hitting from the outside along with which Brendan Haywood decides to show up. Here's guessing the one that had 14 points, 10 rebounds and played solid D in UNC's win against Duke earlier this season shows up at the party.
Midwest
Biggest first-round upset: No. 11 Xavier over No. 6 Notre Dame. The perfect time for David West to outshadow Troy Murphy in what could be his morphing from a regional star to a national name-player.
Biggest upset down the road: Xavier beating No. 3 Mississippi in the second round. Perimeter play is so crucial in this tournament, and Maurice McAfee and Romain Sato could provide West with some needed room in the paint by draining the three.
Upset I nearly went with: No. 12 Hawaii over No. 5 Syracuse in the first round. It's Syracuse and it's the NCAA Tournament. Need more?
Pick that scares me the most: Having Kansas run the table. I believe in the pick, of course, but that means possibly having to knock off both Illinois and Arizona in consecutive games.
Part I hesitated most on: Going with Mississippi over Iona. You always hesitate when you go against your local squad, and that's what Jeff Ruland's Gaels are to New Yorkers. Unfortunately, 6-foot-8, 265-pound Rahim Lockhart is likely to outmuscle Iona's Marcus Camby-like center, Nikiea Miller, in the paint.
The Richard Hatch: Kansas. The Jayhawks have it all. Whether it's slasher Kenny Gregory, a dominant front-line of Drew Gooden, Nick Collison and 7-1 Eric Chenowith or via the outside shooting and steady play of point guard Kirk Hinrich, Roy Williams has a squad that can beat you in many ways.
Final Four
Duke in the East, Stanford in the West, North Carolina in the South and Kansas in the Midwest.
Duke chops down a much larger Stanford squad in a game that really shouldn't be played as a semifinal. In the jayvee semi, Kansas continues its run in a Duke-style blowout over UNC.
National Championship
With Carlos Boozer back, the Dukies win their third title in 10 years behind Final Four MVP Jason Williams, thus ending national television's four-year love affair with Shane Battier.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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