North: NCAA basketball tourney never disappoints
I can't help but overdose on the NCAA tournament, and the games this time around have been pretty darn good.
The regular season was somewhat mundane, but March Madness, as it always seems to do, catapults college basketball to another dimension and we become enthralled as the tourney unfolds.
The ACC teams (11-1) and the Pac-12 (7-1) had a good weekend, and Big Ten teams (7-5) made a convincing argument why they might be the best all-around conference. They won the national football championship (Ohio State), and now Wisconsin and perhaps Michigan State have a great opportunity to land the trophy in hoops.
Although the Big 12 was touted as the best and deepest conference, I wasn't impressed as I watched them this season. Now, with a 5-5 record after the first weekend of the tournament, I think I was right.
Kansas won its 12th straight Big 12 championship, and I think that tells you the conference must be pretty weak. If the conference is that good, why does the same team win every year?
Head coach Larry Krystkowiak of the Utah Utes says if some conferences beat each other up, they get props for RPI and other measuring sticks, but if they beat each other up in his conference, the Pac-12, the rules are different.
Between the SEC's disappointing performance in football this year, and the Big 12's in basketball, maybe the measuring stick system needs to be re-evaluated because the so-called "experts" haven't a clue.
I have lobbied on my Fox Sports radio show to call them analysts, not "experts" because there really are no experts when it comes to the tournament. Just look at everyone's brackets as proof.
Other storylines had people saying UCLA shouldn't have been in the tournament, and while a goaltending call against SMU saved UCLA, the Bruins now have some momentum and are in the Sweet 16.
I still see some glaring omissions and although the selection committee got it right with UCLA, it also made a few mistakes.
The Ohio Valley Conference includes Murray State (28-5), which should have been in the tournament, while the Belmont Bruins from the same conference with a 22-11 record made the field.
Dayton, a Final 8 team last season, was placed in the play in game and should have had a better seeding.
Oh, and here's a sad note: not one of the 13 Division 1 teams in Illinois made the tourney. I hate to admit it, but the state of Illinois is the mop bucket of college basketball.
Program notes:
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