Thoughts on the Tournament

I wrote this email to a friend and thought I'd post it here because it's basically the last 2 days of thinking that I've done. Let me know your thoughts.

Five things going on....

1. Is it possible for Florida to lose in the first round? If so, I would pay huge money to see all these freaking gator fans put to shame. "We're the first school to have both football and basketball championships and now we're going to have 3 straight. No one can stop Noah or Horford...." ugggh

2. Illinois has a chance for sure. It's hard to see Purdue get a 9 seed and Illinois get a 12 seed. Purdue beat us in the regular season but other than that we're basically the same team. But nobody is complaining about how Purdue got in. Either way, I think Illinois is seeded too high here. I also think VT is the worst of the 5 seeds and probably could have been a 6 seed, Nevada losing early looks like it put VT up a notch. So in reality we might be looking at more of a 6 vs.10 matchup which I like. If I were betting, I'd bet on Illinois to cover for sure. Hoping Warren Carter and Shaun Pruitt show up for this game. Unfortunately Jamar Smith had to pull a Pierre Pierce stunt and drink and drive and hit a tree almost killing his teammate because we could've used his shooting.

3. I heard on "The Herd" this morning that both the Niagra and Florida A&M coaches were upset at being in the play-in game since they received automatic bids into the tournament. The guy filling in for Colin said that perhaps the last two at large teams should face off against each other in the play-in game. This year it would have to be something like Arkansas vs. Stanford. I thought this was a good idea, but then I was unsure where you would put this game into the bracket. If you left it at the 16 seed then Kansas would get screwed because they'd have a much tougher first round game playing that winner than Florida A&M or Niagara. I think it's a good concept but hard to put into practice... your thoughts?

4. My final four looks like this: Oregon, Kansas, Texas, and Ohio State. Then Kansas beating Oregon and Texas taking care of Ohio State. Here's why I love Texas so much. I think Kansas is the best team in the country handds down. I've also watched the last two Kansas-Texas games and think that Texas can play with these guys. The first game a couple weeks ago Kansas turned on another gear in the second half. But the second game if Durant had played, especially in OT I think Texas would've won. But after watching those two games and the A&M game I think Rick Barnes must be the dumbest coach in history... especially vs. A&M when Durant basically wasn't allowed to touch the ball when the game was on the line. Same thing in the Ok. St. game until he figured out a way to get it and shot it anyway even though Barnes was telling him to reset. I didn't see that game, but the SportsGuy says it was ridiculous. Anyway, can you imagine a Texas vs. Kansas final. What a game! So much better than Florida v UCLA last year. I would love for this game to happen, and if it does, I think Texas might actually win. Tough to beat a team again and again.

5. Megan's sister and mom and coming down to visit and of course we're going to Disney World on Wednesday, Thursday, and part of Friday. Now, I'm all in favor of going to WDW, but what a day to go, right? I've already said I'm going to the ESPN zone for a couple hours on Thursday. Luckily Illinois plays late Friday so that's in the clear. Either way, I guess it's not all that fun to watch tournament games by yourself