Deadspin
The brackets are out. Make sure to join our Pants Party pool, and Download our Deadspin Printable Bracket. (PDF, of course.) And, after the jump, enjoy Storming The Floor's instant analysis. We'll be all over everything tomorrow. The tournament! Wee! (By the way, we're having a little trouble with the PDF brackets; we'll try to get 'er fixed ASAP.)
This feels a little bit like that moment after the State of the Union address, when a member of the opposition party comes on the screen and does a point-by-point rebuttal of the speech. Except that we at STF look a lot better than that guy Fred Thompson who rebutted the SOU as a Senator, and then went on to play the District Attorney on Law & Order.
Without further ado, here are the Selection Sunday seeds, snubs, and superlatives as seen by the gang at Storming the Floor.
Best Game: #7 Gonzaga vs. #10 Davidson. It's like hoops evolution. The upstart mid-major of yesteryear gets a taste of their own medicine by facing the upset-minded new guys.
Seeded Too High: Oregon, who many think shouldn't have been in at all, got a 9 seed in the South. Ernie Kent is on his 8 1/2th life.
Seeded Too Low: Wisconsin gets a #3 seed after winning the Big Ten. Clemson also has a gripe after coming up just short in the ACC.
Who Got Screwed: Butler has to play South Alabama in Birmingham. Tennessee got the #2 seed in UNC's bracket despite being considered worthy of a #1 seed themselves. Arizona State doesn't make the tournament at all, while Baylor, who lost in the first round of the Big 12 tournament to horrible Colorado, get in.
Toughest Region: The East. UNC, Tennessee, Louisville, Notre Dame, Washington State. That's a lot of good basketball very early.
Easiest Road to the Elite Eight: Duke.
No. 1 Seed Most Likely to Miss the Final Four: Memphis. C'mon, they won Conference USA, for chrissakes. They played #7 seed Tulsa to win their tournament. No way.
Best Televised Reaction Shot: West Virginia's high-stepping, track-suited celebration was made for TV. And just so Bob Huggins. We must ignite this couch!
Worst: Memphis looked flat-out bored.
Basketball State: The state sending the most teams to the Big Dance is California. San Diego, UCLA, Stanford, USC, Saint Mary's College, Cal State Fullerton.
First Timers: UMBC, Portland State, American University, Texas-Arlington
Least Likely tournament teams: Coppin State - first team in with 20 losses. Georgia - played through wrath of god and absolute worst seed they could have to take the SEC.
Hot Trend: Mid-major vs. Mid-major. Gonzaga-Davidson, Western Kentucky-Drake, South Alabama-Butler. Gotta go through someone your own size to get your heavyweight shot this year.
Best Game Filled With "The Hills"-Style Drama: #6 USC vs. # 11 Kansas State. Beasley on Mayo. Two teams that underachieved a bit this year and we know for certain that one of them will get into the second round.
Upset Game Everyone Will Jump At But Won't Happen: George Mason over Notre Dame. This is not the same team that made the Final Four run. But they do have name recognition.
Game You Can Get Work Done During: Wisconsin vs. Cal State-Fullerton. I'm snoozing just thinking about it.
Potential Match-up CBS is Praying For: #1 UNC vs. #8 Indiana. Two all-time programs with enormous fan bases. Even casual fans will find something to like about this matchup.
MENSA game: #3 Stanford vs. #14 Cornell. If we substitute SAT scores for baskets, this could be one hell of a game.
Let's get this party started. Tons more tomorrow.
Comments
Front Row: yes, yes, no, no.
Second Row: no, no, yes, no, yes, yes, no.
Back Row: yes, no, yes, yes, yes.
That is all.
Brown socks!
Quit crying about VT: they lost to Penn State, Old Dominion and Richmond.
Spitzer is cheering for Austin Peay this year, at least they will always be governors...
When do we find out the game times?
@Sid Bream Was Out: and 32 students
Potential Match-up CBS is Praying For: #1 UNC vs. #8 Indiana. Two all-time programs with enormous fan bases. Even casual fans will find something to like about this matchup.
Yeah, well fuck you CBS - I ain't praying for that
Cornell, by the way, is the first team that's not Princeton or Penn to be representing the Ivies in about 20 years. So there's that.
There's a really great joke about Texas playing Austin Peay in the first round. I'm just too lazy to figure out what it is.
Let me have a few more beers, and then I'll be ready to say "yes" a few times.
Kentucky lost to Gardner-Webb.....BY 16.....AT Rupp Arena....
That is all
I am a very handsome man who gets mad pussy so therefore I can confidently declare all those girls a No. I absolutely love the Internet.
@JohnCocktosten: They let them in just so that their fans wouldn't publicly sacrifice Billy Gillespie to the basketball gods.
Duke?
CBS also wouldn't mind a Boise St - Oklahoma game, if the NCAA can get Fox to give up the highlights from the bowl game.
"I ain't praying for that"
I am, because Dan Dakich will find a way to lose that game by 200 points.
@BaseballBookshelf: I remember thinking that that was an awesome possible match-up.
I also think the best first round games are Clemson/Villanova and West Virginia/Arizona.
Why does the committee always stack one bracket with too many good teams and leave one bracket with a downhill path to the Final 4 for the number 1 seed?
Is there a comedic Deadspin bracket available as there was last year?
@Suss--: come now - it will be just as rewarding to watch him flame out in the first round!
Is that Michelle Bonner standing on the right?
Easiest Road to the Final Four: Duke
Let me guess-you wrote this before the brackets were announced. UCLA, UCONN, Xavier all have inside games and the West Virginia-Arizona winner will have a great chance of beating Duke in the second round. So yeah, Duke will have an easy time getting to San Antonio. I'm ordering my Final Four shirt now.
So tomorrow is going to be spent all day doing research... probably Tuesday, too. Thursday and Friday are the games, so that leaves Wednesday as my one potentially productive day next week.
And yet I don't have to take vacation time. I love having an office job.
@Sid Bream Was Out: as much as I like to bitch about the seedings, you couldn't pay me enough to do that job. I know someone who was on the committee for a few years and he said it's a really tough thing to do.
Nice to see the token African American on the basketball team.
@44 in a Row: research? Really?
@SA:Yes, but Duke is clearly More NOW.
I'd say the easiest road to the final 4 is a toss up between I-10 and I-35.
Let me guess-you wrote this before the brackets were announced. UCLA, UCONN, Xavier all have inside games and the West Virginia-Arizona winner will have a great chance of beating Duke in the second round.
Seriously, I would say UCLA is at the top of that list. Home games the first two rounds, they are absolutely better than Duke, Xavier, and UConn, and they're consistent enough to be able to get past a lower-seeded team with momentum.
NJIT got screwed again.
@Lady Andrea: I'd just use Gilbert's Bracketology.
@Lady Andrea: I think Siena Vandy will be a great game. The 7-10's should be good too.
research? Really?
I don't have a rooting interest in any particular team during the season (see my avatar for explanation), and even though I watch a ton of games, I never really follow what's going on because it doesn't affect me. So I have to spend two days getting up to speed on an entire season of college basketball.
I'm looking forward to the rabbit-turtle pace of basketball that will probably come about when KU meats Wisconsin.
"#3 Stanford vs. #14 Cornell. If we substitute SAT scores for baskets, this could be one hell of a game."
Just don't include Brook Lopez, then, that dumbass!
@44 in a Row: Meh, I wouldn't call anything that Princeton's done in the tournament in recent years "representing." Not that I don't love my Tigers... but we suck.
See, and I also don't think that Memphis is that at risk. Texas could be tough, but other than that, who's going to beat them?
@Innings Eater: And note the money center position. As if to say, "yeah, we have an African American on our team."
@44 in a Row:
Keep in mind sweet 16/Elite 8 is in Houston for that bracket...it will be a good game but Texas would do well to make it there since I think they could beat Memphis.
Meh, I wouldn't call anything that Princeton's done in the tournament in recent years "representing." Not that I don't love my Tigers... but we suck.
I'd like to direct you once again to my avatar. We have one conference championship, back in the 1960s, and that was shared with... oh yeah, PRINCETON.
@SlantedAndDisenchanted: I'm not a handsome or intelligent or sanitary man, but I say "no" because they can't dunk the balls, and the only man they want inside of them is the Messiah.
@44 in a Row: Completely agree. A UCLA-Duke regional final would be one sided. And I forgot to add the whole traveling to Phoenix thing. If you gonna say a team from the West has an easy road, Duke ain't the one.
With an RPI of 32, congratulations to my Dayton Flyers on being the team with the highest RPI left out.
I hate doing a gut reation pool and realizing I have two tons of chalk. Though I have a healthy Zona going to the elite 8 over dook.
Go teams from Mass!
@Fat-Fat: she's from Senegal! a token African in fact!
[www.messiah.edu]
yeah, I was intrigued to know who the hell this team was
Go teams from Mass!
UMBC!
@44 in a Row: They are just the UMASS roster with Tyrese Rice starting right?
Well, I'm not angry like I was a year ago. I knew Syracuse wasn't going. Only can complain about two teams making it that I don't should have. Oregon and Kentucky shouldn't had made and Oregon definitely shouldn't be a #9 seed. Could see Dayton, UMASS and/or Ohio St going over those two.
I know several peoples' spring breaks are ruined because Drake has to go to Tampa instead of Omaha or Denver.
They are just the UMASS roster with Tyrese Rice starting right?
Fuck if I know. I'd never even heard of them until last night.
Kentucky played pretty well in conference play (I mean, their tourney championship game was Ark-Georgia, so whatever that means). I'm leaning towards taking Kentucky over Marquette (It's killing me taking a SEC team over a Big LEast team, but winner of my pool gets almost 15 grand, so)
@Andrew:
Did they have the entire campus to watch the selection show? That's what it looked like.
@44 in a Row: Go retrievers...UMBC fun fact...they started the decade as back to back to back defending chess champions.
Go retrievers...UMBC fun fact...they started the decade as back to back to back defending chess champions.
Plus, according to Wikipedia, their mascot is named "TRUE GRIT", which I think doesn't look right unless it's in all caps.
@Jerkwheat: Senegal eh? Seems too short.
Anyone else going to watch John Adams on HBO? I am so pumped. Hope it's good.
I got Play In Winner going to the sweet sixteen
@44 in a Row: are you waiting for the Kige rundown before you can finish research? I'm hoping that comes down soon...
@tater: There was an open invitation to anyone who wanted to come. A lot of people already started their breaks, but I also know a lot of people who stayed just for today.
@44 in a Row: You had to look it up? I did mine off the top of my head
/dated a girl who forced me to join her on a campus visit.