Final Four Thoughts
By John Scognamiglio
I have given up trying to predict March Madness this year. And why should I? Both teams that I picked to make it to the national championship game are done (Duke over U Conn). My favorite team from last year (West Virginia) made it to the Sweet 16 only to lose to Texas on probably one of the top-five greatest bang-bang finishes in tourney history, and I didn't even pick the Mountaineers in the first round (darn you Salukis for giving me false hope).
But now, we are down to four teams in the tournament. These are supposed to be the best in the land. The cream rises to the top. And what do we have in the Final Four? LSU, UCLA, George Mason, Florida.
Let's start out with the interesting tidbits.
For the first time since 1980, no No. 1 seed reached the Final Four. For the first time since 1986, an 11th seed has reached the Final Four (LSU did it then). The combined seeding of teams is the third-lowest all-time at 20 (LSU-4, UCLA-2, George Mason-11, Florida-3).
Oh, and one more tidbit, on ESPN.com's Tournament Challenge, 1.5 million plus people submitted over 3 million brackets. How many picked the Final Four correctly? Only four brackets left have the exact Final Four. Even ESPN.com is running stories on people who bet on George Mason to win it all from the beginning of the tournament when their odds were in between 300-1 and 400-1.
Now on to the juicy details:
Is there any reason why George Mason shouldn't be America's team? We gave that nickname to Gonzaga at the onset of the tourney and they fell to UCLA. It seems fitting to give the nickname America's team not only to a school that is less than 30 miles from our nation's capital and the site of the regional finals, but the school is named after one of the signers of the U.S. Constitution. How can that not be criteria to fit America's team?
How can anyone not root for George Mason to win it all? When 1985 rolled around and Villanova beat Georgetown (No. 8 defeating No.1), I was only a little over one year old. This could be my Villanova moment. I still feel a little bit wrong about jumping on the George Mason bandwagon this late, but I'm sure there is still plenty of room left for others.
Is this the ultimate Cinderella story for college basketball? In a word, YES!!! There is no greater story. There have been underdog teams before like LSU in 1986, Villanova in 1985, and even North Carolina State in 1983. The difference between them and George Mason: the previous three teams came from power conferences (SEC, Big East, ACC) whereas George Mason is the much-maligned mid-major team from the CAA. Penn and Indiana State in 1979? Sure, those were mid-major teams who made it to the Final Four, but Indiana State was a No. 1 seed behind the magic that is Larry Bird while Penn was a ninth seed Cinderella.
The road George Mason traveled to the Final Four is probably the most perilous ever for a Cinderella. First round: Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans. Round 2: Roy Williams' North Carolina Tar Heels. Sweet 16: Wichita State Shockers in the Ultimate BracketBuster game. Elite 8: Jim Calhoun's Connecticut Huskies.
There are other teams in the Final Four besides George Mason.
Billy Donovan's Florida Gators looked pretty solid all throughout the Minneapolis Regional. And if I were to give away a player of the tournament award, Joakim Noah definitely deserves it for his play.
How about Florida's fellow SEC member Louisiana State. Is Glen "Big Baby" Davis not the next Shaquille O'Neal? Shouldn't we change his nickname to "Baby Aristotle" too?
The final team in this year's Final Four had the most question marks of any team in the field: preseason, regular season, postseason. Coach Howland and the UCLA Bruins have been one of the more pleasant surprises this year, considering that most of the season, UCLA had been riddled with injuries to key players, but they got healthy at the right time, and knocked off Gonzaga and Memphis to punch their ticket to Indianapolis.
After only picking three Sweet 16 games correctly last post, I have decided not to predict the final three games. I have a feeling that the teams that I pick to win will lose their games, so logically I'll pick LSU and UCLA and Florida to win the title.
There is one thing I will predict, though. This Final Four will be one of the highest-rated in television viewing not just because all the major markets are represented, but because everyone wants to not see the clock strike midnight just yet for George Mason.
I have given up trying to predict March Madness this year. And why should I? Both teams that I picked to make it to the national championship game are done (Duke over U Conn). My favorite team from last year (West Virginia) made it to the Sweet 16 only to lose to Texas on probably one of the top-five greatest bang-bang finishes in tourney history, and I didn't even pick the Mountaineers in the first round (darn you Salukis for giving me false hope).
But now, we are down to four teams in the tournament. These are supposed to be the best in the land. The cream rises to the top. And what do we have in the Final Four? LSU, UCLA, George Mason, Florida.
Let's start out with the interesting tidbits.
For the first time since 1980, no No. 1 seed reached the Final Four. For the first time since 1986, an 11th seed has reached the Final Four (LSU did it then). The combined seeding of teams is the third-lowest all-time at 20 (LSU-4, UCLA-2, George Mason-11, Florida-3).
Oh, and one more tidbit, on ESPN.com's Tournament Challenge, 1.5 million plus people submitted over 3 million brackets. How many picked the Final Four correctly? Only four brackets left have the exact Final Four. Even ESPN.com is running stories on people who bet on George Mason to win it all from the beginning of the tournament when their odds were in between 300-1 and 400-1.
Now on to the juicy details:
Is there any reason why George Mason shouldn't be America's team? We gave that nickname to Gonzaga at the onset of the tourney and they fell to UCLA. It seems fitting to give the nickname America's team not only to a school that is less than 30 miles from our nation's capital and the site of the regional finals, but the school is named after one of the signers of the U.S. Constitution. How can that not be criteria to fit America's team?
How can anyone not root for George Mason to win it all? When 1985 rolled around and Villanova beat Georgetown (No. 8 defeating No.1), I was only a little over one year old. This could be my Villanova moment. I still feel a little bit wrong about jumping on the George Mason bandwagon this late, but I'm sure there is still plenty of room left for others.
Is this the ultimate Cinderella story for college basketball? In a word, YES!!! There is no greater story. There have been underdog teams before like LSU in 1986, Villanova in 1985, and even North Carolina State in 1983. The difference between them and George Mason: the previous three teams came from power conferences (SEC, Big East, ACC) whereas George Mason is the much-maligned mid-major team from the CAA. Penn and Indiana State in 1979? Sure, those were mid-major teams who made it to the Final Four, but Indiana State was a No. 1 seed behind the magic that is Larry Bird while Penn was a ninth seed Cinderella.
The road George Mason traveled to the Final Four is probably the most perilous ever for a Cinderella. First round: Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans. Round 2: Roy Williams' North Carolina Tar Heels. Sweet 16: Wichita State Shockers in the Ultimate BracketBuster game. Elite 8: Jim Calhoun's Connecticut Huskies.
There are other teams in the Final Four besides George Mason.
Billy Donovan's Florida Gators looked pretty solid all throughout the Minneapolis Regional. And if I were to give away a player of the tournament award, Joakim Noah definitely deserves it for his play.
How about Florida's fellow SEC member Louisiana State. Is Glen "Big Baby" Davis not the next Shaquille O'Neal? Shouldn't we change his nickname to "Baby Aristotle" too?
The final team in this year's Final Four had the most question marks of any team in the field: preseason, regular season, postseason. Coach Howland and the UCLA Bruins have been one of the more pleasant surprises this year, considering that most of the season, UCLA had been riddled with injuries to key players, but they got healthy at the right time, and knocked off Gonzaga and Memphis to punch their ticket to Indianapolis.
After only picking three Sweet 16 games correctly last post, I have decided not to predict the final three games. I have a feeling that the teams that I pick to win will lose their games, so logically I'll pick LSU and UCLA and Florida to win the title.
There is one thing I will predict, though. This Final Four will be one of the highest-rated in television viewing not just because all the major markets are represented, but because everyone wants to not see the clock strike midnight just yet for George Mason.
posted by Anonymous at Monday, March 27, 2006
1 Comments:
I'm really enjoying the John Scognamiglio blog. I guess the rest of the sports staff is dead
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