We’ll get into the games more as the week goes on, but here are some quick thoughts, facts after seeing the brackets/Field of 68.
— #8-seeds are a prominent group: UConn, Gonzaga, Louisville, Mississippi State.
How would you like to be a #1-seed and see the two-time champ Huskies in your bracket?
Auburn-Louisville would be in Lexington, KY; Bruce Pearl must be thrilled with that, though that game being an afternoon tip-off probably helps Auburn a little bit.
Gonzaga has made nine straight Sweet 16’s; they’re going to have to upset Houston to make it ten in a row.
— Brackets came out out between 6-7 pm; Maryland coach Kevin Willard was on a CBS brackets show at 8:30- he said his team had already had a film session on Grand Canyon, their first round opponent in Seattle Friday.
These teams don’t waste any time studying their opponents.
— Iowa State point guard Keshon Gilbert is out for the NCAA Tournament; he missed four of the Cyclones’ last seven games, and Iowa State went 1-3 in those games.
— Clemson-McNeese State is a first round game; McNeese coach Will Wade was a student manager at Clemson, later a grad assistant coach there.
Wade’s Wikipedia page says that he is the new coach at NC State, which might be wishful thinking by whoever posted that note.
— Teams that played on Sunday who have a tournament game this Thursday:
VCU, Yale, Michigan, Wisconsin, all in Denver, in high altitude. Tennessee plays in Kentucky.
Sunday/Thursday is a quick turnaround, especially if a lot of travel is involved.
— Arkansas-Kansas; John Calipari vs Bill Self, with the winner probably playing against Rick Pitino’s St John’s team. Lot of Hall of Famers in that bracket.
St John’s hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2000, which is also the last time they won the Big East tournament (before this week).
— With no Pac-12 this season or next, there was an extra at-large bid this season; two years from now, the Pac-12 will be back, and the tournament will have one fewer at-large team.
— Famous birthdays, March 17th:
Cito Gaston, 81
Patrick Duffy, 75
Kurt Russell, 74
Gary Sinise, 70
Danny Ainge, 66
Arye Gross, 65
Sam Bowie, 64
Rob Lowe, 61
Kyle Korver, 44
Juan Lagares, 36
Cordarrelle Patterson, 34
Rhys Hoskins, 32
— 14 of 16 SEC teams made the tournament; Texas was the lowest ranked of the 14- they play Xavier in a play-in game in Dayton.
— #1-seeds won 17 of the 31 conference tournaments this year.
Some trends on conferences in the NCAA’s:
— Since 2019, Mountain West teams are 3-14 SU/2-15 ATS in first round games.
New Mexico, Utah State, Colorado State, San Diego State are in this year’s tournament.
— Since 2010, Ivy League teams are 10-3 ATS in first round games; Yale is a 7.5-point underdog against Texas A&M Thursday.
— CAA teams are 0-11 SU in the last 11 NCAA Tournaments, 0-5 ATS in the last five. NC-Wilmington is a 15.5-point underdog against Texas Tech Thursday night.
— Big West teams are 7-3 ATS in their last ten first round games; the last five years, five different schools have represented the Big West.
Was surprised to see that Cal-San Diego is only a 3.5-point underdog vs Michigan in their first round game. This is the first year the Tritons were eligible for March Madness- they’re 30-4 and have won their last 15 games. They’re 3-2 vs teams ranked in the top 100.
— There must be a lot of $$$ involved with the advertising involved in these bracket pools; ESPN pushes their contest pretty hard.
— I’m off to do more studying; will be back tomorrow with some more knowledge.
