Of Brackets and Office Pools

If you're like me, you're probably wishing you had spent that $5 you put into your office bracket pool on a coffee and a bagel. My bracket was utterly obliterated on Friday night, and by Sunday afternoon, I tried to forget that I even filled one out. Yes, Curry and Rice's final four picks are still alive and looking pretty good, well, except for our national champion, UCLA, who squeaked out a second round win, but other than that . . . wow. I can hardly read my bracket anymore because of all the red lines crossing out my picks. However, there is a bright side to the mayhem of the first weekend. With Duke out and my bracket scattered across the four corners of the earth, I can sit and enjoy the other games with no particular loyalties toward any team (well, except for any opponent of UNC). Here are a few things I noticed this weekend.

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Curry is the man

No, not the Curry who writes on this blog (although I would consider him a pretty cool dude). I'm talking about Davidson's Curry. Yes, I know we've already crowned him the MVP of the first weekend, but you just can't sing this guy's praises enough. Dropping 40 on the Zags, including 30 in the second half, was pretty impressive. Notching 30 points and 5 assists against the lock-down defense of the Hoyas makes the fact that he wasn't even mentioned with the likes of Beasley, Hansbrough, or Love in the POY discussion a travesty. Wisconsin, a team that plays a similar brand of basketball to Georgetown, better come ready to play or we may actually be talking about a Davidson matchup against Kansas in the Elite Eight . . . that is assuming Villanova, a team I didn't even think deserved to be in the tourney, doesn't pull off the upset.

Duke is in a postseason slump

It's happened before (see: mid:90's Duke), but Duke has now struggled in the postseason four years running. ACC Championships in '05 and '06 notwithstanding, Duke has only been 5-4 in the NCAA tournament since 2004's Final Four team. One of those victories, a one point win over tiny Belmont, is almost more alarming than any of the other losses. Actually, I would argue it is definitely more alarming. Now, I don't buy what the media is saying about Duke fading from national prominence (this year's team consisted of seven scholarship freshman and sophomores who should only improve for next year). Word on the street is that some of the team was sick. Demarcus Nelson certainly wasn't his normal self as he missed at least 5 layups in the game. But, it is still telling that Nelson became only the third scholarship Duke player since 1986 to miss the final four during his entire Duke career. Perhaps this shows how outrageous the expectations are for a Duke team who's most talented players are still extremely young (Henderson, Scheyer, Singler, Smith etc). But Duke is judged like the Yankees. A four year stretch without a final four is something that needs to be fixed . . . not because the current team is failing, but because it's Duke and not a single player on that team came to Duke without also dreaming of playing in the Final Four. The problems seem to be mental/coaching/physical more than chronic personnel issues. Despite comments that Duke's teams aren't as talented as they used to be (teams consisting of three or more NBA lottery picks don't come around all that often), this team was talented enough to make it past the first weekend, even without a true low post player. A national title may have been a little bit out of their reach, but a deep run certainly was not. I will be curious to see if K and co shake things up a bit to get the team to peak at the right time . . . as in March. It's been a while since I can say that Duke has played its best basketball when it matters most. Let's hope that changes next year.

Memphis is really bad at freethrows

Yes, everyone knows this already, but honestly, it's almost comical. Mississippi State supposedly gave Memphis a good game because they were an underrated team coming from a power conference. What really happened is that Memphis missed a whole bunch of freethrows, so even though the Tigers vastly outplayed an over-matched Mississippi State team, the game remained interesting because Memphis left 10 points at the free throw line (and they would've left more if the game had a slightly larger margin going into the stretch, thus forcing Mississippi state to foul more earlier in the game). Of course, if they shot 100% from the line, this game would've been a total blowout. This is why they won't win the championship. I think the funniest moment of the tournament occurred when Joey Dorsey stepped to the freethrow line only to have his vision obscured by the setting sun, which sneaked into the building when an unwitting fan opened a door on the west side of the stadium. With his vision impaired by the sun, he sank his only made freethrow of the second game. Maybe if Dorsey shoots with his eyes closed he'll actually raise his percentage.

McDonalds has really bad commercials

And we are forced to watch them over and over and over and over and over . . .

The NCAA logo is distractingly large

It actually reminds me of the bouncing screensaver that my DVD player uses, only it says "NCAA" instead of DVD. I find myself watching the logo during blowouts, imagining it bouncing around the corners of the screen. Which, by the way, is a far more entertaining way to pass the time than watching the tools in powder blue romp all over Arkansas.

The Selection Committee is just plain mean

The Selection committee has a really tough job, I know. But it was very cruel of them to force Tennessee, the team that played the toughest schedule in the country (which the committee likes), beat then number one Memphis in Memphis, won the SEC regular season, and otherwise had an outstanding year, to play in a region that contains the top overall team in UNC as well as another heavyweight in Louisville (top three seed, in my opinion). Oh yeah, and they were RPI number one as well. UNC didn't get any favors, either, except that they will only need to play one game against Louisville or Tennessee, but at least they get to play that game in their own backyard. Compared to the path the other number 2's have (or had, as the case may be) to the Final Four, Tennessee's seems particularly difficult.

And these are all of my musings for now. More to come shortly.