NCAA Bracket 2011: Why This Is the Maddest March Ever
Two weeks ago I was an aspiring participant in ESPN's Tournament Challenge, where the person with the number one overall bracket receives a $10,000 prize and the most ultimate of bragging rights.
I was certain that UNC would win the tourney as the classic yet understated two seed. I was positive Oakland would upset Texas and Belmont would shock Wisconsin. I placed a large wager with a friend that Arizona would make a Final Four run (almost!).
My, how two weeks have changed things. My bracket has more red than a sunburned baby. My Final Four predictions went 0-4, and my months of watching and studying college basketball seem to be futile. (To make matters worse, my younger sister picked VCU in the Final Four.)
Alas, this is why they call it March Madness, and this is why this year has been, in the history of the tournament, the maddest March Madness.
10. Parity
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This is parity:
This season, VCU lost to Tennessee, who was crushed by Michigan in the NCAA tourney, who lost every time it played Ohio State this season, who only lost two regular season games. One of these was to Wisconsin, who put up only 33 points in a Big Ten tourney loss to Penn State, who was ousted by Temple in the tourney, who lost a close game to Nova this year. Nova lost to George Mason, who beat VCU 71-51 on February 15th, who definitively beat Kansas on Sunday.
This is parity; it's a beautiful thing.
9. Buzzer-Beaters Galore
2 of 11Sure, there's nothing like an NCAA tourney game, but there is really nothing like the last two minutes of an NCAA tourney game. The excitement that builds in these minutes as the lead changes hands and shots are bricked and swished cannot be matched by anything, and this tournament featured a larger handful of those games than usual.
Butler seems to love taking part in these nail biters. After beating Old Dominion in the second round with a Matt Howard layup as time expired, the Bulldogs ousted Pittsburgh in one of the oddest, longest and most exciting final seven seconds in a basketball game. The lead changed three times, two astonishingly stupid fouls were committed and Howard again hit the game winner...this time is was a free throw though.
8. Inability of Anyone To Predict the Games
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Every year there are a handful of busted brackets, but this year everyone's bracket got nuked, and only one or two were in the shelter.
- 5.9 million brackets were submitted on time.
- No one had all the Sweet 16 teams correct; one bracket had 15/16.
- Only two people correctly predicted the Final Four.
- One of these two people, Joe Pearlman, filled out his picks in 10 minutes and originally planned to have USC (VCU's play-in game competitor) be in the FInal Four...he just didn't bother to change.
- Only 2.1 percent of brackets had two out of four of the final teams.
- Only seven percent of the brackets picked all four teams to win more than one game.
From a probability point of view this is shocking. You would expect a few people would have just guessed the Final Four correctly. Two out of 5.9 million is simply shocking.
The experts didn't fair much better: Dick Vitale, Linda Cohn and Scott Van Pelt all had zero Final Four teams.
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7. Absence of a True Number 1
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Statistically it was Ohio State. In most people's eyes it was probably Kansas. But as both of those teams went down, they proved that no one was invincible this year in college basketball.
Ohio State and fellow one-seed Duke lost in the Sweet 16 (both to champions of less respected conferences). Kansas and Pittsburgh both went down to Final Four Cinderellas (Pittsburgh in the second round!).
The two-seeds fared no better, and as I mentioned in the first slide, there was a ton of parity in the league this year.
There will be a time again where there will be a team like the '60s and '70s UCLA Bruins or the Duke Blue Devils of the early '90s, but this is not that time.
6. Failure of Big East Teams
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The Big East is the largest conference in college basketball with 16 teams, so fittingly, it received the most media coverage and got the most bids to this year's tourney (11, a tourney record for a single conference).
Despite the hype, the Big East blundered badly, with only two of those 11 teams making it to the Sweet 16. Six-seeds Georgetown and St. John's were both easily upset in the second round, and one-seed Pitt and two-seed Notre Dame were both upset in round three.
The only real success story of the tourney for the Big East is Connecticut, who has stayed red hot since winning the Big East tourney despite a downward spiral to end the regular season.
5. Two Mid-Majors in the Final Four
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Mid-majors, historically, do not fair well in the NCAA tourney. Despite how good they may be or how great their records are, they just can't seem to match up to the teams that the major conference schools have put together.
Look at the best mid-majors this year: BYU, San Diego State, Xavier and Utah State. None of these squads could make it to the Elite Eight, despite top-25 rankings all season long.
Gonzaga was the first true Cinderella story of the NCAA tourney. The Bulldogs went to the Elite Eight in 1999 as a 10-seed and made the Sweet Sixteen in 2000 and 2001 as 10- and 12-seeds, respectively. Since then there have been a few Cinderellas (George Mason, Davidson, Northern Iowa), but none of these teams have made consistent runs.
Butler is changing that. Making it to the championship game last year was unprecedented, and to be back in the Final Four as a lower-ranked squad than last year is incredible. The fact that Butler has company in VCU is even more incredible.
4. Two Young Coaches in the Final Four
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Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams and Coach K are still the kings, yet Shaka Smart and Brad Stevens are the future.
These two coaches, who are 33 and 34, respectively, are proving to not only their own squads but to the whole country that no school is invincible.
Stevens has already been in the national spotlight after the enthusiastic, baby-faced coach led fifth-seeded Butler to the championship game. He has proved this year that he is not a fluke, and he will have a fantastic career wherever he decides to go.
This may be Smart's first year leading a team to a Final Four, yet VCU's run has been more impressive than most in history, as the Rams have played one more tournament game than any other team still in the field.
Given their ages, both these coaches will have amazing and long careers.
3. Butler Making the Final Four Twice in a Row
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Aforementioned in this slideshow, mid-majors do not fair well in the NCAA tourney. Mid-majors making the Sweet 16 is a nice treat, yet making the Final Four, and twice in a row, is just unheard of.
Butler is the first team in a new era of college basketball to prove that a large-sized school and an equally large recruiting program are not necessary to win on the national stage.
Butler's success will only lead to more high schoolers looking seriously into mid-majors, and the line of competition between major conference schools and mid-majors will become more and more blurred.
Butler's success is benefiting not only itself, but every mid-major program in the country.
2. No 1's or 2's in the Final Four
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This really should be number one on this slideshow, because it is simply shocking in every way. There has only been one time since seeding began in 1979 that all one-seeds made the Final Four. On the other hand, this marks only the third time since '79 that NO one-seeds made the Final Four.
This is the first time ever that NO one- or two-seeds made the Sweet 16. Some may say that the NCAA did a seriously bad job making these brackets, yet I think this is just an example of why they call it March Madness!
1. VCU's Run
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There is really no way to explain how VCU has made it to the Final Four.
The Rams finished fourth in the Colonial Athletic Conference, behind Old Dominion, George Mason and Hofstra, and was one of the last teams in the field, given the dishonor of playing in the first-ever "First Four" round.
Despite controversy that they were less worthy then say, Virginia Tech or Colorado, the Rams have proved all the skeptics wrong. They won three games in five days to get into the Sweet 16. They ousted Florida State and its top ranked defense. They beat arguably the best team on paper remaining in the Elite Eight, one-seed Kansas. They did this under a 33-year-old head coach.
Words aren't good enough, VCU's run is the greatest March Madness story in the history of the tournament.
Conclusion: Madness
11 of 11mad·ness
–noun
2. senseless folly: It is sheer madness to speak as you do.
3. frenzy; rage.
4. intense excitement or enthusiasm.
Sports have a great ability to name events fittingly. The Daytona 500 has 500 miles, the Super Bowl is super and March Madness is simply, mad.
It is unpredictable, exciting and addicting all at the same time. It's this reason why we love it, and this is the reason why it drives us, well, mad.
.png?w=480 "NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Championship")
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