It’s March- both the best and the worst time of year if you’re an American sports fan. It’s the best because we get the NCAA Tournament- undoubtedly the premier sporting tournament in the United States. It’s the worse because it’ll soon be all over, with nothing to entertain sports fans for six months besides regular season baseball. Ugh.

Anyways, here are my final four picks for the Tournament. First, the men:
Texas v. Kansas – I feel that Texas is a better, more rounded team than Duke despite the beat-down they received from the Blue Devils earlier in the year. While I’d love to see LSU come out of the Atlanta region, I just don’t feel they are an Elite Eight-calibur team. Kansas, meanwhile, has gone relatively unnoticed despite a 15-1 record in their last 16 games. There’s no question in my mind that they can beat Memphis if they get the opportunity to play. I’d love to see Gonzaga come out of the Oakland region, but I just don’t see enough depth and ability to match up with well-rounded, athletic teams like Kansas and UCLA.
Connecticut v. Boston College – Look for Uconn to come out of the D.C. region. It’ll be tough—Washington, Illinois, and North Carolina all are superb teams—but Uconn is the deepest (and perhaps best coached) team in the nation. Boston College, meanwhile, is likely going to have two huge hurdles in Nevada and Villanova. I think Villanova’s four guard system will hurt come tournament time. Sure, guard play wins NCAA championships… but it’s far better to have a well-rounded team with two superb guards than a lopsided team with four good guards.
Texas v. Connecticut – Uconn wins it, again.

Now, the women (please forgive the depth of analysis, my interest in Women’s college basketball is limited to LSU):
Tennessee v. Arizona State – Pat Summit’s pissed off, and that’s not a good thing for the superb North Carolina team that’ll likely have to face her Volunteers in the Elite Eight. I’m picking Arizona State purely because I’m a Pac-10 homer and because Kovesdy’s a solid interior player.
Duke v. LSU – I don’t have a reason to pick Duke other than that I’ve heard they have a good team this year. Meanwhile, I’m picking LSU because I’m a big-time Lady Tigers homer. If I were rational on this issue, I’d likely pick Oklahoma, whose 6’4” 250lb Freshman Center Courtney Paris has more interior presence than Maarty Leunen and Ray Schafer combined.
Tennessee v. LSU – LSU wins it, defeating both Tennessee and Hurricane Katrina in one fell swoop.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006 at 16:16 by Ian and is filed under Sports, Things Only Ian Cares About. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.