NCAA BRACKET FINALIZED

BRACKETOLOGY REVIEW

    With the announcement Sunday of the 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament bracket, March Madness officially arrived with its customary hoopla, controversy and commentary.

    The expanded field of 68 teams did not, of course, include everyone's favorite team. Nor did it include a few schools considered more worthy than some of the invitees. USC, Penn State, UAB and VCU got dates to the Big Dance, while Colorado, Boston College and Virginia Tech were among those the selection committee spurned.

    For the past month (or more) the talking heads have spent countless hours speculating on which teams would be asked to the party. As a diehard fan of college basketball with too much time on my hands, I decided three weeks ago to predict the tournament field, ala the so-called "bracketology gurus" who fill the airways and cyberspace with "expert analysis". My first attempt to outsmart the experts and the committee was, by my self-defined standards, surprisingly successful. Despite missing a self-imposed deadline by one minute and 48 seconds [Editor's Note: Formatting problems in the draft of "SELECTION SUNDAY-DON'S BRACKET" (see preceding article) resulted in an unavoidable delay.], I have awarded myself a degree as Bachelor of Bracketological Sciences (B-BS) based upon a subjective scoring system posted February 27 titled "THE NCAA SELECTION PROCESS-BRACKETOLOGY SYLLABUS".     

    Not unlike the media analysts, I was surprised by the omission of Colorado, which had beaten Texas, Kansas State (three times) and Missouri on its way to a 5^th place finish in the Big XII. Three weeks ago, the Buffaloes, led by dynamic sophomore guard Alec Burks, were not on my list of teams in the hunt for a tournament berth. In fact, based on their "power rating" (RPI + SOS), I didn't have them solidly in until late last week. Despite some good wins, the committee apparently was not enamored of rookie coach Tad Boyle's bison. Virginia Tech has been on or near the proverbial bubble over the course of my examination of potential qualifiers; and, for the third consecutive year, the Hokies' didn't get a corsage from the committee. Boston College fell into that same category: they just weren't pretty enough to be asked to the Dance. I had Colorado seeded 9^th, BC at 11^th and VaTech as a "last four in" playing in against Michigan for a 12^th seed.

    For one reason or another my bracket did not include USC, VCU or Penn State, none of which were alluring enough for my money.

    Extrapolating: I correctly picked 65 of the 68 teams asked to the March Madness Ball. Of course 31 of those teams are automatic qualifiers; therefore it follows that I correctly picked 34 of the 37 at-large teams.

    Naming the four #1 seeds was not particularly difficult. Had Notre Dame won the Big East tournament, they might have earned a top spot, and the same could be said about North Carolina in the ACC. But the Irish lost in the semifinals, and Duke beat the Tarheels in Sunday's finals. Not only did I have Ohio State, Kansas, Pitt and Duke as #1 seeds, I assigned them to the same regional as did the committee; and I matched two of their opening opponents, depending on the outcome of first round play-in games.

    I correctly seeded three of the four #2 lines and picked three of the four teams playing in for 16^th seeds. Twenty-six of my seeds matched those in the official bracket, and 20 more were within one slot

(+/-) of the final line. Seven of the 32 first round games in my mock bracket mirror committee pairings.

Only 19 of my picks ended up in my projected regional assignments; but my bracket avoided all but a few potential intraconference meetings in early rounds. With 11 teams from the Big East, it was more than a little difficult to juggle seeds and regional placement to avoid that dilemma. Further compounding the problem was the fact I had seven Big East teams seeded from 4-6, leaving little room for adjustments.

    With a B-BS in hand, my next step is an M-BS. To earn that degree I have to win a tournament pool or beat the committee's "chalk". There's no time to gloat over my undergraduate accomplish-ments. Brackets are due before Tuesday's play-in games begin.

    Now it's on to the real test: putting money where my mouth is.