Storyline: How did #12-16 seeds do in Round 1? 0-20. Yikes! Where was the madness in March Madness 2017?
Every March my favorite numbers are 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16–numbers that coincide with bottom seeds in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Big upsets make March Madness for me. I love it when David beats Goliath. Don’t you?
Well, it didn’t happen this year. Every top seed beat every bottom seed. That’s March Sadness.
Sure, there were upsets, but they all came in 6-11 match-ups. While credit goes to USC, Rhode Island, and Xavier, those wins aren’t David-like surprises. “David” is a ‘directional’ school (East Tennessee) or a college that few have heard of (Winthrop). USC? C’mon! That’s big-time.
But the really bad news is that bottom seed disappointments translated into a bad report card for my picks. How’d I do?
WEST REGION (3 Wins, 2 Losses)
LOSER: 1-seed Gonzaga v. 16-seed South Dakota State (GU -22.5): UPSET WATCH. I still think Gonzaga is a pretender, not a contender. “This could be the 1-16 upset we’ve been waiting for,” I wrote. Yowza! It hardly turned out that way. To win, the Zags had to contain Jacks’ big man, Mike Daum. They did. Well, the only good thing about this game is that GU didn’t cover.
WINNER: 2-seed Arizona v. 15-seed North Dakota (AZ -17). UND actually made it closer then I had thought. Kudos to solid second half play.
The directional school dream: People know where we’re located. (credit, FGCU)
1/2 LOSER AND 1/2 WINNER: 3-seed Florida State v. 14-seed Florida Gulf Coast (FSU -12): I winter in Fort Myers so I get to see a lot of FGCU basketball. That’s why I put the Eagles on my teams-to-avoid list. I knew FGCU’s schoolyard-style play wouldn’t match up with FSU’s monster front line. But FGCU made the game closer than I had anticipated. I picked FSU to cover, which it didn’t.
WINNER: 4-seed West Virginia v. 13-seed Bucknell (WVU -14): Here’s another game that was much closer than I had thought it would be (WVU 6-point win). Credit Bucknell for hanging with a team that’s clearly out of its league.
1/2 LOSER AND 1/2 WINNER: 5-seed Notre Dame v. 12-seed Princeton (ND -6.5). Last week I picked Princeton as a mid-major to watch. But as the week went on, I thought this would be a bad match-up for the Tigers. I eventually settled on the Irish. Little did I know then that this game would turn out to be the closest high-low seed match-up. Princeton actually had a shot to win, but missed a last-second shot. Yeah, I picked ND, but I also recommended giving the points.
MIDWEST REGION (4 Wins, 1 Loss)
WINNER: 1-seed Kansas v. UC Davis (KU -23). I picked the Jayhawks before I knew the results of the play-in game. I felt the opponent wouldn’t make a difference. While I was pleased to see UCD play in its first tournament (it’s a terrific academic school that relatively few fans know about), I also know that playing in the Big Time often comes at a cost. It did. The Aggies got hammered.
And you thought JSU was located in Florida. (credit, JSU)
WINNER: 2-seed Louisville v. 15-seed Jacksonville St. (UL -20). JSU was one of my other mid-majors to avoid. This pick was a no-brainer.
WINNER: 3-seed Oregon v. 14-seed Iona. (UO -15). During the regular season I root for MAAC teams (I went to a college of similar ilk), but not come tournament time. The Gaels were another one of my mid-majors to avoid. I also called for the Ducks to cover the spread, which they did … by a point.
LOSER: 4-seed Purdue v. 13-seed Vermont (PU -9): UPSET WATCH. I watch Big Ten games all season long. Yeah, Purdue is really good, but I also felt the Boilers were vulnerable. I got seduced by my romance with the Catamounts–the team with that long winning streak, the school with pretty mountains, the state with Bernie …. This was going to be ’05 repeat when UVM shocked Syracuse. Well, no, it wasn’t.
WINNER: 5-seed Iowa State v. 12-seed Nevada (ISU -6): UPSET WATCH. Last week I wrote: “Only my heart is keeping me from calling this game for Reno (I’m an ISU graduate).” Thank goodness I’m a homer. I thought this game could be the 5-12 upset of the day. It wasn’t.
EAST REGION (3 Wins, 2 Losses)
WINNER: 1-seed Villanova v. 16-seed Mt. St. Mary’s (VU -27). MSM was on my avoid list–a list that was a blessing this year.
WINNER: 2-seed Duke v. 15-seed Troy (Duke -19). I never, ever thought Troy had a chance in this game. And that’s saying something. I saw Mercer play in the Atlantic Sun championship game (2014) and wasn’t at all surprised when the Bears upset Duke in the first round less than two weeks later.
Devontae Cacok (15) & C.J. Bruce (12) of UNC Wilmington have the off-season to contemplate would could have been. (photo, SI)
LOSER: 3-seed Baylor v. 14-seed New Mexico State (BU -12.5): UPSET WATCH. I “hoped” for this one. I really do like the Aggies, even though they play in a (let me find the right word) “putrid” conference (WAC). But NMSU just didn’t have enough and the Bears weren’t as off as I had hoped they would be. (It’s so easy to root against BU.)
WINNER: 4-seed Florida v. 13-seed East Tennessee State (UFL -10). ETSU was on that wonderful “avoid list” of mine.
LOSER: 5-seed Virginia v. 12-seed UNC Wilmington (UVA -7.5). UPSET WATCH. This was my biggest disappointment of the first round. Last week I picked UNCW as my top mid-major bracket buster. When UNCW took a double-digit first half lead I thought they’d win. But credit UVA: the Cavs ground it out and got the win. This wasn’t “the best upset bet of the day” I thought it would be.
SOUTH REGION (3 1/2 Wins, 1 1/2 Losses)
WINNER: 1-seed UNC v. 16-seed Texas Southern (UNC -27). “Never take a Mike Davis-coached team lightly,” I wrote last week. I still picked the Tar Heels.
1/2 LOSER and 1/2 WINNER: 2-seed Kentucky v. 15-seed Northern Kentucky (UK -20): UPSET WATCH. Oh, my! How sweet this would have been! It’s NKU’s first year in the D1 tournament. NKU beats the state flagship school! Hey, NKU is really good, but wasn’t good enough to pull off the stunning upset. But I also wrote, “I’d certainly take the points.” There’s valor in discretion: UK won by 9.
WINNER: 3-seed UCLA v. 14-seed Kent State (UCLA -18). There wasn’t valor in this pick. Who else but the Bruins?
Will the Big Ten accept MTSU as its 15th member? (credit, wsj.com)
LOSER: 4-seed Butler v. 13-seed Winthrop (BU -11) UPSET WATCH. Ah, here’s another one of my big disappointments. In last week’s article I picked the Eagles as my #3-ranked mid-major to watch. Keon Johnson would come through, pop in 30+, and he’d lead my “where-in-the-hell-is Winthrop?”to victory. BU lost to Indiana State, I thought, so why not lose to WU? Well, it’s because the Bulldogs are a lot better team.
WINNER: 5-seed Minnesota v. 12-seed Middle Tennessee (MTSU -1:): UPSET WATCH. I picked the Blue Raiders because it’s a really good team. “What’s the upset here?” I wrote last week. “It’s a Gopher win.”
Overall Card
Courtesy: The Onion
Overall I went 13.5 wins with 6.5 losses (68% win rate). While that may look impressive, it’s not when all of the betting choices are majors v. minors. None of my dogs came through with a win. Oh, the humanity!
But next year will be different! We’ll have none of that 6-11 stuff masquerading as upsets. We’ll have real upsets … the old fashioned kind … 2 v. 15, David beating Goliath. Maybe we’ll even have a 1 v. 16 upset–an outcome for the ages.
Yeah, that’s the ticket! Stetson Hatters stun Kansas Jayhawks.
Can’t wait!
