Thoughts on the Tournament

The tournament kicks off tonight with the play-in-games First Four. Justin will live blog tonight's and tomorrow's games and I'll take care of the weekend games. First though few scattered thoughts on the tournament and my Final Four picks.

Pick Against The Big East: The Big East may be the deepest conference in America, but that doesn't mean they're the best. If you have noticed, a Big East team hasn't won the tournament since UConn in 2004. And once again I would pick against all of the Big East teams in the tournament. At least I wouldn't pick any of those teams to win the national championship. They're all good, but none of them are great. And don't get sucked into UConn as a Final Four team. We've seen teams in the Big East tournament before get hot, win or come close to winning the Big East Tournament, and then all of a sudden they're a trendy Final Four pick. Don't get sucked into that. Also if you look at the bracket, only Pittsburgh has a realistic chance at reaching the Final Four because of their bracket. Pick against the Big East.

Pick Veteran Teams: With the one-and-done rule in the NBA and the trend of super Freshman leaving after one year in college, we've seen in the past five years that veteran teams reach the Final Four/National Championship Game. That's why I do like teams like San Diego State, BYU, Purdue, Duke, to at least reach the Elite 8. Veteran teams with good chemistry can go far in the tournament. (See: 2010 Butler Team)

The Selection Committee Set Up Michigan State Nicely: Michigan State probably shouldn't have even been invited to the NCAA tournament and yet they were set up nicely as a tenth seed in the Southeast bracket. Sparty could easily reach the Sweet 16 (I'm not buying either UCLA or Florida) to face either BYU or St. John's. If Sparty reaches the Elite 8, I won't be surprised. They were set up nicely by the selection committee.

Weak Field is Weak: I knew this was going to be a weak field, but I didn't think it was going to be this weak. While I'm sure a few buzzer beaters will make some of these games exciting, the first round match ups and field is mostly uninteresting. And this shouldn't be a surprise, this year in college basketball has been mostly uninteresting. This happens though, we have uninteresting tournaments every five years or so and this is one of those years.

Final Four Picks:
Ohio State
San Diego State
Kansas
Pittsburgh

National Championship Game: Ohio State vs. Kansas

Champion: Kansas