by A lot of people will harken back to this years tournament and instantly want to call the first round upset city. They will base it solely on #1 seed Purdue losing, #2 seed Arizona losing and #4 Virginia all losing in the first round. But, when you really look at it, step back and dig in, it wasn’t upset city at all. In fact, higher seeds went a firm 25-7, and 2 of those 7 losses came from a 9 seed beating a 8 seed. Is that really an upset? Not in my book.
No teams seeded 1-7, lost more than 1 game. The 5 seed and the 3 went a combined 8-0. That vaunted 11 seed that received so much hype this year as the “sure thing” upset pick, only went 1-3. Everywhere I looked, other websites and gambling sites were pushing the history of the 11 seeds, not this year. The same could be said for overly hyped 12 seeds that went 0-4. I guess Oral Roberts didn’t do what everyone said they would?
Sure Purdue lost, no one can deny that, but quite frankly, they were by far the weakest 1 seed behind Kansas, Alabama and Houston. Quite frankly, the two seeds Texas, UCLA and Marquette I felt were better than Purdue coming into the tournament as well.
Speaking of the BIG TEN, everyone will want to bash them because Purdue lost, but they didn’t fair that bad as a whole. Their 8 teams, yes, 8 teams, went 5-3. That’s actually pretty good.
Here now are the final numbers from round one, with some insight to follow.
1 seeds 3-1
2 seeds 3-1
3 seeds 4-0
4 seeds 3-1
5 seeds 4-0
6 seeds 3-1
7 seeds 3-1
8 seeds 2-2
9 seeds 2-2
10 seeds 1-3
11 seeds 1-3
12 seeds 0-4
13 seeds 1-3
14 seeds 0-4
15 seeds 1-3
16 seeds 1-3
So, take a look, is your bracket really all that busted? I’m going to go out on a limb and say no. My personal bracket didn’t have Arizona, Virginia or Purdue in the Elite 8. I had them all in the sweet 16 which stings a bit, but if you want to win your bracket and office pool, it is that Elite 8 that counts. Get as many teams to that elite 8 as possible.
The first weekend of the tournament is the fun weekend, but it is next weekend that counts the most. Next Thursday and Friday evenings will be filled with stress, with fingernails getting chomped, and hearts racing. Just enjoy the next two days, and keep your eye on your final 8, if you get them through this weekend, you are doing quite well!
Finally, if you are so hung up and have to pick a major upset, or an upset on day one, take one of the first four games to be played first thing Thursday early afternoon. As far back as I can remember, since I’ve been in the second grade (1989) and started paying attention to all of this, there is ALWAYS a major upset in those first 4 games to start the tournament. It is almost like it is rigged,,,,,
Enjoy the tournament!
