In my humble opinion the best play off in college sports is the NCAA basketball (baseball is pretty good also) tournament. Comes around about this time every year. As usual there are a few surprise teams in the mix and there are some that are certainly more deserving than others (and some left out that should be in) but, when compared to the travesty that is practiced in D1 football to produce a "national champion," well...........
This year I am going to pull for Memphis, KSU, Northwestern State, Ole Miss, WKU and whoever plays Duke, Georgetown, Illinois or Indiana. I will be wishing ill on the Gators of course. Goes without saying.
The lower seeded teams, say 13 or below, usually don't stand much chance in the tournament but I am actually looking for St Mary's to knock of Memphis in the first round. As a Tiger fan, I would hate to see that happen, but believe there is a better than even chance. Gut feeling. I do believe though that St. Mary's is actually an 11th seed. That is certainly not unprecedented.
There are other men's playoffs in progress. The NIT is the consolation tournament and some very good teams find themselves relegated when they should in reality be in the big boy tournament. It was nice to see Kentucky and FSU fall to lessor lights. I am going to pull for Louisiana Tech to take this one although think it unlikely.
There are also the CBI and CIT tournaments. Not sure really what the point is here. Quite a few teams with mediocre records at best. Texas. with a season losing record, comes calling tonight at Hofeinz Pavillion to take on the Houston Cougars. I suppose that I will go with the local squad to at least say they accomplished something this season and go all the way. Really these tournaments are just not worth any one's time but I suppose the kids want to keep playing and the die hard fans to keep rooting. Why not?
It is easy to forget the lower divisions, NAIA, and women's tournaments also. Other than the D1 women's tournament there is so little coverage. The women's D1 tournament gets a good bit of play with the usual suspects; Baylor, Tennessee, UConn, Stanford, ND, and Duke in the mix. A couple of other teams may make a play. Texas Agriculture and LSU come to mind. I suppose I will pull for long shot Chattanooga in the Division I women's tournament.
I have always liked that town.
Have a good week and enjoy the games.
On a side note, I have again enabled the word verification for commenting. Sorry. The spam has been getting ridiculous of late.
2 comments:
I have been kind of "out of it" due to a rather prolonged bout with pnuemonia and have not kept up with NCAA basketball as I usually do. When I heard that Kentucky "lost in the first round" I was stunned. I didn't know the NCAA tournament had even started yet.
Wait, it hasn't started. WTF? It was the NIT? The question is not so much how is Kentucky losing in the first round of the NIT, as WTF is Kentucky even doing in the NIT in the first place?
Oh, well, my Jayhawks have a #1 seed, and don't have to face Gonzaga until the final.
I knew that you were ill. When I didn't see posts for a while I was concerned and was glad to see you back online and writing again.
It was somewhat of a shock that KY had such a bad season and losing in the first round of the NIT sort of capped their season. I would imagine they will be back next year. Other than this season, I don't remember when the Wildcats were not a factor.
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