Truly a Weekend of Madness

How is that bracket looking for everybody? Mine started off bad and only got worse, but I'm not complaining. That was perhaps the best opening weekend of March Madness I have ever seen. Thursday's morning games were four games of heart stopping action, from Matt Howard's buzzer-beater layup to send Butler to the second round or Temple's Juan Fernandez hitting a leaner as time to expired to beat Penn State. Year after year the tournament shows why it is the best thing in sports. 68 teams were allowed in this year and the drama started right away, as many people felt the committee did a bad job of selecting and seeding teams. However, VCU has silenced those critics, winning three games over BCS conference schools and earning a trip to San Antonio for the Sweet 16. Upsets are what we love in March Madness and this year we got a hearty helping of them.

Filling out brackets is all in fun and, while we hate to see it busted, March Madness is all about great basketball games for us to watch. 11 of the first round games were decided by five points or less and three of the first four games on Thursday were decided by two points or less. Talk about a great start. The Sweet 16 will start on Thursday and four double-digit seeds will be playing, a number higher than most years. It's that surprise and uncertainty of what will happen that keeps us tuned in like madmen. For four days we wake up and turn on the television and watch basketball until we fall asleep. Life doesn't get much better.

Mack nearly cost his team the game...

That's what the Butler Bulldogs are thinking right now also, "Life doesn't get much better." Last year's tournament darlings, the Dawgs finished as national runner-up and nearly defeated Duke to win a title, and now are back in the Sweet 16 with two of the most thrilling wins in recent history. In their first round game against fellow mid-major, Old Dominion, the contest went back and forth literally the entire game and with seconds remaining, Butler had a shot to win. After a Shawn Vanzant shot was way off target, Andrew Smith tapped the ball over to the other side of the hoop where it fell in Matt Howard's hands and he laid it in just before the clock expired. It was a two point victory in typical Butler fashion. No flair, just get the job done. In the second round Butler may have won in an even more suspenseful fashion, if that is possible. Leading by one and playing the number one seed, Pitt, Cinderella was about to pull off an upset like the many from 2010. Pitt had to go length of the floor in under five seconds and hope that a prayer would be answered. Gilbert Brown took the inbounds pass and dribbled to halfcourt where he was fouled by Shelvin Mack. Mack's foul quite possibly could have gone down as one of the stupidest fouls in basketball history. Brown went to the line with his team trailing by one and sank the first free throw to tie the game. He then missed the second and Matt Howard grabbed the rebound for Butler with just one second remaining. That is when Pitt's Nasir Robinson over took Mack for the winner of the "stupidest foul award" when he grabbed Howard's arm and was whistled for a foul. With under a second to go, Howard walked to the other end of the floor and hit the game winning free throw. There may never have been a team so lucky in two games but in March, that's what you need.

VCU is quite a different story up in the Southwest bracket. They didn't use any luck, but instead pounded major conference teams in three straight games. After beating USC in a play-in game by 13 the Rams defeated Georgetown and Purdue by 18 apiece. Now, VCU will meet 10th seeded Florida State in San Antonio at 9:57 eastern on Friday. The winner will take on either Kansas or 12th seeded Richmond for a right to go to the Final Four in Houston.

...but Howard saved them with his
game winning free throw

Kansas has been the best choke artist of the 2000s but it is almost impossible to see them choking this year. They have dominated in both their games and now must face two more double digit seeds to make the Final Four. Bill Self recruits the best players and, with the exception of 2008, they haven't gotten the job done. This year it would be perhaps the biggest bust to date if they did not make the championship game. Still, it is March Madness and we can't count out anybody. VCU has proven that for sure.

Three of the four brackets have a clear cut favorite (Ohio State in the East, Duke in the West, Kansas in the Southwest) but the Southeast bracket has proven to be the toughest one to predict. No real contender has shown themselves and with the number one seed losing in the second round it is even more up in the air. Butler, Wisconsin, BYU and Florida remain and what a night that will be when those two games take place. Butler-Wisconsin is sure to be a grind-it-out basketball game and BYU-Florida is a rematch from one of the best games of last year's tournament. Jimmer Fredette has performed great on the national stage and so far nobody has been able to stop him. Florida was not worthy of that 2 seed they received but have looked good in their two games.

My bracket looks awful with lots of red scratches on it but I do have all my Final Four teams left. Therefore, I will keep my Final Four picks the same of Ohio State, Duke, Kansas and Florida but I think the Gators are vulnerable. Also, Kemba Walker seems like Superman so who knows how high he can take the Huskies. Ohio State could face a tough squad in Marquette or a young, talented team in North Carolina. A lot can happen in these Regional games and they always seem to be the best games of the tournament. The brackets may be busted but the games keep us on the edge of our seats and this tournament is proving to be one of the best ever. Stay tuned...

This post also appeared on The Talking Heads at http://www.datalkingheads.blogspot.com/