Let’s see: We’ve got a team with a coach who’s already been fired, a team that finished 10th in its league but then won the conference tournament with five wins in five days, a team with a guy in his eighth year of college, a team that went from 11-23 to 30-3 in one year, a team started out 0-5 in the conference and hasn’t been in the NCAA tournament in 47 years.
Yeah, it’s time. All the basketball-speaking world wants from the NCAA tournament are unforeseen curves, uncommon stories and unexpected twists. You know… chaos. The past two frantic weeks have been most promising about that. There were 32 conference tournaments and the No. 1 seed went down in 21 of them. Houston, Purdue and North Carolina all received No. 1 seeds in their regions and all just lost in their league tournaments — Houston by 28 points in the biggest drubbing for a top-ranked team in 56 years. Five bids were stolen by upsets which sent popular wannabes like Indiana State crashing off the bubble. It all must have had the selection committee members reaching en masse for their antacids.
Now that we can see their bracket handiwork, here are possibilities of . . . well, madness.
Connecticut might repeat. Really.
It’s not just that no national champion has been able to do that since Florida 17 years ago. Duke is the only other team to manage it in the past half-century. But the Huskies soared above the recent choppy waters of the other big names, winning their first Big East season title outright since 1999 and first league tournament since 2011. They have the look of a strong favorite. Poor Stetson, an NCAA tournament rookie, is first on the chopping block, but Dan Hurley will have some anxious hours wondering what to do about Jalen Blackmon, who scored 43 points in the ASUN final.
Connecticut might not repeat. Really.
The Huskies will be ranked No. 1 going into the tournament but that’s no favor. Only once in the past 21 tournaments has the No. 1 cut down the nets at the end.
Also, there is danger in the East region. Three of last year’s Final Four — San Diego State and Florida Atlantic along with UConn — are in that corner of the bracket. Also, three teams that just rolled through power conference tournaments — Iowa State, Illinois and Auburn. Should UConn have to get through FAU and its Cinderella-hardened troops, then it could be talented Auburn followed by Illinois or Iowa State just to get to the Final Four. No stroll in the park, not even for a…
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