March Madness Thoughts

I don't watch a lot of college basketball anymore. Beginning 2005, I started watching more NBA. I was intrigued by the new generation of players: LeBron, Carmelo, Wade. NBA basketball was fun again, and the playoffs were intriguing. This waxing of the NBA led to a waning of NCAA basketball.

Don't get me wrong. I still devoured March Madness, the best tournament in sports (closely followed by the NHL playoffs). But I watched a lot fewer games. And my two teams (BYU and Purdue) weren't nationally relevant at the time.

This all crested with the Celtics winning the 2008 NBA title. My favorite team was relevant again (if only for two seasons), and the playoffs were awesome. My NBA time investment was paying off.

This year has been different. I can hardly watch the Celtics; Rasheed Wallace is a disgrace, and watching KG is almost painful now. And the team is irrelevant again, an aging former champ who no longer has the power to play with the big boys, an old team that's falling quickly.

And my college teams were good. Purdue has become a nationally relevant team, and BYU is a fun mid-conference team. So I followed both teams this season, but I didn't watch a lot besides that. So my thoughts on the tournament are going to be confined to my two teams.

Purdue
Before Hummel went down with his gruesome knee injury, I gave the Boilermakers a decent shot at making the Final Four. They were a complete team, with three players that could fill up the basket in different ways. And their defense was solid.

Now they're mediocre, and will likely not make the Sweet 16. That is a big shame. Maybe their terrible showing in the Big Ten tournament against Minnesota will galvanize the team and make them stronger. I think it just showed that they are not the same team without Hummel. Tournament prediction: Loss to Texas A&M in round of 32.

BYU
Early in the season, I had higher hopes for the Cougars. A good showing outside of conference, and a solid rotation with an electric scorer. Though two loses to New Mexico made them conference second class going into the tournament. Still, going into the tourney, they had a shot at a 4-seed, especially if they beat New Mexico in the championship.

But a loss to UNLV on the a 'nuetral' Las Vegas court ended that. A 7-seed means a second-round match-up against Kansas State, instead of squaring off against a Butler, Purdue, Texas A&M -- a team they could have a good shot at beating and making a Sweat 16 run. So despite one of the best BYU teams of the past 20 years, it looks like another tournament disappointment. Tournament prediction: Loss to Kansas State in round of 32.