After one hell of an exciting first weekend of March Madness, we're down to 16. And, aside from one smelly school, it's a pretty good field. We have 3 1 seeds, 3 2 seeds, 1 3 seed, 1 4 seed, 2 5 seeds, 2 6 seeds, and a 9, 10, 11, and 12 seed.
Here's how it breaks down by conference:
3 teams
-Big Ten: Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue (suck it, Big Ten haters -- not that I'm happy Purdue made it. Their coach likes Baby Ruths way too much.)
2 teams
-Big East: Syracuse, West Virginia (best conference, my ass)
-Big 12: Baylor, Kansas State (shame about Kansas)
-SEC: Kentucky, Tennessee (in several years, it will technically only be Tennessee, as UK's season will undoubtedly be vacated)
1 team
-ACC: Duke (yep, only one)
-A-10: Xavier
-Horizon: Butler
-Ivy League: Cornell (first time since 1979 an Ivy is in the Sweet 16)
-Missouri Valley: Northern Iowa
-Pac-10: Washington (this is better than I thought the Pac-10 would do)
-West Coast Conference: St. Mary's
Purdue has put me in a position to root for Duke. Yet another reason Purdue sucks. And while the Hoosiers were nowhere close to being sweet this year, there are IU connections all around:
-Former Hoosiers Jordan Crawford (Xavier) and Ben Allen (St. Mary's) are both excelling at their new schools and are making me hate Kelvin Sampson all over again.
-Cornell star Ryan Wittman is the son of Hoosier great and member of the 1981 NCAA title team, Randy Wittman.
-Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski (which is pronounced "sh-shevski") played under former IU coach Robert Montgomery Knight at Army and was a grad assistant for IU at some point in the '70s.
-Current IU coach Tom Crean was an assistant at Michigan State under Tom Izzo.
-Purdue coach Matt Painter was not offered a scholarship to IU, so he went to Purdue, where, incidentally, he did not go to a Final Four.
-Butler is in Indiana.
-IU beat Syracuse in the 1987 NCAA title game.
-Ali Farokhmanesh has no connection to IU, but I just wanted to say his name. Farokhmanesh. Gutsiest shot I ever saw.
Purdue notwithstanding, it has been great so far. The average seed number for Sweet 16 teams is 5, which is the highest since 2000 and only the fifth time since 1985 (when the tournament went to 64 teams) that the average is 5 or more. This is especially welcome after last year, where the average was 3.0625 (the lowest ever), and all 1-3 seeds made it to the Sweet 16, and it was boring as hell (not that hell is boring -- chill out, Satan). Because I am insane, here is the average seed of Sweet 16 teams since 1985, with the years with an average of 5 or more in bold:
2010: 5
2009: 3.0625
2008: 4.375
2007: 3.1875
2006: 4.4375
2005: 4.5
2004: 4.5625
2003: 4.1875
2002: 4.6875
2001: 4.5625
2000: 5.3125
1999: 5.5
1998: 4.75
1997: 4.8125
1996: 3.6875
1995: 3.1875
1994: 4.25
1993: 4.0625
1992: 4.1875
1991: 4
1990: 5.5
1989: 3.125
1988: 4.3125
1987: 4.25
1986: 5.5625
1985: 4.875
This year is also awesome because we have 5 mid-majors in the Sweet 16, which is the most since 2006 and only the fourth time this many mid-majors have been in the Sweet 16 since 1985. (I consider non-BCS conferences to be mid-majors, even if a school is now in a BCS conference, so, for instance, Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, and Marquette were mid-majors before joining the Big East in 2005 -- not that DePaul has been relevant for 20 years. It's not a perfect science. Deal with it.) Here is a year-by-year number of mid-major teams that made it to the Sweet 16 since 1985, with the years with 5 or more in bold:
2010: 5 (Butler, Cornell, Northern Iowa, St. Mary's, Xavier)
2009: 3 (Gonzaga, Memphis, Xavier)
2008: 4 (Davidson, Memphis, Western Kentucky, Xavier)
2007: 4 (Butler, Memphis, Southern Illinois, UNLV)
2006: 5 (Bradley, George Mason, Gonzaga, Memphis, Wichita State)
2005: 2 (Utah, UW-Milwaukee)
2004: 4 (Nevada, St. Joseph's, UAB, Xavier)
2003: 2 (Butler, Marquette)
2002: 2 (Kent State, Southern Illinois)
2001: 2 (Cincinnati, Gonzaga, Temple)
2000: 2 (Gonzaga, Tulsa)
1999: 4 (Gonzaga, Miami (OH), SW Missouri State, Temple)
1998: 3 (Rhode Island, Utah, Valparaiso)
1997: 3 (St. Joseph's, Utah, UT-Chattanooga)
1996: 3 (Cincinnati, Massachusetts, Utah)
1995: 3 (Massachusetts, Memphis, Tulsa)
1994: 2 (Marquette, Tulsa)
1993: 4 (Cincinnati, George Washington, Temple, Western Kentucky)
1992: 5 (Cincinnati, Memphis State, Massachusetts, New Mexico State, UTEP)
1991: 4 (Eastern Michigan, Temple, UNLV, Utah)
1990: 4 (Ball State, Loyola Marymount, UNLV, Xavier)
1989: 2 (Louisville, UNLV)
1988: 4 (Louisville, Rhode Island, Richmond, Temple)
1987: 3 (DePaul, UNLV, Wyoming)
1986: 5 (Cleveland State, DePaul, Louisville, Navy, UNLV)
1985: 3 (Louisiana Tech, Loyola (IL), Memphis State)
Well, that was a fun hour and a half. Now, here are my picks for the rest of the tournament:
Midwest Region
#5 Michigan State over #9 Northern Iowa
#2 Ohio State over #6 Tennessee
#2 Ohio State over #5 Michigan State
West Region
#1 Syracuse over #5 Butler
#2 Kansas State over #6 Xavier
#2 Kansas State over #1 Syracuse
East Region
#12 Cornell over #1 Kentucky
#2 West Virginia over #11 Washington
#2 West Virginia over #12 Cornell
South Region
#1 Duke over #4 Purdue
#3 Baylor over #10 St. Mary's
#3 Baylor over #1 Duke
Final Four
Kansas State over Ohio State
Baylor over West Virginia
Kansas State over Baylor (told you)
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3 comments:
This year is also the first year that a team in the MVC has made it to the Sweet Sixteen since Larry Bird was playing for Indiana State. Nothing to brag about, I just love the MVC :)
I heard one of the announcers say that, but that's not true. There have been a bunch of MVC teams that have made it to the Sweet 16 since 1979:
-Southern Illinois (2002, 2007)
-Bradley (2006)
-Wichita State (1981, 2006)
-SW Missouri State (now called Missouri State) (1999)
-Tulsa (MVC member until 1996) (1994, 1995)
I think whoever said it was confusing the fact that it's the first time since 1979 (i.e., when Larry Bird's Indiana State team lost to Magic Johnson's Michigan State team in the finals) that an Ivy League school has made it to the Sweet 16. Penn made it all the way to the Final Four in 1979.
if kansas state wins the NCAA title i demand an immediate NCAA investigation into their program--their recruiting, their practices, their # of phone calls, their academics.
this aggression, particularly by a program helmed by a mafioso, will not stand, man.
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