This is not an NCAA Bracket Post
As you can see from the title, this is not a bracket post. I will be sharing my bracket in a future post. I know that Selection Sunday was last night, but first we need to get the conference tournaments out of the way.
This was a pretty epic weekend of college basketball and if it is any indication of what the NCAA tournament is going to be like, we are in for quite the show this March.
I am not going to cover all of the games that were played this weekend, but I am going to highlight some of the fantastic matchups that took place. I think we all know Michigan State lost to Maryland in the early rounds of the Big 10 Tournament, so there weekend was pretty much over before it started.
Friday night we saw Ohio State take down Iowa in overtime to advance to the semi-finals and a highly anticipated rematch with U of M. Likewise, Illinois throttled Rutgers to move forward into the semi-final game as well. This will actually become clear why it is so important in just a couple seconds.
There was literally so much basketball played this weekend that I can barely wrap my head around it. If you want to see all of the scores from Friday, check out this website:
Probably some of the biggest news that came out of this weekend was the fact that Duke had to pull out of their conference tournament due to Covid issues. If you watched the selection show last night, you know that their season is effectively over. No March Madness for them! These are definitely some crazy times!
While I was at work on Friday and missed a lot of the action, Saturday was a whole other story.
I put some money on Tennessee to beat Alabama, but that one ended up being a loss for me. The Crimson Tide is rolling along quite well.
In one of the most anticipated games of the day, Ohio State took down first seed Michigan by one point. It was a pretty great game. It is awesome how Ohio State has the ability to just hang in there and come from behind to win.
In what will be my only bracket comment in this post (I think anyway), I am shocked that Michigan still snagged a 1 seed in their portion of the bracket. They have some pretty big losses to lower ranked teams over the past couple of weeks. Certainly enough that it should have knocked them down to a 2 or 3 seed.
LSU beat Arkansas with an upset victory. Illinois took down Iowa to advance to the Big 10 tournament finals against Ohio State.
One of the other big surprises of Saturday was Georgetown taking down Creighton to earn a trip to the big dance.
Then we have Sunday. It always comes down to Sunday. Alabama beat LSU by one point to sang their conference tournament championship. St. Bonaventure took down VCU in a pretty awesome game. Even though the final score wasn't close, it was really intense. Houston smashed Cincinnati, and Colgate beat Loyola Maryland.
The biggest game on Sunday was the Big 10 finale between Ohio State and Illinois. It actually went into overtime and pushed back the start of the Selection Sunday show.
Illinois really dominated most of the game, but then Ohio State would come roaring back to keep it close. Both at halftime and at the end of the game. Hence overtime.
Illinois was clearly the better team. I think the got a little too cocky and need to just keep the pedal to the floor and the outcome would have been much more lopsided.
I've got to get to work on my bracket, so check back tomorrow when I break down my choices.
We are not gonna talk about how Baylor is overrated?
They are a 1-2 loss team. I can't really argue with that. I am sure many will point to strength of schedule, but they have just done a lot of winning this year.
You know? I hadn't paid real good attention in the run up to the tourney so I was incredibly surprised to see that GU plays their first game on Saturday. WHAT? Everybody knows that the play ins play on Monday and Tuesday so they are ready to go on Wednesday and Thursday. I guess a normal tournament format would have been too much to ask for...
Ahhhh. Lots of late season surprises to me. Your MSU surprised me by taking a dump then roaring back and then back to the bathroom... No Duke OR Kentucky. Holy Cow.
I haven't seen Illinois play much, but jeeze, they look good.
I'm really, really looking forward to the tourney. I really hope it plays out without a CV dropout.
Spring Breakers are packed back into the usual spots so it might be time for me to take a ride up to Havasu to see the bridge and eat some fish and chips. Except for all the damn people, that is...
Right, the bridge :) I've heard about Lake Havasu! I've got Illinois over Gonazga in the final. That is how good they have been looking lately. If I knew which Spartans team was going to show up I might have had them going farther. It will all unfold tomorrow when I reveal my bracket!
Kentucky being out was a surprise to me as well. Kind of. It's gonna be fun no matter what.
Bracket? I don't think I have heard of that before, I will be checking out your post tomorrow then to know what it entails.
From your analysis and details, I guess Illinois did really well.
I've got them going all the way! Definitely check back tomorrow!