MARCH REGULARITY
Ball night! (Ref. Anthony Joseph Paul Reali). The NCAA tournament is down to the final four, and one thing has stuck out…very few upsets (save for South Carolina. Hard to call Oregon over Kansas an upset, Oregon was preseason top 5, they are talented). Many close and exciting games (Zaga/WV, OR/Mich, UK/UNC, Duke/SC – j/k), but very few high seeds advancing, save for Xavier. Yet, the ratings are higher than ever, which leads to the only obvious conclusion: A partnership of Gary Bettman and Roger Goodell couldn’t screw this up! Some years, there are crazy upsets and everyone gets excited for the first weekend. Some years, like this year, there are very few upsets which leads to blue blood matchups and gets everyone excited for the second weekend. They cannot lose! Even with sloppy play and officiating that is spottier than a 19 year old who can’t seem to take her birth control on time, the ratings continue to climb. It’s a money making machine. Thank God those players have no rights and get suspended if they get so much as a bagel with cream cheese! (That’s legit, a bagel can be given to a player because it’s a snack, with cream cheese it’s considered a meal. It’s in the NCAA rule book. That is not a joke, well, it is, but not one written by TOB).
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And now there were four. The cases for the remaining teams:
Gonzaga – Legitimately talented, can rebound, have one of the best defenses in the NCAA, and may have some of that catholic magic working (it is lent after all – wait, it’s always lent during the NCAA tournament, nm).
South Carolina – Tenacious defense, a real scorer who can take over the game when it’s on the line (Thornwell), and a head coach who can do real damage with so much as a stern look. They may be the magical team who makes the run (a la UConn a few years ago with their new coach Kevin Ollie).
Oregon – Nike, good athletes, a solid head coach. Oregon seems like they should be able to go this far every year, but they somehow get derailed by a good jump shooting team.
UNC – Pedigree, Coach Roy, role players stepping up (Luke Maye – averaged less than 6 points per game during the regular season, scored 16 then 17 in the regionals). TOB also has them picked in his bracket, so they’ve got that going for them, which is nice.
The cases against:
Gonzaga – Mark Few previously had a record of 0-8 in the regional final, not exactly a track record of coming up roses in big games. The Zags are notorious choke artists, and have had the easiest path to this point (beating 16, 8, 4, and 11 seeds to get here). Likely they will get past South Carolina (Zags are a 7.5 point favorite) then be overmatched in the final by a legitimate powerhouse (UNC).
South Carolina – Cinderella, even though they are from a power conference. The SEC has shown well this tournament with 3 teams making the Elite 8, so it’s possible SC was better than everyone thought to begin with. The problem is, they have had 6 days for people to tell them how good they are and have ESPN run puff pieces on their coach Frank Martin (who apparently asked his wife out 7 times before she agreed to a date…movies call that persistence, real life calls that rapey). They performed so well in the underdog / we play with an edge mode that the week off may hurt more than help. Take the under on this one, no way this game goes over 138 with both teams having their first taste of the final four and the defense of both teams.
Oregon – Their kryptonite is typically a well-balanced, fundamentally sound team. Enter, UNC. Oregon may be able to out athlete UNC, but even that might be a bit of a stretch. Should be a fun up and down game (UNC is favored by 4.5). Take the over on points either way (152 is a lot of points, but trust TOB, this is going to add up fast).
UNC – Coach Roy doesn’t have the most stellar record as a favorite in the NCAA tournament either. UNC has had some bad halves this tournament (second half versus Arkansas and Butler); if they pull that with Oregon there may be no coming back.
Tomorrow, it’s finally baseball season (not the WBC, actual MLB)! Be on the lookout for a TOB baseball preview (and more jokes!).
-Tony on Ball
