Mad About March

I know it’s April, but they’re still calling the NCAA Basketball Championship Tournaments March Madness.

As we prepare for the men’s Final Four this weekend in San Antonio, the qualifiers are Duke, Houston, Florida and Auburn, all number one seeds. The last time this happened was 2008 - also in San Antonio. Duke is favored to win it all, with a roster that has six(!) players expected to be drafted into the next level, led by the generational talent Cooper Flagg, who is the player of the year at age 19 and has NBA teams chomping at the bit to get the #1 draft pick, What does it say about a team that has all five starters and a sixth man preparing to play professionally? Incredible depth.

The Houston Cougars are a ferocious defensive team, and the Gators and Tigers from the SEC are terrific teams, but it would be a huge upset if anyone besides the Blue Devils wins the tournament. However, the games aren’t played on paper. Ask any Cougar fan what happened when Houston’s Phi Slama Jama met Jim Valvano’s NC State Wolfpack in 1983!

And in the Ladies Division, we find #1 seeds UCLA, Texas, and South Carolina, along with the only #2 seed, Connecticut, who is the betting favorite to win the championship.

The Huskies didn’t have much trouble beating #1 seed USC after the Trojans lost their star, JuJu Watkins. You could certainly make a case that UConn should have been a number 1 seed to begin with, when you consider their pedigree, with 11 previous championships and a healthy Paige Bueckers leading the way. As a side note, you should be able to root for “Paige Buckets” next year in Dallas, as the hometown Wings have the first draft pick.

This post is titled Mad About March, and that’s more than a play on words. For me the tournaments have lost some luster. Get used to only the “blue bloods” getting past the early rounds and getting to the Final Four. With NIA money and unlimited entries into the transfer portals, we will see increased dominance by the major conferences and schools within those conferences. The days of building a team with growth from incoming freshmen staying in a program are gone. Cinderella teams in the tournament will quickly turn into pumpkins, and the “semi-pro” teams from the major programs will dominate. Get used to an elite 8 and even a sweet sixteen dominated by high seeds. And that’s why I’m mad about March.

That’s one man’s opinion - what’s yours?