Saturday, March 17, 2007

The Race Is Not Always To the Swift, But That Is the Way To Bet

After two days of the NCAA basketball tournament, the Tournament Selection Committee ought to be thinking two things:
1. Giving Stanford a bid might have been an error.
2. Other than that, we did a great job.

Okay, Duke was overrated as a #6, and it's telling that nearly everybody called Winthrop's "upset" of Notre Dame. But seriously, two upsets in the first round? (For those of you about to point out that three #9 seeds won: Since 1985, #9 seeds are now 50-42 in the first round. I guess we could consider Kentucky's win an upset.) Tournaments just don't follow form like this.
Are there big upsets ahead in the second round? Well, Louisville gets what is essentially a home game against Texas A&M, so that's a good bet. Wisconsin didn't look terribly impressive in their opener, and could fall to an underrated UNLV. And I don't really see this happening, but I suppose you can't count out Michigan State against UNC. I think Monday, we'll be reading about a fairly surprise-free second round.

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