First Four to Final Four / Finals Repeat

If you've been reading all my posts, you'd have to notice by now that I love sports.  I could talk about sports all day, and I could talk about sports in all my blog posts.  But, that's not the rules to the class, so I'm limited to just one a week.

This week, I'm going to talk about the NCAA Semi-Final basketball game I just watched.  The first one of the two.  The one between two teams that no one believed would be there, VCU and Butler.

Starting with VCU, a team that all the "experts" thought shouldn't even be in the tournament field, but they proved everyone wrong.  I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I didn't think that they deserved in, but, I was definitely rooting for them in this one.  As an 11 seed, they went from the "First Four" in, to the Final Four.  How could someone not root for them?  Their story is so great, and their coach's name is "Shaka Smart."  That is just plain cool.

Moving on to Butler, who is moving into the National Title game for the second straight year.  Last year, they made their way there as a 5-seed.  This year, they are an 8-seed.  No one really had them pegged to get farther than the second round, where they were supposed to lose to the 1-seed, Pitt.  But, they were obviously able to get the big win there, and keep moving on.  They made their way to the Final Four, without their best player from last year, Gordon Haywood, who went pro.  Now, somehow, they defeated ODU, Pitt, Wisconsin, Florida, and VCU to get into the title game again.

Come Monday, you know that I will be rooting for Butler, regardless of who they are playing.  UConn and Kentucky have plenty of national titles to their name already, it's time for the little guy to get one.

-GP

March Madness!

The last time I talked about March Madness, it was after Selection Sunday, and I was complaining about some of the teams that got into the tournament.  I was actually, very upset about it all, and about many of the teams that had received bids.  Mainly VCU and UAB.

Now, I have no right to ever talk about VCU not deserving to be in the tournament.  They didn't just win the First Four round.  They didn't just win the first round.  They didn't just win in the second round.  They didn't just win in the Sweet Sixteen.  They didn't just win in the Elite Eight.  They dominated a team that was seeded higher than them in every round.  That is something that is absolutely amazing.  No one thought that they deserved to be in the tournament, let alone thought that they would get into the Final Four.  Along the way, they defeated (11) USC, (6) Georgetown, (3) Purdue, (10) Florida State, and (1) Kansas.  They won all those games by an average of twelve points, with only one of the wins (Florida State) by single digits (72-71).  Seeing as my bracket has been trashed for a while now, I am now officially a Virginia Commonwealth fan for the rest of this tournament.

This is only the third time that a double digit seeded team has made the Final Four, and both the other times it has been an 11 seed.  George Mason in 2006 and LSU way back in 1986.  Also, a fun fact, of the ten times that Kansas has been a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, they have been defeated by an 8 or lower seed, four times.

The team that VCU is going to be playing in their Final Four game?  Oh, that's just 8th seeded Butler, who got to the NCAA finals last season.  Going into the tournament, every "expert" was saying that this was the weakest tournament in recent history, well, I don't know if this helps or hurts the expert's case, but it sure does make it an awesome story and really fun to watch.

-GP