ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

Spring is definitely in the air because March Madness has arrived.

The early reviews on this year’s tournament aren’t very good. The majority of the conversations are revolving around the dominance of the mid-major conferences. I should interject here that I went to a school in a mid-major conference; the Horizon.(Loyola Ramblers) I am a bit biased. I like seeing small schools in the tournament. I love watching teams like the UW-Milwaukee Panthers get into the sweet sixteen. On the other hand, the tournament selection committee did over do it this year. There are way too many small schools in this year’s bracket. I’m not going to complain about Michigan not getting in this year, but I will complain that Cinci was left out. I also don’t understand how Texas A&M got in either. You too Air Force. The seeds are also a bit screwy. I want someone on the west coast to explain to me how UCLA got a #2 seed. Thankfully, no one needs to explain the #1 seeds.

Last year I tried setting up a bracket for both of my readers. This year, I'm going to just skip on that and post my bracket. While we don’t have any Chicago teams in the tourney this year we do have a few semi-local favorites: Bradley, SIU, the Illini, hell even Marquette. It’s going to be an interesting tournament this year. From my estimation there are at least 10 different teams that could get hot and win the whole tournament. This is both good and bad.

The favorite, in my opinion, is Duke. It’s always Duke. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. While they aren’t unbeatable, it’s going to take a huge effort on defense for some team to stop them. Redick has got to be the best shooter I have seen in the last 10 years. Yesterday afternoon’s win over Boston College gave everyone a taste of what it’s going to be like defending him. He was practically standing outside the gym when he launched some of those shots. The last two minutes of that game was a shooting clinic performed by doctor Redick. I hope you folks got a chance to see the highlights. I should give credit to BC for fighting Duke tooth and nail. Those guys worked hard on defense. It just wasn’t enough in the end. And that is the point. The team with the most strength at the end of games has a great chance to tear through their portion of the bracket.

I love March. It’s the best time of year. Get your predictions in before Thursday! Big-up all the schools you guys and gals spent mommy and daddy’s cash on while drinking yourselves to a degree! This is the time to show your pride.