Mount St. Mary’s Wins NCAA Tourney Play-In Game, Now March Madness Is Set

We’ve never been a big fan of the NCAA tournament’s 64-seed versus 65-seed matchup to actually get into the big dance. We’ve always found it to be an unfinished job by the selection committee–they seeded 63 teams, but couldn’t make a decision on two teams? After Mt. St. Mary’s victory of Coppin State for the right to get demolished by North Carolina on Friday, we feel no different. But now that it’s done with, we’ve become pretty mad with anticipation for the next four days of basketball, which we think is seconded only to the first round of the World Cup in terms of excitement. Here’s what we’re looking forward to.

USC versus Kansas State:

• (Thursday) A lot of people are looking at this as a match of between superstar players ‘SC’s OJ Mayo and K-State’s Michael Beasly… and they would be right. Just try to imagine during the game the aforementioned players wearing a Miami Heat or LA Clippers jersey, because that’s how they’ll look when they declare for the draft at the end of the season.

Stanford versus Cornell:

• (Thursday) As Ogre said in that American masterpiece, Revenge of the Nerds, “Neeerrrrdddsss…” Yes, the battle of the two schools most of us couldn’t get into are duking it out in the NCAA’s. The main reason we’re so interested is that one of our good friends went to Stanford, and we’re betting the combined score will be over his IQ, and he disagrees. If we win, we get a pizza. Great when you’re running out of beer money over the four days.

Butler versus S. Alabama:

• (Friday) Butler’s a really good team, one of those Midwestern, four white guys shooting a lot from the perimeter good. And how do they get rewarded for a 29-3 season in a pretty strong mid-major conference? By being given a 7th seed (when they were ranked 10th overall in the polls!) and made to play another good mid-major school about an hour away from their campus (S. Alabama is in Mobile, and they’re playing in Birmingham). If Butler wins its first two games, look for them to be a George Mason-type Cinderella this year.

Indiana versus Arkansas:

• (Friday) Imagine a huge project you’d been working on at work is due in a month and your boss gets fired. The boss, your mentor whose guidance you picked from all other suitors (and there were a lot), gets canned. Probably feel pretty lost, huh? Welcome to the world of Indiana basketball, where former coach Kelvin Sampson got fired a month ago because of NCAA rules violations, leaving a roster of 22 kids to fight with a guy they might not even like, their current oach Dan Dakich. Sentimental favorite? You’ve gotta go for these guys.

That’s on our hot list–anything you guys looking forward to during this wonderful time of the year?
Mount St. Mary’s pulls away from Coppin State [ESPN]
Image [Newsday]