This is March.
For those of you familiar with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein or college basketball fans online, a favorite phrase is, “This is March.” When a buzzer beater is hit, a team from a small conference upsets a ranked opponent or a supposed afterthought wins a conference tournament, “This is March.”
And finally, most importantly of all, the NCAA Tournament is here, and boy is it March.
Gonzaga, Arizona, Baylor and Kansas own the No. 1 seeds in their regions. They join typical heavy-hitters like Duke, USC, UCLA, Villanova, Kentucky and Texas. This season also has a refreshingly large number of teams that might not be true contenders, but have more than enough pop to beat a contender or two. Texas Tech, Davidson, Purdue, Wisconsin, Murray State, St. Mary’s, UCLA, LSU and Houston all have at least Elite Eight potential.
Over in the women’s bracket, the tiers of teams are a little more rigid. Stanford, Louisville, UConn, Baylor, South Carolina and NC State almost assuredly own more raw talent than even the teams seeded right below them. Like Texas, Tennessee, Michigan or Iowa, although Iowa does have Caitlin Clark, who has been one of the best in the nation this season.
Still, the women’s bracket should feature more parity than it has in a long time. It will be interesting to see how, in the men’s bracket, conferences like the Big East, ACC and Pac-12 do.
The ACC has had one of their worst years in recent memory and it’s been reflected in the tournament.
Duke is a No. 4 seed, but Virginia Tech, who won the ACC conference tournament, is just an 11 seed. North Carolina is an eight seed and Miami is a 10 while Notre Dame needs to beat Rutgers in the first four to even be an 11 seed. For a conference built upon a proud basketball tradition, that’s a drastic fall from grace. Especially since Virginia, Wake Forest and Syracuse missed the tournament entirely.
It’s a similar situation for the Pac-12, who has just three teams in the men’s bracket: Arizona, UCLA and USC. Arizona is the No. 1 seed in the South region while UCLA is the No. 4 in the East and USC is the No. 7 in the West. The conference was seen as top-heavy this year and after the No. 4 team in the league, Colorado, lost at home to St. Bonaventure on Tuesday night, that apprehension seems well-deserved.
The Big East is looking for a bounce-back year, after putting just four teams in last year’s March Madness. There’s a good chance it would have been three if Georgetown hadn’t shocked everyone and won the conference tournament.
The Big East did better this year, with six teams, including a healthy No. 2 seed Villanova that’s capable of going pound-for-pound with anyone. The conference is in a good position, but it remains to be seen whether Marquette, Creighton and Seton Hall can truly compete with the elite.
ONE PROBLEM that still blows my mind when it comes to March Madness, is the location of games. Look at the women’s bracket, the University of Massachusetts is playing Notre Dame… in Oklahoma!
The powers that be decided that a school from Massachusetts and a school from Indiana wouldn’t meet in the middle in say, Ohio or Western Pennsylvania. Instead, they’d go so far out of the way that neither team’s fans would be nearby.
In the men’s bracket, UConn plays New Mexico State in Buffalo while Houston faces Alabama-Birmingham in Pittsburgh. The Kansas State women play Washington State, in North Carolina.
I understand (though don’t necessarily agree with) the NCAA preventing higher seeds from hosting games in the early rounds, but getting to March Madness is the culmination of an entire season for players, coaches, programs, schools and fans.
No one expected the Hokies to make it to March, but now Virginia Tech faces Texas, a six seed, in Wisconsin. How many VTech or Longhorn fans will travel cross-country for that game? A location that isn’t close to either team.
Neutral site games are fine, but there’s a reason those contests often have empty stadiums. The locations are too far from the fanbases. It shouldn’t be too much of an ask that fans don’t have to travel 1,000 miles to see their program play.
BRETT FAVRE MAY be finished, but the fake retirement is still alive and well in the NFL.
Tom Brady, just six weeks after leaving the sport, is back. Did he get that fed up with family quality time? Did he feel like Favre shouldn’t get to have all the fake-retirement fun? Favre, after his second “retirement” led the Vikings to the NFC Championship game before losing to the “Bountygate” Saints. Maybe Brady feels as though he can do better.
Who knows — what we do know is Brady is back as the quarterback of the Bucs and Tampa Bay should still be dangerous. Rob Gronkowski’s impending free agency seems less likely now that he can play with Brady again. Bucs WR Chris Godwin was franchise tagged and the team has a multitude of free agents on defense. But with Brady returning, perhaps they’ll take a discount for another run at the Super Bowl.
Although speaking of Super Bowls, how well Brady plays will be fascinating to watch.
In his last season with the Patriots, Brady performed poorly by his standards, advanced stats and regular stats. But the very next season, in Tampa Bay, he was elite and led the team to a championship. He was elite this year, but had more than a couple of poor moments. And despite a spirited comeback attempt, Tampa Bay was down 27-3 well into the second half of the NFC Divisional round game.
The man is 44 after all and will turn 45 before next season begins. There’s no telling how well his body will hold up at that age. Especially with the retirement of Ali Marpet, a Pro Bowler, member of the Bucs since 2015 and left guard since 2018.
My own personal semi-serious conspiracy theory is that Brady came back for one more season out of spite. Football insiders announced his retirement before he could. That reportedly didn’t go over well at all and I wouldn’t be surprised if Brady came back for one more season, simply to control his own retirement “announcement.”
However it came to be, NFC beware.
