Reflecting on the Tournament + Update

 Two Weeks Later

    Good evening! I know that this is long overdue, but I believe that I should come around to it at some point, as well as hint at what may be to come for the future.

Where was I?

    Simply put, I had a lot of the regular teenage stuff to do: the third marking period was winding down, and like many virtual children, I wasn't exactly the most on top of my stuff. I had to grind pretty hard to end the quarter. More importantly, however, my grandma unexpectedly passed and we had to attend her funeral. And because of tradition, this meant that a solid week of my life was spent up in New York to mourn her death.

Finally Right For Once

    Throughout this tournament, I have (almost without fail) made unscientific predictions that made perfect sense in my head, but turned out to be completely wrong. When we got to the Final Four, this trend completely reversed. Not only was I correct with the entire Final Four, but I was also mostly correct with margins and who would cover the spread. I was rather surprised that UCLA pushed Gonzaga to overtime instead of losing by about 10, and that the Zags got outplayed so hard by Baylor, but after the Bulldogs cheated death in what will go down as an all time classic, I felt confident in my prediction that Baylor would take down the undefeated. The fact that the betting line was still Gonzaga -5 was a complete shock when it realistically should have been -1 or PK. If I was allowed to do sports betting, I would have certainly bet on Baylor to win against the spread, if not make a money-line bet in the Bears' favor.

Next Season?

    Don't worry. I am fully aware that I do not post consistently enough to be a reliable college basketball source. My posting has been sporadic at best, and only around the time that the NCAA Tournament is on the horizon or in full swing. I will be looking to change that this year and follow the sport more year round, going from scouting to pre-season rankings to early season projections. Of course, I will still be doing what I'm interested in the most, which is the bubble and the selection process. If I could keep this up semi consistently for several months, and get my bracket projections into The Bracket Matrix for the 2021-22 season, consider the first full year back from COVID a success.

We Have "Arrived" in Indianapolis

From Shock to Chalk

    Good afternoon everyone! It's been a bit since I last posted, wrapping up the second weekend of March Madness during my hiatus. With the final four commencing in just over an hour, it's time to reflect on how we got here and look ahead toward the future and see who could potentially be cutting down the nets on Monday night.

Sweet 16/Elite 8 Recap

    To put it nicely, my predictions weren't particularly accurate. The bottom two regions I had predicted completely wrong, anticipating Florida State, Alabama, Loyola Chicago, and Syracuse to all reach the Elite 8. I was never high on Michigan, so it didn't surprise me that they lost to whoever came out of Alabama vs UCLA, which happened to be the 11th-seeded Bruins. In other regions, Oral Roberts came oh so close to being the first ever 15-seed to reach the Elite 8, and Oregon State were almost the first 12-seed to get to the Final Four before falling flat in the last few minutes against Houston. I think for the most part, however, the second weekend was understandably relatively chalk due to the volatility of the first weekend. This is why we were so close to having three one seeds and a two seed in the final four, but the Wolverines could not make a shot to win the game.

Final Four Predictions

    My prediction is going to be pretty boring here, but I don't see how we don't arrive with a Gonzaga vs Baylor championship game when it's all said and done. Neither UCLA or Houston were exactly strong in their Elite 8 matchups, however the Bruins at least showed off some impressive defense. The Cougars have yet to play a team seeded better than 10th-seeded Rutgers, so the star-studded guards of Baylor will most likely be a wakeup call that Houston will not be prepared for. Expect the Bears to come out on top by double digits and cover the spread. Gonzaga may start off a bit slow against UCLA, but they have looked every bit the best team in the nation in this tournament. They should win by a sizable margin but might not cover the 14.5 point spread. 

For the finals between Gonzaga and Baylor, it'll be a matchup that we've been wanting to see ever since it got cancelled in early December. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the electrifying play of Baylor's guards will overpower the Zags, stopping Mark Few's squad one game short of a championship. As hard as it is to bet against the Bulldogs, I just don't see a team completing a perfect season in this era of basketball. Baylor have found their form after the COVID pause and if any team are to unseat perfect Gonzaga, it'll be the Bears.