It’s March
Just when it seems like College Basketball has barely started it is already March and time for the madness to begin. I watched the end of the Marquette/Georgetown game and that was crazy. It was a tournament type game atmosphere and the plays down the stretch were unbelievable. Marquette should’ve won if not for a terrible call by a ref with 3 seconds left that put a Georgetown player at the line. A great game nonetheless.
It’s the time of year when fans get nervous if their team is on the bubble and they need one more road win or a convincing home win to put them over the top. I don’t have to worry much this year because I’m an Illinois fan and they aren’t going anywhere for the first time in a long time. It’s tough knowing they won’t be playing in the tourney this year but at least I have the conference tournament coming up to pin my hopes on. You never know what can happen there. I know some teams have no business being in the tourney like:
Kentucky- I don’t care how well they are doing in a weak weak SEC this season because they got beat by a lot of terrible basketball teams with none being worse than Gardner-Webb and at Vanderbilt by 40. Both have to leave Kentucky home. They’ll be back next year and be a force for years. Tubby left them for a reason and it was because the cupboard was pretty bare.
Ohio St: They have to be out after getting killed at Minnesota. Minnesota isnt’ that good and proved that by getting beat by 20 at home against Illinois. Ohio St started the year strong but they are finishing it weaker. A lot of talk has been made about how great Thad Matta is as a recruiter but Koufos might leave at the end of the year and really put them in a bind. We’ll see but they should be NIT bound.
Syracuse: They need to stay home as well. They have a sub .500 conference record in the toughest conference in the land but they struggle. Recently they lost to Pittsburgh at home in a game that they absolutely had to have. They sit 17-12 and need to rattle off some wins to get in. The other two teams I dont’ think are in unless they win their conference tourney. Syracuse can still get in because they play in such a tough conference.
Nevertheless this is a bit early and some work is still to be done before the brackets are announced. I just wouldn’t mind seeing some schools left out in the cold like me and my ILLINI.
