The opening weekend of March Madness was exciting, but did it ever screw up my bracket.
All my hopes of having a somewhat respectable prediction of the Final Four were blown Sunday when Alabama-Birmingham defeated the top No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
I should have known better than to pick UK to win it all. I picked the Wildcats to win it all last year before they goofed up against Marquette in the Midwest Regional Finals. A loss in the Elite 8 was excusable last year, but how could a No. 8 seed UAB, a team which LSU blew out 78-62 earlier in the season, knock off the Big Blue in the second round of the tournament? It makes no sense — the game was in Columbus, Ohio, practically UK’s backyard.
The Wildcats had to be miffed with changing the names of the brackets from general directions to cities. Instead of being in the comfortable confines of the Midwest bracket, UK was playing to reach the regional finals in St. Louis.
Coach Tubby Smith and the boys from UK probably had Billy-Bob from the geography department on the bus trying to figure out how to get to St. Louis. The boys probably had enough trouble crossing the state line, getting to Columbus. The mind overload was too much for the Wildcats.
Maybe the Wildcats were scared of being the top No. 1 seed in the 65-team field. ESPN and CBS analysts had UK and Duke, the second No. 1 seed, set to meet in the National Championship game.
It was to be a rematch of the 1992 East Regional championship game, when Duke’s Christian Laettner hit a last-second shot to send the Blue Devils to the Final Four and an eventual national championship.
The Wildcats were focused on a national championship game, while they were worrying about choking again to Duke. Maybe UK’s real mascot is the scaredy-cat.
There’s only one more possible explanation. UK was overhyped by the NCAA tournament selection committee and the media. Did the Wildcats really deserve to be named the top team in the tournament?
Looking at UK’s schedule, the Wildcats lost twice to Georgia and almost a third time in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The Bulldogs were on probation with a new coach and still handled the Wildcats. Let’s face it — even the Jaime Lloreda-less LSU Tigers were able to hang with these guys.
What was I thinking, picking UK to win it all?