Buckle up, America. This could be one of the craziest men’s NCAA Tournaments we’ve seen.
The fairy tale version of this March Madness probably ends with Houston, the No. 1-ranked team for much of this season, cutting down nets in its home city with alum Jim Nantz calling his last Final Four on the 40th anniversary of Phi Slama Jama losing the NCAA Tournament final to North Carolina State.
Or perhaps it ends with Texas interim coach Rodney Terry delivering the Longhorns their first-ever national title, improbably proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s the man for the job by saving the season after former coach Chris Beard was fired due to an embarrassing domestic dispute in December.
Or maybe to make the story even better, it’s Marquette beating Texas, pitting coach Shaka Smart against the program he had to escape after arriving with so much hype in 2015 and delivering a string of disappointing seasons.
Then again, it could end with Purdue joining the first-time champions club and making its first Final Four since 1980 with 7-foot-4 Zach Edey bringing big man basketball to the masses. Or, in a year where the spotlight has been elsewhere, why not Gonzaga finally winning the whole thing in a year where the Bulldogs were written off early as title contenders?
MEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT:Printable March Madness brackets
Survive and win: March Madness Survivor Pools from USA TODAY
THE BRACKETS ARE BACK: The USA TODAY Sports Bracket Challenge is back. $1 MILLION grand prize for a perfect bracket.
Of course, the reality of the NCAA Tournament is that unpredictability and randomness usually trumps a perfect script. And this year in particular, we should all spend the next three weeks embracing the idea that our picks are useless and our brackets will likely need to be thrown in the trash.
NCAA Tournament could be wide open
Buckle up, America. On paper, this has the potential to be one of the craziest tournaments we’ve ever seen.
Why? Maybe because this has not been a dominant year for the big, traditional brands. Instead, we’ve seen Houston cruise through the American Athletic Conference while barely getting a worthy test from anyone besides Memphis. We’ve seen football schools Alabama and Texas AM dominate the SEC while Kentucky comes into the tournament looking like an underachiever. We’ve seen Miami, a team built on veterans and transfers, rise to the top of the ACC while Duke went way under the radar most of the year and North Carolina missed the tournament entirely. And the Big Ten almost felt like a random results generator at times with nine teams finishing within two games of each other in the standings behind Purdue, which ran off with the conference title.
coach Bill Self would be on the sidelines after spending time in the hospital this past week.
Alabama passed the eye test in a major way at the SEC Tournament, but its offense can go sideways when the 3-pointers aren’t falling and the Crimson Tide rely heavily on two freshmen in Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney, who have never been in this position before.
UCLA may have had the best combination of experience and high-level talent, but the Bruins aren’t the same team without their best perimeter defender in Jaylen Clark, who suffered a late-season Achilles injury.
Purdue started 22-1 but a pretty mediocre February combined with some previous March flameouts under Matt Painter make the Boilermakers a difficult team to trust.