Joe Lunardi – Candy 16 March Insanity ideas and the terrible style Kentucky left us with

Sixteen candy ideas, observations and scorching takes earlier than one other unbelievable weekend of basketball:

No. 1: The choice committee seems to have gotten the highest 10 groups within the males’s NCAA event precisely proper. That is how far you must go down the committee’s seed record to discover a crew (Kentucky) that did not make it by way of the primary weekend. All advised, 13 of 16 squads on the highest 4 traces of the bracket are nonetheless alive. Kentucky and fellow SEC large Auburn had been the early losers, each going out within the first spherical. The remaining excessive seeds had been 13-1 within the second spherical, which is genuinely outrageous.

No. 2: All who thought the East Area was the hardest of the 4 can go to the pinnacle of the category. Regional followers in Boston will welcome the East’s 1-2-3-5 seeds to TD Backyard, headlined by defending champion UConn. The Midwest Regional in Detroit additionally options 1-2-3-5 seeds, whereas the West Area checks in with its 1-2-3-6 seeds. That is a number of chalk. Solely the South Area bracket, the place 11-seed NC State resides, is remotely busted.

No. 3: Enable me a phrase — a number of, really — on the ACC. Followers of the convention persistently — and accurately — countered my season-long description of its decline by insisting the league could be simply nice when it mattered most. And, as soon as once more, a convention rating fifth, fifth, seventh and fifth because the pandemic has been greater than nice within the NCAA event. An 8-1 document by way of the primary weekend can solely be recommended. Going ahead, it stays to be seen if the convention will make the mandatory scheduling changes to counter the continued weakening that is coming within the type of Stanford, Cal and SMU. Additional, the league’s 4 Candy 16 entries haven’t any connection to the pre-tourney résumés of Pittsburgh or Wake Forest. By that logic, Pitt and Wake ought to be double-dinged by Virginia. Fortunately, it would not work that approach.

No. 4: Massive East media shills have been much more obnoxious than their ACC counterparts, which is actually saying one thing. UConn, Marquette and Creighton — all seeded to be precisely the place they’re — don’t have anything to do with Seton Corridor, St. John’s or Windfall lacking the event. The fact is, due to the unprecedented quantity of bid stealers on the finish of Champ Week, we had what amounted to a 31-team at-large pool (as a substitute of 36 or, extra precisely, the 34 or 35 spots we might have with a median variety of convention tourney upsets). The Massive East would have gotten no less than two and perhaps three of the slots that vanished. There is no conspiracy right here, simply unhealthy math and unhealthy luck. Observe the lead of your stylish commissioner and recover from it. Typically issues do not work out. (Simply ask Kent State.)

No. 5: I am in favor of Matt Painter’s prompt IQ take a look at for school basketball media, however it has nothing to do with Zach Edey. It has to do with event choice. You desire a sure crew within the discipline? You might be required to say — on the similar time — who’s out! In any other case, any and all criticism of the committee (or the Bracketology neighborhood) is null and void. Penalty: No web for the month of March.

No. 6: Opening the switch portal the morning after Choice Sunday wasn’t the dumbest factor I noticed final week. Put me in the identical camp as Tom Crean and Fran Fraschilla. Declining an NIT bid on account of stated portal is even dumber (to not point out extremely insulting). Check out the bloated variety of employees members on a high-major bench. You imply to inform me there aren’t sufficient assistants to each monitor the portal and put together for a recreation? These colleges ought to be embarrassed and penalized in a future postseason.

No. 7: Talking of “middling” majors, energy convention at-large groups that did not crack .500 of their respective leagues have gone 3-5 within the NCAA event and 12-13 within the NIT, with the latter taking part in nearly solely at house. In the meantime, the true mid-majors that obtained or would have obtained essentially the most at-large consideration had they wanted it — Grand Canyon, James Madison, McNeese and Indiana State — posted an combination 4-3 document throughout each tournaments (together with two huge NCAA wins). I level this out to not pile on the likes of Greg Sankey — in spite of everything, one in every of his SEC groups had the gross injustice of being paired with one of many seven pure wonders of the world — however to remind everybody that we persistently overrate one class of crew (“middling” majors) on the expense of their true mid-major counterparts.

No. 8: In no way stunned by the first-round success of: Colorado, James Madison.

No. 9: Even much less stunned by the first-round woes of: Florida Atlantic, Mississippi State, McNeese, South Carolina.

No. 10: Extra stunned by: Clemson, Yale, Duquesne, Dayton, Oakland, Utah State.

No. 11: Dismayed by: Auburn, Saint Mary’s, Charleston, New Mexico, Nebraska, Texas Tech.

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No. 12: A class all their very own: NC State (good) and Kentucky (unhealthy).

No. 13: No must play a Candy 16-only bracket. My unique Closing 4 of UConn, Houston, Tennessee and Arizona are nonetheless alive. So, I am sticking with my pre-tournament name of UConn over Houston for the title.

No. 14: Are you able to identify the one crew to date on this postseason to win a number of true street video games? That will be VCU. The Rams have gained NIT first- and second-round contests at Villanova and South Florida, respectively. They are going to now go to Utah on Wednesday within the quarterfinals with a visit to Hinkle Fieldhouse because the prize, and I like their probabilities. For what it is price, the Utes would not play Utah State when present VCU coach Ryan Odom was the Aggies’ head man.

No. 15: No true buzzer-beaters but, however we have had 4 additional time video games (together with the Creighton-Oregon double-overtime traditional). There wasn’t a single additional interval in the complete first weekend final 12 months.

No. 16: Lastly, there can be a full 2025 bracket posted not lengthy after the Closing 4. It is a idiot’s errand, to make sure, making me the right man for the job.