March Madness looks to be more wild than usual

Travis Marmon

Last Spring Break, I went to Baltimore for the first weekend to visit a friend. I had a great time and would gladly do it again, but there was one crucial mistake in my planning that left me ashamed as a sports fan: I made the trip during the opening weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

That’s right. I missed Norfolk State beating Missouri and Lehigh beating Duke. I never saw my most hated team, Michigan, fall in the first round to Ohio University. I also failed to watch my beloved Michigan State beat up an over-matched Long Island team (though I did see their ugly win over Saint Louis in the second round). I felt like I could never call myself a real fan again.

So this year I am making a pact with myself to veg out for about 96 hours toward the end of break and watch the nation’s brackets crumble as I silently weep tears of joy. That’s because if this regular season has been anything to go by, March Madness is going to be more insane than usual.

The favorite to win it all is Indiana, led by Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo (the latter of whom will be criminally left off the Wooden Award ballot). The Hoosiers are deep, but have losses to three less-talented teams (Butler, Illinois and Wisconsin) and a coach in Tom Crean who has only been to one Final Four. An extremely tough Big Ten could also leave them tired and worn down come tournament time.

The other top teams in the nation have been rotating all season. The best Gonzaga team ever currently resides at No. 2, but who knows what they will do in the big dance. The Bulldogs have never been to the Final Four. They have only played three ranked teams and lost to two of them. Jim Larranaga has taken an irrelevant Miami (Fla.) squad to the top of the ACC and made his name by taking unheralded George Mason to the Final Four in 2006, but a 15-point loss to mediocre Wake Forest is glaring.

Michigan has arguably the nation’s best point guard in Trey Burke, but has not played well against its toughest opponents. And as usual, there’s Duke, whose tournament success varies wildly from year to year.

There are no hot mid-major teams that will function as clear upset picks. No 30-win Murray State team will come in and be expected to knock off a four-seed on day one.

Instead, there are a number of solid squads from non-power conferences — Memphis, Akron, Louisiana Tech, Saint Louis, Virginia Commonwealth, Wichita State and Creighton — who could make moderately deep runs as middling seeds or get knocked out in the first round by the fifth-best team in the Big Ten or Big East.

March Madness is always unpredictable. Even years like 2008 where all four of the top seeds made the Final Four are strange and exciting. So seniors, find some extra motivation to finish your I.S. Underclassmen, make sure your vacations are over by March 21. The greatest sporting event in America is almost here.