2024 NCAA Tournament

That was a pretty great, pretty epic sports weekend, I have a ton to get to today, and I'm gonna get through as much of it as I can, but you all know where I'm gonna start. There’s no chance I’m starting anywhere else than with the most iconic and exhilarating sound in sports. Alvin, if you would do the honors please. 

Ah yes… the madness has arrived. The dopamine receptors are warming up. The conveniently timed vasectomies have been scheduled. Folks, we have an NCAA Tournament bracket. LOVE TO SEE IT.

We did have some surprises on Selection Sunday, because there always are, but there was no surprise at the very top. Because the defending champion UConn Huskies are right where they belong, back on the one line as the top overall seed. Of course they’re deserving and you don’t even have to take it from me, because Vegas has them as the betting favorite too. Defending champs, top overall seed, betting favorite, that any good?

The real question is if anyone in the field can give them a game this time around. Remember, UConn curb stomped their way through the dance last year. They didn’t have Cinderella dancing slippers on, they were rocking concrete curb stomping shoes. Nobody even played then within single digits and nobody really came close either.

This time, it should be a different story, because the East Region is no joke. In fact, it’s ridiculous. I’m not sure if the committee rewarded my dude Dan Hurley for having the best team in the country once again or if they stabbed in the back like some hater on some message board. Sure, giving them to the number one seed overall is great, but asking them to fight their way out of that region is damn near inhuman. A region that has already been called the region of death, which seems dramatic until you hear about the region of death. Because the #2 seed in the East is Big 12 champ Iowa State. And the #3 seed is Big Ten champ Illinois. And the #4 seed is SEC champ Auburn. 

So that makes four major conference champions, in fact the champs of arguably the four best conferences, in the same group along with the number one overall seed. So exactly where is the reward for UConn getting that number one seed overall: unless you considering getting kicked in the stick a reward.

It’s brutal for UConn, but maybe it gives the rest of the #1's an easier path and a leg up over the overall number 1. You all know this is a big Houston Cougar house, and that is a damned good basketball team with a legend of a coach. North Carolina is back with what feels like the 9th year of Armando Bacot leading the way. And then there’s Purdue. 

Yo Purdue, it would be great if you actually won a game this year from that #1 line. I know we had to test the theory last year that you guys could lose in the first round of any tournament, even if you were handed a #16 seed to beat up on. You proved your point. We get it Purdue, you can lose in the first round to anybody, we get it.

The good news for you Boilermaker fan, is the only other time a 1 lost to a 16, that 1 came back the following year and won the whole thing. So Purdue, time to go pull a Virginia, again. You got the humiliating first round loss part down, now it's time for the win the whole thing part.

Of course, there was plenty of drama down the rest of the bracket because there’s always drama down the rest of the bracket. And there’s always gonna be drama when you snub Rick Pitino. And they didn’t just snub Pitino, they snubbed the entire Big East. 

Yes, the conference is good enough to have the defending champ, and the number one overall seed, and the betting favorite, and the conference is also good enough to have a number two seed and a number three seed, but that’s all they’re good enough to get. They may be the 2nd best conference in the country according to Ken Pom, but according to the Selection Committee, they're the worst. The conference was only 12-4 in the tournament last year, apparently that was too good so the committee avoided a repeat of that by avoiding half the league.

Look, I’m not a bracketologist and I’m not gonna sit here and point fingers at programs and tell you which teams shouldn’t be in. But I think we can all agree that three Big East teams is an outrageous number. But who do we really blame? Do we blame the committee, or do we pull a Pitino and blame the analytics. Because according to Rick, the NET is dead to him. 

Well that's good, nice to know he's taking it okay and that the guy isn't gonna throw himself into some icy water so he can die of frostbite. 

Funny thing, I think I know where the committee got the idea that St Johns wasn't quite at the standard. If I remember correctly, it was something someone said about this crew’s lateral movement or lack thereof... 

Look, I'm messing around, but we all know that St Johns was a transformed team since that day. That was the whole argument, they were one of the hottest teams in the country, they upset Seton Hall in the Big East tournament and then they went and played UConn closer than any of last year's tournament teams managed to play UConn. They won 20 games. They were above .500 in a great conference; and they had the second highest net rating of any team that didn’t get it so I thought they were in. I thought they deserved to get in: and I said as much BEFORE their UConn game: I said they shouldn’t need to win that game to get in; obviously the committee felt otherwise. And while Pitino says bitterness won’t get them anywhere, he sounds pretty bitter to me. And don’t blame him. , and I don't blame him for blaming the NET.

I might not have been as high on Providence's case, but I love head coach Kim English's brutally honest take on bracket analytics. 

Look, I get it, the analytics got messed up because there are only 11 teams in the conference and one of them was 3-29 and lost their last 20 games in a row. So yeah, sucks for Pitino, sucks for Kim English, sucks for Shaheen Holloway and Seton Hall. But at least there's this... At least they all still have their jobs. Unlike my guy Dan Monson at Long Beach State.

Don’t get it twisted, Monson and the Beach are going to the Dance. It's just as soon as they're done dancing, Monson will be out of a job. Because last Monday, Long Beach State bleep canned the guy but said he could coach the rest of the season after spending 17 years there. So then of course he turned around and won the Big West tournament. Whoops. Think that’s ocwood?! What if he wins a game in the tourney?  Damn, what if they ride this to an improbable but not impossible Sweet 16 appearance, then what the hell are you going to do, STATE SCHOOL?

Listen, Here's why I'm a fan of Dan Monson, anybody else would take this opportunity to gloat. And to spike the ball in the face of the administration. But not this dude, this dude actually pulled off the most humble postgame ever after winning the Big West Tournament Championship. 

What an answer, but somebody should probably point out to Dan that there's a pretty obvious answer to his question... Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh has it better. So nobody needs to tell Jim Harbaugh that Dan Monson has it better, because that would be a lie, no offense Dan.

Jim Harbaugh just won a natty, then skipped town on NCAA and Federal investigators to take an NFL job that pays him $16 mil per. So... Yeah he has it better, that's all a lot better than having no job. But again, love the attitude and love The Beach's run to the dance. And I’m programmed not to like the beach, because I’m a gaucho: but I’m a big west guy to. And an fan of you people who hand bad situations extremely well and that’s my Dan Monson:

I'm just surprised Monson didn't start talking about the confetti too and about how every piece of confetti has a story to tell. 

It's shocking he didn't credit his WEFENSE for winning that tournament. Is the dude is he gonna call the Beach America's Team too? What's next, does place a terrible call into Smackoff 30?