COLUMN

Let’s face it. Your NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket has been busted and your dreams of owning the first-ever perfect bracket in recorded history have come to an end.

Don’t be too upset, however, you weren’t the only one.

ESPN, CBS Sports and Yahoo Sports all reported no perfect brackets remain in this year’s tournament challenge. So, there’s always next year.

The game that threw everybody off? When the 15-seeded Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders defeated the two-seeded Michigan State Spartans by a final score of 90-81. It was after that game that no perfect brackets remained.

Everyone knows about the craziness of March Madness, but everybody also knows that Tom Izzo, aka Mr. March at Michigan State University, is a wizard at avoiding the early upsets and getting his team to play their best basketball when it counts.

Many of us (for good reason) believed Michigan State would emerge as the national champions when it was all said and done. Year after year one of the best teams in the country gets upset in the first round. In the Tom Izzo era, MSU has avoided that. Until now.

That’s the beauty of March Madness. This isn’t the NBA, where teams compete in a best-of-seven series and undoubtedly the best team will come out on top. In March Madness, all it takes is bad game for a team to be eliminated and one great game for an underdog to move on. Michigan State had their bad game. MTSU had their great game. Twenty four out of 25 times Michigan State would probably win this game. Unfortunately for Sparty, this was number 25.

The win for MTSU likely marks the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history, especially with so many experts believing MSU got robbed of a one seed. However, it wasn’t the only opening weekend upset that had bracket pickers losing their minds.

Notable upsets in round one of the tournament include: (13) Hawaii over (4) California, (11) Wichita State over (6) Arizona, (12) Yale over (5) Butler, (11) Northern Iowa over (6) Texas and (14) Stephen F. Austin over (3) West Virginia.

After trimming the field to 32 teams, round two also a couple of unbelievable upsets including (7) Wisconsin over (2) Xavier and (11) Gonzaga over (3) Utah.

So, here we are. 16 teams remain and they all share one similar goal: the national championship. The field has shrunk 75 per cent in size, but the best part of March is still to come and there are still so many questions left to answer:

Which #1 seed will fall first?

Even though this March was right up there with one the craziest ever, we have still yet to see a number one seed fall in the opening round of the tournament. All four remain: Kansas, Oregon, Virginia and North Carolina.

I’m sticking with my pre-tournament prediction that Oregon will be the first team to be eliminated. Many people were baffled that Oregon received a one seed over Michigan State (maybe not anymore) and they face a Duke team that has experience and a great coaching staff.

Meanwhile, I see the other one seeds in (1) North Carolina vs. (5) Indiana, (1) Virginia vs. (9) Butler, and (1) Kansas vs. (5) Maryland all moving on to the Elite Eight.

Who is the dark horse of the Sweet 16?

Wisconsin is clearly to me the most underrated team remaining in the Sweet 16. The Badgers have had a rough start to the year but have responded with a strong second half despite unexpected coaching changes.

I had the chance to watch Wisconsin live in Madison when they beat Michigan State and they have passed my eye test in terms of talent and heart. I definitely like their chances against Notre Dame and believe it’s a toss-up between them and North Carolina in the Eastern Regional Final in regards to who will move on to the Final Four in Houston.

Who is the best/worst team remaining in the field?

Best: In my original bracket I had Kansas and Michigan State squaring off in the championship in what would be an absolute toss-up. In a season where not many teams stood out, most experts agreed Kansas and MSU had a small advantage over the rest of the field. With Sparty falling victim to the Cinderella bug, Kansas’s toughest opponent is gone and as long as the Jayhawks play above average ball, they are well on their way to a national championship.

Worst: Definitely Syracuse by a long shot. A lot of people were angry that Syracuse made the field over more deserving mid-major colleges. While the Orange may be laughing at those that doubted them as they stay alive in the Sweet 16, they haven’t really done anything to show they are better than what we thought.

They defeated mid-major Dayton in the first round and got the Middle Tennessee State in the second round thanks to the Blue Raiders upset over MSU, whose Cinderella run fell short after shooting nowhere as close as good as they did against the Spartans. The good news? Syracuse faces (11) Gonzaga in the Sweet 16, which I have labeled as my second worst remaining team in the field. So maybe… just maybe… we can have one of the worst teams in the field luck out to the Elite 8. March Madness at its finest.

There you have it. The always crazy first and second rounds of the tournament are over and with 16 teams left the path to Houston has got a little bit clearer. The overall favorite Kansas remains a contender while teams like Gonzaga and Syracuse have us scratching our head as to how they are still in.

Common sense tells us those teams will be gone soon enough and Kansas will cruise on to the national championship, but that’s the problem. Common sense and knowledge are an expert’s worst nightmare when picking brackets, hence while none remain. Once again, March Madness fails to disappoint. Expect the unexpected.