Recapping a crazy NCAA tournament first week

The Arizona Wildcats and Gonzaga Bulldogs are the two best teams in the country. The Cats and Zags are the two teams with the biggest margin for error combined with the least amount of question marks. If these two teams were graded out with a 100 point scale I would put it at 54-46 for Arizona.

And this margin for error played out as evidenced by Arizona and Gonzaga sneaking by against two incredibly game second round opponents while not playing their best ball.

Yes, Gonzaga has the experience advantage over Arizona but the Wildcats are notably more athletic and have shown season long gumption while appearing a player or two deeper than Gonzaga.

And as has been said many times, Arizona clearly has a higher upside than Gonzaga.

As stated here previously, UCLA is not the team that anyone wants to see come tournament time. Assuming Jaime Jaquez’s ankle is good to go, UCLA is a team that is easy to see in the Final Four and possibly winning it all. The Bruins lack ideal size but have more than enough talent to overcome those shortcomings. (Pardon pun)

Regarding Arizona’s Sweet 16 opponent, the Houston Cougars are incredibly well coached, and took advantage of another overrated Big Ten team but this is a team that doesn’t have the height to match up with Arizona.
But, the metrics like Houston in a big way so something has to give. As long as Arizona can handle Houston’s pressure defense the Cats will be fine.

Sticking in Arizona’s region, is there a better coach in college basketball than Villanova’s Jay Wright? This is far from a vintage Villanova team and would it surprise anyone to see the Wildcats in the Elite 8 again?

For a second straight year the NCAA selection committee tried to stack the entire tournament with Big Ten teams. And for a second straight year the conference was exposed as being mediocre at best. Will there ever be accountability for such inherent bias. The Big Ten stinks.

The people who bet on Kentucky shouldn’t have. Yes, the Wildcats are incredibly talented but they never clicked all season as evidenced by their nearly 500 record against in quad 1 games.

Betting on a Rick Barnes team is always a mistake. Every year a Barnes team is a sexy pick to go far and seemingly every year they are bounced in the first round. This year’s Tennessee team was no different.

I should have listened to my intuition and picked against Auburn but I was intoxicated by their length and talent. Length and talent without much skill gets exposed in the tournament and that is exactly what happened in the Miami-Auburn game.

Three of my Final Four picks, Arizona, Gonzaga and UCLA are still kicking and I feel pretty good about all three moving on to the the last weekend, with Kansas sliding in for that fourth spot.