From madness to letdown

 I just figured now was the time for the Northern Iowa logo. When else would I use it?

Come March, I have this tradition.

It consists solely of embarrassing myself with my NCAA Tournament bracket.

With the first weekend of the NCAA Touranment down, I’m still in the 95th percentile, which sounds like I’ve got this all figured out. And you know, I probably should. For a few years, I was paid to be a sportswriter. That should help.

But it always ends up like it did two years ago, when I filled out a bracket on facebook, which was stupid, because then anyone could see my bracket futility. Mine was so bad that year, I received the following message on facebook from another sportswriter friend of mine:

“I just wanted to let you know that you are the only friend I have on facebook whose bracket is worse than mine.”

Neat.

This year, my first weekend went great, but, since I had Kansas and Georgetown meeting up in the Final Four, I’m very aware that it’s not going to turn out well.

Actually, that’s how I feel about this tournament from this point on.

The first weekend was incredible, with upsets and buzzer beaters all over the place. It even involved Northern Iowa beating Kansas, which is a sentence I never thought I’d ever need to put together in my lifetime. I haven’t enjoyed a tournament this much in years.

What makes for a phenomenal first weekend however, can lead to a lackluster second weekend.

At least, that’s my fear this year.

Upsets are what make the first weekend so much fun. No one expects to see Ohio dismantle Georgetown (at least, I didn’t, which is why I put the Hoyas in my Final Four). No one even considers St. Mary’s having a chance over Villanova.

So we cheer the underdog and get excited when they improbably win.

But the next weekend, we have matchups where it’s even less likely underdog teams will win. Or at least, this round of top-seed teams won’t underestimate the underdogs because now the top teams know if they don’t take these teams seriously, they’ll get burned.

Here are the seed matchups this time for the Sweet 16:

No. 1 vs. No. 12
No. 2 vs. No. 11
No. 3 vs. No. 10
No. 2 vs. No. 6
No. 5 vs. No. 9
No. 1 vs. No. 5
No. 1 vs. No. 4
No. 2 vs. No. 6

I’m not saying these lower seed teams can’t win. Obviously, these teams can, or we would not be talking about them. But now, it’s the Sweet 16. There aren’t any teams that are sleep walking through these games. At this point, the Final Four looms just one week away. The elite teams aren’t messing around anymore.

In the first weekend, Cinderella teams get through on a little talent, a lot of heart and determination, and capitalizing on the fact that the top seeds thought they could take it easy and still win.

Now, it’s more about talent and coaching. And that’s when the big boys start to win out.

I just hope I’m wrong.

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