By Jeff Orvis
Tradition is a great thing. There are
a lot of traditions in the world of sports, but maybe none so
anticipated as Selection Sunday leading up to the NCAA Men's
basketball championship. This past Sunday seemed like an eternity as
I waited for the announcement of the 68 teams that made the
tournament field. After church, there were a couple of conference
championship games, some NASCAR and even a little golf to fill the
time until 5 p.m.
In past years, fans of teams in Iowa
had to wait to see if their teams qualified for the tourney. This
year, it was a bit easier, since all teams had such special seasons,
we knew they would all be included. The only suspense came in trying
to guess where, when and who they would play in the first round.
Iowa State will kick off the action of
local interest when the Cyclones play the University of
Alabama-Birmingham on Thursday at 11:40 a.m. That game will be on
TruTV, one of four networks carrying the tournament. The Cyclones
play at Louisville, which should enable a lot of their incredible fan
base to make the road trip. I am first and foremost a Hawkeye fan,
but I have to admit that the best fans in the state, by far are the
Iowa State fans. When CBS was broadcasting the Big 12 Tourney finals
last week from Kansas City, Brent Musberger had one of the best lines
I've heard all season when he observed, “The City of Ames is on its
feet in Kansas City!” A friend who travels to Kansas City each year
for the tournament observed that Interstate 35 should have been
renamed Iowa State 35 on the day after the tournament.
Our other two state teams will be
playing in Seattle. Northern Iowa, a darkhorse for a Final Four spot,
will face Wyoming on Friday at 12:40 p.m. The game will be on TNT.
Then at 6:20 p.m., Iowa faces Davidson, also on TNT. Winners from
Thursday games will play their second round games on Saturday and the
Friday winners play on Sunday.
In a strange twist, if both Iowa and
Iowa State win their first two games, they will face each other next
week. Don't ask me to explain this. For some unknown reason, the
first round games in the South Region will be played in Charlotte,
Portland, Louisville and Seattle. First round games in the East
Region will be played in Pittsburgh, Columbus, Charlotte and Seattle.
Although it's fun to download brackets
and make guesses on who will be the eventual winner, it has been
several years since I've had the courage of entering any bracket
pools. When I lived in Independence, I would join a community pool,
conducted by the former city clerk. By the end of the first weekend,
he would stop by my office and thank me for “my donation,” his
not-so-subtle hint that I had made enough wrong choices to be well
out of the running for the contest.
So while I no longer make the mistake
of wagering, it's still fun to guess who might be playing in early
April in Indianapolis. Rather than risk making a wrong pick, or the
danger of an early upset, I've decided to predict only the first two
rounds of the tourney in this writing.
The selection committee appears to
have made some safe choices for the top four seeds in the field, as
Kentucky, Wisconsin, Villanova and Duke should easily advance to the
second round. Iowa, Iowa State and UNI should also be around for
weekend play. But out of the first 32 games, there's usually at least
one surprise. Based on no scientific reasoning but simply instinct, I
am predicting Valparaiso over fourth seed Maryland and Texas over
sixth seed Butler.
If our three local teams make it into
the second round, I am hoping and predicting that all three will make
it into the Sweet 16. That would mean UNI would probably have to
upset Louisville and favored Iowa State would have to get by probable
SMU. Iowa's advancement would be the biggest news of the second
round, as they would no doubt have to beat second seed Gonzaga, which
is entering the tourney with a super 32-2 record.
On Monday, the NCAA Women's
Championship bracket was announced, which will mean a busy Friday.
Iowa State will face Dayton at 11 a.m., followed by Iowa against
American at 1:30 p.m. Both games will be on ESPN 2. With the
aforementioned UNI and Iowa men's first round games, that means four
games with local importance on Friday.
This is an exciting time of the year
for those of us who still believe there is some worth in collegiate
athletics. As you search the internet for brackets and schedules,
keep in mind that most of them list Eastern Time Zone starting times.
I leave you with one true confession:
I am glad I live by myself, because it might be a bit embarrassing to
see an almost senior citizen get teary-eyed after the final horn of
the championship game, as CBS plays “One Shining Moment” as the
network shows a collage of highlights of the tourney.
Enjoy the next three weeks. Then we
can quickly turn our attention to the Masters Golf Tourney and the
Cubs' bid for a World Series appearance.
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