March Madness Begins
It is the best time of the year for sports fanatics and hoop junkies. Since I fall into both those groups, I've got my brackets going. I have more interest than usual in the NIT because of my exposure to the A-10 tournament live in Atlantc City last week. I was hoping that fiesty Rhode Island would get a bid, but that was not to be. However, UMass did get in with an automatic bid for winning the A-10 regular season title, tied with Xavier. A school with local interest, Drexel, also got in and lost last night in the first round to the Wolfpack of North Carolina State, 63-56.
Is it just me or did the now CBS-controlled NIT give Drexel such a tough first round game to prove that their NCAA selection committee was correct in passing on Drexel for the Big Dance?
If they just missed the Dance shouldn't Drexel have received a first or second seed, instead of a third? Seconds went to bubble teams Kansas State and Syracuse as well. Not to mention that I was bummed out that ESPN put the Drexel game on ESPNU which my cable company doesn't carry. Instead I watched Niagara beat Florida A&M 77-69 in the NCAA play-in game. Niagara, if they are hitting the 3s, should give Kansas a scare in the first half of their game Friday.
UMass was terrific in the toughest game of the night, beating Alabama 89-87 in overtime. However, I have them falling to West Virginia in the next round. For the record I'm picking West Virginia to defeat Syracuse in the NIT final.