Strangest thing I’ve seen yet at the tournament.  At the end of the Ohio State – Siena game a man was holding a sign that said John 3:16 behind the Siena bench.  A security guard rushes in and yanks the sign out of the guy’s hands taking it away.  While everyone on the Siena bench was praying Ohio State would miss their last shot, the guy behind the bench was having his prayer yanked out of his hands.  I guess the security guard wasn’t a Saint…fan.

One of Aldrich's Ten Blocks

Cole Aldrich swatted the Jayhawks into the Sweet Sixteen.  First triple double in the tournament (with blocks) since Shaq and the first tiple double at KU since Wilt.  Go Jayhawks!!!

Coach K Angry Over Obama's Final Four Picks

Obama’s out with his Final Four picks and Duke’s not in it, but UNC is. You’ll also remember during the campaign Obama chose to go to a UNC practice and work out with the team before the North Carolina primary (instead of Duke). Apparently, all this has left Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski a little cranky and a litter bitter. After hearing that Obama had picked UNC to go into the Final Four (along with Pitt, Louisville, and Memphis) and win the tournament, Coach K betrayed some of his Tarheel jealousies. According to CNN:

“Somebody said that we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four, and as much as I respect what he’s doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets,” Krzyzewski told a reporter from the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Here’s Obama explaining his picks to ESPN’s Andy Katz.

In case you’re really curious, here’s Obama’s original bracket:

President Obama's Bracket

Meanwhile, over in the Big East (the be all end all conference), three teams who beat up on each other all year get to be number one seeds despite only one of them, Louisville, actually winning the conference and the Big East Tournament.

The Big 12 is so sucky in the minds of the NCAA Bracket “Committee” that they completely discounted KU’s first place finish in the Big 12 and Missouri’s first place finish in the Big 12 Tournament.  They said, “We don’t care if you guys beat OU.  We don’t care if you won your conference and the tournament.  We not only think OU is really the better team, despite their failure to win any major conference game, that we’re going to give them a higher seed and send them to Kansas City.  Where are you guys going?  Oh, yeah.  Boise (have fun, Tiggers!!) and Minneapolis (don’t freeze, Jayhawks!!)”

So what “big wins” did the Sooners have?  They beat Purdue, IN OVERTIME, Utah and American.  Oh, and don’t forget the big wins at home over Coppin State and Maryland Eastern Shore.  (Is there any other shore in Maryland?)  Let’s just ignore their losses at Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma State.  Uh, that’s one, no, two, no, three, no four Big 12 losses plus the first round tournament loss to Oklahoma State (that’s twice!).

All things being equal, which they’re not, KU and MU had at least as good a season as OU, if not better.  KU lost to Syracuse (who happened to knock out those really cool Big East teams as well), Arizona, Umass, Michigan State, Missouri and Texas Tech (okay, that one I can’t explain).  In any other year those are not “uh oh” losses.  Those are legitimate teams.  But hey, we beat Coppin State, too!  Doesn’t that make us equal to OU?  Missouri definitely had more embarrassing losses (Nebraska, any one?) but they still won the tournament.

So why would the “committee” disrespect KU and MU and reward OU for their “potential” instead of their actual accomplishments?  And even consider making them a number one seed?  (Yes, REALLY).   Let’s see.  OU’s head coach is Jeff Capel.  He comes from… Oh, yeah!  Duke.  He has mastered the art of convincing people they’re better than they are.  Good luck with Morgan State.  They, too, beat Coppin State!

My next post: Why in the world the crappy Big 10 got seven teams in the tournament.  And how the hell did the state of Ohio end up with five teams in the tournament?