My bracket has been screwed for a long time now, but this has still been quite a sick first round of the NCAA Tournament. I mean, are you serious? One host site has four freakin' double-digit seeds win in one day? What? That is insane. The first two were incredible to watch, too. I actually was rooting for Clemson, despite my obsession with the underdog, because they were almost the underdog in my mind. Villanova has become a standard in March, while the Tigers haven't been to the Dance since 1998. But the other three upsets were all fun to watch, especially the absolutely incredible USD-UCONN game. Oh. My. Gosh. Words cannot describe how fun that game was to watch.
And amid all of this March Madness, I thought about these implications for Kansas. Now, assuming we can beat the UNLV Runnin' Rebs tomorrow afternoon, which won't be all that easy, we will either play a 12 seed (Villanova) or a 13 seed (Siena). Honestly, I would rather play the Wildcats. Despite their performance tonight, and their overall talent, I still would feel extremely confident going up against the Wildcats. The Saints scare me, because of their balance and everything (basically the same reason that Clemson freaked me out so much), although I think we can handle them as well. So, depending on your attitude, this is either an incredibly positive or negative thing. Now, the entire MSM, along with the rest of the fan base that wasn't already expecting a Final Four, is penciling us into the Elite Eight already. We still have to win two games against very good, if not excellent teams, and anybody who is looking ahead to the Elite Eight and beyond is missing out on a lot of fun. And setting themselves up for disappointment. Of course, as already mentioned, it does make our path to the Elite Eight all that much easier, which is always nice.
So, with the player-by-player breakdowns to come tomorrow, just enjoy the Madness tonight. I still can't believe all of that happened.
I. Love. March.
ROCK CHALK!