What we have in the Sweet 16

I don't know what to say about Purdue. I was so hopeful, they had so much promise... I can't see the end of the season as anything but a complete failure. How does a team that prides itself on defense, one that has two seniors as it's top players completely wet the bed and give up 94 points against a CAA team? What an abomination. If there is any bright side, I guess it's that Purdue basketball has more hope than Purdue football.
But anyways, here is what we have in the Sweet 16. This is the first time since 1999 that there have been 4 double digit seeds in the Sweet 16, and we are guaranteed at least one in the Elite 8 after Florida State and VCU take on one another. This is also the first time that 3 double digit seeds have made it to the Sweet 16 in the same bracket. Put it like this: If Kansas makes it to the Final 4, the highest seed they will have played will be #8 Illinois.
On to the Big East, who I have said all along is overrated. The two teams they sent to the Sweet 16 were the two that had the chance to play other Big East teams. There are as many teams from Richmond, VA, (Richmond and VCU) in the Sweet 16 as there are teams from the Big East. In fact, if you look at the teams still left in the dance, the conference with the most teams left is the ACC, which has three out of their 4 teams still remaining. Conferences with two teams left are the Big Ten, Mountain West, SEC and the aforementioned Big East. How did anyone forget the ACC?
So, even with their run last year, did anyone expect Butler to be the only team from Indiana left at this stage? Anyways, I had Wisconsin topping the Bulldogs, so it doesn't really matter much to me. I will continue to root for Wisconsin, because I had them in the Final Four. In fact, my Final Four is still intact. I guess that's one thing to keep me going.

The 2011 Tournament

Holy smokes, this is the worst bracket I think I have ever seen. Once you get to the 3rd seed, I think it's a complete crap shoot. I just went by gut on all my picks (and I watch a LOT of basketball, so this isn't just fluff) and I had:
- 8 double digit seeds winning in the first round
- 5 upsets in the 2nd round
- A 10 seed (Michigan State) in the Elite 8
- a 5 seed (Kansas State) in the in the Final 4.
- 3 1 seeds (Kansas, Duke, Ohio State) in the Final 4.

I don't care for my bracket, because there is so much parity past the 2nd seeds. Here were my guiding forces:
- The SEC is complete garbage. I had Florida losing no matter who they played in the 2nd round.
- The West Coast conferences did extremely well last year, so I picked Pac 10 and WCC's Gonzaga to excel a little bit better than their seeds may have suggested.
- The Big East is solid, but the reason the conference tournament was so wild is because the top teams aren't elite. They tend not to do well in the Big Dance, and Pitt and Notre Dame, the conferences highest seeded teams are the worst offenders.
- I like the Big 12 and the ACC to be surprisingly successful this year from the middle of their conference. I think North Carolina is a little too immature and may take teams lightly like they did at the beginning of the season.

But in my opinion, the bracket is putrid. The lower seeds are almost as good as the higher seeds in far too many cases for me to be comfortable with any early round picks, but I think this will be a good year for the top seeds.