Texas Two Step

CBS’ ratings for the NCAA Tournament are down this year.

But who cares?

The mid-majors are making the tournament more entertaining and giving impartial fans something to cheer for instead of just their bracket.

Half of the country’s brackets were wiped out with Northern Iowa’s upset of Kansas. So now it is time to cheer for more upsets.

I’m talking to you, Cornell and St. Mary’s.

The world no longer cares about Sherron Collins or Cole Aldrich. John Wall is not as important anymore. Basketball fans wants to see Ali Farokhmanesh and Omar Samhan. They want upsets. They want to see fundamental basketball in Cornell’s team-first mentality.

Even my mother was going wild throughout Northern Iowa's upset of the Jayhawks. People like these stories, so make something of it, CBS, and the people will watch.

This year’s tournament is about real college basketball. Not just one-and-done players. It is about groups of 10-15 college students who have been playing together for years.

The one-year freshman rule is destroying big-time college basketball programs. Let the best players go pro straight from high school. College basketball does not need them. Wall will be gone and Georgia Tech’s Derrick Favors will likely leave. Even Texas’ Avery Bradley who had a very disappointing freshman year is mulling over leaving for the NBA. More on Bradley in a future post.

Let’s celebrate these mid-major schools making runs into the Sweet 16. You know never, maybe we will have Butler, Cornell, St. Mary’s and Northern Iowa in the Final Four. Yeah, that will happen when pigs fly.<

The final week of the college basketball regular season begins this week and we are approaching arguable the best four days of the sports year.

The first and second rounds are approaching, and I feel that anyone is capable of winning it all. There is no clear-cut choice of who is No. 1. Expect one or possibly two top seeds to fall in the second round and for a five, six or seven seed to make the Final Four.

It is too hard to know now since we haven’t even seen a bracket, but here is who I think can make a run deep into March and possibly make it to Indianapolis. And since I mainly watch the Big 12, I am not going to try to analyze anything else and talk about things that I really have no clue about.

Obvious favorite:

Kansas: Sherron Collins is the most dangerous player in college basketball and is the player I would most want to have the ball in the waning seconds of a game (see 2007 Final Four). The Jayhawks are loaded with superstars and have been there before. They have what it takes to win it all.

Sleepers:
Texas A&M: Mark Turgeon has his Aggies playing energetic and exciting basketball. There are no superstars on this team, but they play smart basketball and use good teamwork and when on their game are capable of pulling off an upset.

Kansas State: They are not really a sleeper, because everyone already knows how good they are. But the Wildcats have lots of talent that plays well together. They will probably be a two or three seed and should cruise to the Sweet 16 and possibly the Elite Eight.

Baylor: All six of the Bears’ losses were close games that could have easily gone the other way. LaceDarius Dunn and Tweety Carter are the most underrated pair of players on any team in college basketball and will show it in the tournament.

First-Round Exits:

Texas: Has any team fallen off worse than the Longhorns who less than two months ago were the top team in the nation? As much as it kills me to say, the Longhorns are the most underachieving team in the country and will not make it out of the first round of the tournament. With all of the talent they have, it is hard to imagine this, but Rick Barnes’ squad is not who we thought they were.

Oklahoma State: James Anderson is fun to watch, but he does not have enough support around him. The win against top-ranked Kansas was a rare game when the entire Cowboy squad was playing at its best and the Jayhawks took a night off.

I can’t wait to see how wrong I am about all of these!