SportsPants

Wow. Talk about the rich getting richer.

Basketball power and noted snotty white kid haven, Duke University, got an early Easter present on Sunday when the selection committee nearly gave them a ticket to the Final Four. Seriously, what the hell, NCAA? Duke isn't even the No. 1 overall seed, yet gets a joke of a bracket to work with. I know, I know, there are all sorts of ups and downs in the NCAA tournament and any team can get hot and upset another (for the most part). Yet, Duke couldn't have asked for any better road this year.

Let's take a look at who's in the Duke Bracket: 9th seed Louisville? Maybe last year, but not in 2010. 4th seed Purdue? Crushed by the injury bug. 13th seed Siena has hot shooting, but it can't match up, though I hope to Jeebus they do. How about 6th seed Notre Dame? It's got several scoring options, but the Irish are just not athletic. 3rd seed Baylor is a great story after all the turbulence that program has been through and my emotional favorite, but the Bears just don't attract All-America talent like Duke. How about 2nd seed Villanova? They're from the rugged Big East and have Scottie Reynolds who seems like he's been playing college basketball for 14 years, but the team has lost five of six games and may not even survive to play Duke.

Meanwhile, No. 1 overall seed Kansas gets Big 10 champ Ohio State, the always dangerous Michigan State, plus hot Georgetown that nearly won the Big East tournament. Oh, and don't forget Maryland or Tennessee both who could upset if the Jayhawks have an off game.

Kentucky won the SEC tournament and was the top-ranked team for much of the year. What do the Wildcats get for their achievements? They get a possible early game with Texas who can physically match-up with anyone, Wisconsin who will slow the game down to a crawl in order to keep things close, a dangerous Marquette team, and the Big East champ West Virginia. I'm not a Kentucky fan and would love to see John Calipari fall early, but c'mon! The Wildcats deserve more than this.

And then there is Syracuse. The NCAA stuck the Orange in the West bracket, so lots of fun traveling for them. Plus 'Cuse gets to deal with giant killer Gonzaga, Big 12 runner up Kansas State and Big East foe Pittsburgh.

And Duke just sits there laughing. Nice job, NCAA. Next time make sure you don't have Coach K helping you with the drawings.

Read more of Brad Seal at the original "SportsPants" blog.