LAGUNA NIGUEL – This isn’t going to be a “game-by-game, my pick-by-my pick”-type of NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket overviews.
But . . . here are some observations about the makeup of the 2024 Field of 68, and how I think some things might play out before the April 8 championship game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale (not, no matter how many teams your hear it or read it, “Phoenix”), Arizona.
*First things first: Getting the “pet peeves” out of the way.
- The four games played in Dayton on Tuesday and Wednesday night are “First Four games” not “play-in games”.
It’s a 68-team field – each of the 68 teams are “NCAA Tournament teams”.
For the lazy (there’s a thing called “Google”, if nothing else) or relative newbies to college basketball and the apex of the sport, the tournament bracket size didn’t begin at 68 teams.
That happened 13 years ago, 10 years after it grew from 64 to 65.
The tournament debuted in 1939 with eight teams, doubled in size 12 years later, grew to 22 in 1953 and was either 24 or 25 until going to 32 in 1975.
That meant, for the first time since 1953, no teams would receive “byes” before opening tournament play.
By (no pun intended) 1979, the field expanded to 40 teams were back in play, as they were with expansion to 48 (’80), 52 (’83) and 53 (’84).
With 11 teams added in 1985, it was a straight up, five rounds of play with no byes for 16 season. But byes have been back in the picture since 2001 – which will remain the case unless the field ever grows to 168.
So, for the time being, 60 teams have byes into the Round of 64.
And losing Tuesday and Wednesday night doesn’t mean that four teams suddenly become non-tournament teams just like the teams that lost to get the fields to 16 and 32 in the pre-64 days weren’t stricken from the Tourney Club.
It will only mean that they were go home two and three days earlier than will the 16 teams that are eliminated on Thursday or Friday.
- And, in another “nit-picking the crap out of it gripe”, when you see the ball “tied up” by opposing players in any loose-ball situations, it is a “held-ball, alternating possession” situation – even if you hear the play-by-play or public address announcer call it a “jump ball”.
That’s been the case since 1981, when jump balls were done away with “alternating possession” arrows on the scorers’ table.
The only jump balls you’ll see in college and high school are at the beginning of the game and any subsequent overtime.
Tie ups = “jump ball” have strictly been an NBA thing for 30-plus year.
But, of course, be prepared to hear “jump ball” a whole lot over the 67 games of the tournament, including April 8.
OK, with that out of the way . . .
*Conference tournament performances aren’t consistent barometers for projecting NCAA tourney success.
But no teams impressed me more than did defending champion Connecticut (Big East), Auburn (SEC), Iowa State (Big 12) and Illinois (Big Ten) in “tourney week”.
With different regional placements, I think each would have strong opportunities to get to Arizona.
But . . . each was placed in the East Regional, with sub-regionals in Brooklyn, Spokane and Omaha supplying the four teams going to Boston next week.
Joining Connecticut in the East are two other 2023 FF teams, runner-up San Diego State and Florida Atlantic, that returned the bulk of their key personnel.
Toss in Washington State (led by Pac 12 Coach of the Year Kyle Smith, the regular-season runner-up to Arizona in the conference) and a potential 12 seed – UAB, which plays San Diego State Friday in Spokane – and Danny Hurley’s UConn Huskies have more potential stumbling blocks than any of the other regional No. 1 seeds.
But, IMO, until someone knocks them off, the Huskies will remain the de facto “favorite” in each game they play in the tournament.
*It’s the last NCAA tournament for the Pac 12 Conference and all that its members brought to the event, historically – notably the UCLA teams of John R. Wooden.
And, for a conference that – just a few weeks ago – looked as if it might be repped by a max of two squads (Arizona and WSU), there is a solid chance that there will be considerable collective success for its four teams this week.
Oregon, with enough key players healthy enough to become the team so many of Coach Dana Altman’s peers expected it to be, knocked off UCLA, Arizona, and Colorado in succession in Las Vegas for the Pac 12’s automatic bid that was the Ducks’ only path to the tournament.
Washington State may have to knock off Iowa State in the second round; Oregon (in the Pittsburgh sub-regional in the Midwest) could hook up with Altman’s former program – No. 3 seed Creighton) on Sunday; and Colorado must play Boise State in a “10 seed vs. 10 seed” First Four game in Dayton Wednesday night.
But each of the three has the goods to join the West’s 2 seed (Arizona) in the Round of 16 next week.
*The team that has the most future NBA selections – as soon as June – on its roster?
Easy-peasy . . . it’s the University of Kentucky, where freshmen guards Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard are among as many seven Wildcats who could be in the 2024 draft pool.
In this new era of “NIL opportunitie$”, though – especially within a program like the one in Lexington – the lure of reimbursement well beyond the traditional scholarship of tuition, books, room, meals, and snacks is enough for a lot of guys to return to college for at least another season.
*Games I’m most pumped to watch (before the Round of 32 begins on Saturday):
Boise State vs. Colorado (First Four/Wednesday).
Washington State vs. Drake (Thursday/Omaha/East).
Dayton vs. Nevada (Thursday/Salt Lake City/West).
Gonzaga vs. McNeese (Thursday/SLC/Midwest).
Clemson vs. New Mexico (Friday/Memphis/West).
Saint Mary’s vs. Grand Canyon (Friday/Spokane/West).
UAB vs. San Diego State (Friday/Spokane/East).
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