March Madness' Sweet 16: My Top 10 CBS Contemplations
10. At least I was right about being wrong. Toldja I annually suck at brackets and, sure enough, after one weekend I'm done. Kaput. Had Missouri and Florida State in the Final Four. To me March Madness is one of the most entertaining sports events of the year. And also one of the most unpredictable.
9. President Obama is 35-13 through the first weekend, with three of his Final Four alive (he also lost Mizzou).
8. Remember that ugly brawl between Cincinnati and Xavier that escalated waaaay outta control back on Dec. 10? Both are in the Sweet 16.
7. TV ratings for the first weekend were CBS' best in 18 years. So there. And, by the way, let's give the tournament credit for finally getting it right. No more live "look-ins", only to miss most of the best games. This year every game was televised on CBS, TBS, TNT or truTV. Well played, sirs.
6. Virginia Commonwealth and Purdue both lost chances at upsets when they grew too conservative down the stretch. VCU had Indiana on the ropes, but lost when senior Brandon Burgess missed two free throws in the final minute. And the Boilermakers were up three with the ball with a minute remaining but settled for dribbling on the perimeter and running down the shot clock on their next three possessions.
5. North Carolina's road to the Final Four is the easiest as they must beat Ohio and then a highly overrated Kansas team. But they'll have to do it without starting point guard Kendall Marshal, who broke his wrist against Creighton Sunday.
4. I don't understand opinion-makers who get paid to not give any opinion. ESPN's Digger Phelps was breaking down Lehigh-Xavier Sunday morning. His bottom-line prediction: "Don't be surprised if Lehigh has a chance at the end." What the what?! Does that mean Lehigh is gonna win? Or Xavier? I think it's a chicken-ess way of covering his ass. Another Digger-ism I detest: When asked the key to the Kansas game for Purdue he offered "Purdue has to get stops." Really?! So basically ESPN is paying Digger Phelps to tell us that the best way for Purdue to beat Kansas is to prevent them for scoring. Most of us are smart enough to know what needs to be done, fool, tell us how it can be done.
3. For the first time in March Madness history one state (Ohio) has sent four teams to the Sweet 16 (Ohio State, Ohio, Cincinnati and Xavier). Also, there are only two teams remaining west of the Mississippi – Kansas and Baylor.
2. Baylor's gonna make it to the Elite 8, where they'll run into Kentucky. Please, I'm begging you Bears, lose the uniforms and don't embarrass the Big 12. You look like a bunch of school crosswalk guards in those neon yellowgreenish getups. And speaking of appearances, Brady Heslip (who made nine 3-pointers against Colorado) looks less like a college basketball player than anyone else in the tournament.
1. You may not like basketball. You may not like a college system where the stars are freshmen that bolt to the NBA after one season. But, regardless, you can't deny that Frenetic Friday was magical. It's why we watch sports. Reality-show drama at its finest. Norfolk State over Missouri, followed by Lehigh over Duke. That's two 15-seeds over two 2-seeds. Never happened before. If you didn't like it, I may not like you.
(Copyright 2012 CBS Local. All Rights Reserved.)
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