College basketball has ceased to amaze me. I have come to expect the craziness and excitement that make it, without a doubt, the most entertaining sport out there. Nothing can compare.
March Madness is the best time of the year for sports fans. Every weekend is jam-packed with basketball goodness. The only thing better than that grand sense of confidence when filling out a tournament bracket is the feeling of anger and despair that we all experience together when we end up tearing them to shreds after the first Thursday’s games.
The fact is that in college basketball anyone can win. Every team has that shooter or big man who can go off against a superior team. Where would college basketball be without the Creightons and Gonzagas (when they were true Cinderellas)?
Tournament brackets aren’t the only pieces of paper that are worthless in college basketball. Preseason rankings might as well be determined by picking teams out of a hat. In last year’s ESPN/USA Today Poll, 13 (more than half) of the preseason top-25 teams finished out of the top-25 at the end of the season. The most notable dropouts were preseason No. 5 Michigan State and No. 6 Oklahoma, along with perennial powerhouses No. 9 Arizona and No. 10 Kentucky. By the end of the year 13 teams had taken the place of the 13 that dropped out. No-namers like George Mason, Wichita State, Bradley and Bucknell finished in the top-25. Even more surprisingly, Florida and LSU, two teams that were unranked in the preseason, finished at No. 1 and No. 3 respectively.
This season has started out no differently. Oral Roberts struck the first big knockout punch, downing No. 3 Kansas. Then Kansas rebounded to beat No. 1 Florida. Previously unranked Butler defeated two ranked opponents to force its way into the top-25 at No. 18. We are four weeks into the season, and four preseason top-25 teams have already disappeared from the rankings.
Georgetown has also been a part of the unpredictability in college basketball. Last year we beat undefeated No. 1 Duke. Of course, on that day the other two collegiate unbeatens, Florida and Pittsburgh, were also toppled. Only in college basketball. This year the No. 8 Hoyas found themselves on the wrong side of an upset when they were shocked by Old Dominion. They now hang on dearly to the No. 23 spot at the bottom of the poll.
If there is one thing that’s certain in college basketball, it’s that fans will get their money’s worth. What that will be, you never know. Some might tell you to not waste your time by filling out a bracket in March, but I wouldn’t go that far. At least fill one out so you have something to tear up Thursday night when Air Force beats UCLA and Brigham Young eliminates Marquette in the Round of 64 because without that, you’re missing the fun of college basketball.
