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No doubt which team is the overall No. 1 seed
It's no longer just Philadelphia or the Big East chasing Villanova, but the entire college basketball landscape. Don't believe me? The numbers are both plain and staggering.
For a sport we're told is all about Duke, Kentucky and the one-and-done era, there's still at least one traditional college program that's winning -- and winning big -- the old-fashioned way. Simply put, Villanova belongs in the conversation at the very highest level of college basketball.
To assert anything else is to ignore the most basic facts of our game.
Other bracket bits:
No doubt which team is the overall No. 1 seed
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Joe LunardiSenior Writer, ESPN.com
It's no longer just Philadelphia or the Big East chasing Villanova, but the entire college basketball landscape. Don't believe me? The numbers are both plain and staggering.
For a sport we're told is all about Duke, Kentucky and the one-and-done era, there's still at least one traditional college program that's winning -- and winning big -- the old-fashioned way. Simply put, Villanova belongs in the conversation at the very highest level of college basketball.
To assert anything else is to ignore the most basic facts of our game.
Other bracket bits:
- In my world, teams are rarely and only minimally punished for losing true road games. Good for Xavier, which played at Baylor and Colorado. Good for Butler, which played at Indiana State. Heck, good for Indiana, which played at Fort Wayne.
One-way, guarantee games might be the most insidious element of college basketball. They destroy competitive balance in the short term and contribute mightily to a long-term power structure that is both artificial and unfair.
If pro sports operated like this -- say the Steelers "bought" two home games against the Browns instead of splitting an annual series -- there would be outrage. The greed works both ways. Take a look at the non-league schedules this year for the likes of Long Beach State or Texas Southern and then come back to me on student-athlete welfare.
One day I'm going to write a book about this.
- It's not shaping up to be a very good year for multi-bid conferences outside the Power 5/Big East axis. The Atlantic 10, American and Mountain West are all having sub-par non conference seasons by recent standards. This seems to be an anomaly for the A-10 and AAC, but a disturbing trend in the Mountain West.
- OVERRATED: UCLA, Creighton, South Carolina, Syracuse
- UNDERRATED: Louisville, Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Florida State
