And Thus Beginneth the Madness

The Hawks returned to Iowa City last night after finishing a victorious run in the Big Ten tournament by beating Ohio State 67-60 in the final and claiming the first tournament championship since 2001. By finishing the year with three straight wins in the tournament, the Hawks ran their record to 25-8 to go along with the tournament trophy.

While that's a big story in Hawkland, it also propelled them to a #3 seed in the Atlanta bracket of the NCAA tournament, which pits them against #14 seed Northwestern State (La.) in Auburn Hills, Michigan on Friday.

Overall, I'm pleased with the seed that Iowa received, but we sure got a tough draw. Check out the full breakdown and analysis of the Atlanta region here. We'll likely have to beat a battle-tested West Virginia team to come out of the Auburn Hills sub-regional, and then we'll likely have Texas and Duke in the regional semi-final and final. So there's a lot standing in the way of our road to the Final Four.

A few more NCAA tourney notes:

1) I'm a little surprised that GW, with only a couple of losses, got an 8 seed. That's good news for those that think they can upset Duke and blow the Atlanta region wide open, but I consider an 8 seed to be a little bit low for a team that went 14-0 in conference play and won 26 games.

2) Biggest snubs, according to the Offering: Missouri State (21 RPI in a tough conference), Michigan (Big Ten deserved 7 bids), and Cincinnati (deserved an at-large after going .500 in an exceptional Big East and then losing their conference tourney game on a last-second Gerry McNamara three-ball).

3) Easiest Region: My early feeling is that the Oakland region is the most wide-open. I think the top 4 seeds are beatable, and anyone down to a 5 or 6 seed could come out of that bracket.

4) Dark Horse Final Four Picks: Here's one team from each region that didn't garner a high seed, but I think could surprise people: Pittsburgh (Oakland), West Virginia (Atlanta), Michigan State (D.C.), and Georgetown (Minneapolis).

5) Bracket tips: When filling out your office pool bracket, remember that of the 32 first-round games, the lower seed will win approximately 1/4 of those games. To put a finer point on it, in the 5-12 matchups in the first round, the 5 seed is only 11-9 over the last 20 such games. And when you're torn between two teams, go with the one with better guard play and free throw shooting as a team. Those two traits are magnified in the Big Dance.

I haven't done my usual thorough analysis on each of the regions yet, but I'll post some Final Four thoughts later in the week when I post the picks for the head-to-head blog-off with the Sofa King. The annual Confidence Pool is for money as well as dignity, so when I put up our chosen teams, I'll also make some predictions about who will be cutting down nets in Indianapolis.

Here's a good printable bracket.

Hope you're enjoying the Madness.
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