Out Of Bounds | The reason March exists: College basketball gone "mad"

Gabe Mosca Staff Writer

Here at Out of Bounds, the staff watches hundreds of college basketball games every year. No game is too important. No game is too inconsequential. We revel in a classic North Carolina-Duke contest and we wake up early to catch the America East Championships. And in spite of those many hours and late nights, our March Madness brackets look diseased.

Regardless of the time spent studying the field of 65 teams, errors are inevitable. We would have done better choosing the winners at random.

In hindsight, picking Niagara to go to the Elite Eight may have been a bit foolish. But would choosing the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to beat Alabama and then Boston College been any more sensible? Shockingly, the Panthers did exactly that. UW-Milwaukee was a clear Bracket Breaker. Let’s take a look at some of the other upsets.

Vermont v. Syracuse
After a dominating run in the Big East tournament, many picked the Syracuse Orange to roll though the Southern Region and earn a trip to the Final Four.

The Vermont Catamounts (a team that lost to Maine by 21 points this season) put a snafu on those plans. Led by Taylor Coppenwrath and T.J. Sorrentine, Vermont took the ’Cuse to overtime.

In spite of the presence of Big East Player of the Year Hakim Warrick, Syracuse could not handle the Catamounts in the extra frame. When Sorrentine’s 35-footer found the bottom of the net with less than a minute left, the Vermont victory was in hand, and millions of brackets were, to use a military term, FUBAR.

Bucknell v. Kansas
Believe it or not, the Bisons of Bucknell are not strangers to slaying giants. Earlier in the season they had defeated Pittsburgh, breaking Pitt’s lengthy home winning streak.

Kansas was sure to roll over the Patriot League upstarts, right? This was Kansas, a team that went through a majority of the regular season undefeated, a team that featured impressive forward Wayne Simien.

And this was Bucknell, a team that gave Northern Iowa’s band orange Bucknell t-shirts and Bucknell sheet music because the Bison band could not be assembled with spring break on the calendar. But that, as the cliché goes, is why they play the game. Bucknell nipped the 64-63, smashing brackets all around the country.

West Virginia v. Wake Forest
The ugly truth is that I picked Wake Forest to win the NCAA Tournament. I thought that maybe, just maybe, the Demon Deacons would be able to play just enough defense to allow their superb offense to carry them to the title. I was wrong.

Although Wake Forest scored 111 points in their second round defeat to West Virginia, they allowed 115. All-American guard Chris Paul fouled out, and the Mountaineer guards took over during the second overtime. This adds more proof to my theory that one can never trust a person whose last name is a first name.

In other March Madness happenings, could there be a worse announcer in sports than CBS’s Billy Packer. He replaces ABC’s Al Michaels on my list of announcers I want to set on fire. Packer is overly critical of both players and coaches.

Bill Raftery on the other hand, is superb. Unfortunately, Packer and the boring Jim Nantz are CBS’s number one announcing tandem, so there will be fewer opportunities for Raftery to dazzle us with his unbridled enthusiasm and passionate enunciation. Do you remember on “The Wonder Years” how Kevin’s conscious was voice by Daniel Stern? I want Bill Raftery to be the voice of my inner monologue.
As this weekend’s Final Four approaches, another glorious upset might still be in store. CBS will be carrying the national semi-finals on Saturday night and the finals on Monday. Find a big television, turn down the volume on Packer, and enjoy a little college hoops, bracket breakers and all.