I hate my picks. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s how I\u2019ll sum up this year\u2019s NCAA tournament. Which seems perfect for a college basketball season I have mostly hated. <\/p>\n
Spoiled KU fan, I know.<\/p>\n
As hard as I tried not to, I ended up going with all four #1 seeds to reach the Final Four. Which is an idiotic way to fill your bracket since it has happened exactly one time.[1]<\/a> <\/p>\n Some people think Auburn is creaky and vulnerable based on their late-season lull. I see a team that was focused on one thing – winning it all – getting complacent late. Some people are screaming the \u201cIt\u2019s March, that\u2019s Tom Izzo time!\u201d nonsense but I still don\u2019t think Michigan State is Final Four good. Auburn is, frankly, more Michigan State than Michigan State is this year.<\/p>\n Houston has some injury issues, but if J\u2019wan Roberts can survive this weekend, I think the Cougars roll into San Antonio.<\/p>\n Duke? Come on. They just blitzed the ACC tournament without Cooper Flagg in the last two games, and he\u2019s coming back. Although the ACC kind of stunk, so we should maybe tamp the excitement down a notch or two. And they got the easiest, by far, route to the Final Four. As usual.<\/p>\n I really wanted to pick St. John\u2019s out of the West. In fact at first I did. But I think Florida is the best team in the country, and as fearsome as the Johnnies are on defense, they can\u2019t shoot, which will kill you in 2025. Seriously, a KU-SJU game Saturday could be an all-time brickfest.<\/p>\n I found it hard to pick upsets, too. I have BYU in the Elite 8, for some reason. I could also see them losing their opening game and blowing up my bracket.<\/p>\n I have Clemson and Illinois in the Sweet 16 in the Midwest, but those only require mild upsets. Otherwise my Sweet 16 is pretty chalky.<\/p>\n Yuck.<\/p>\n As for my Jayhawks, they should beat Arkansas tonight. Doesn\u2019t mean they will, but they should. The Hogs will be missing their leading scorer and rebounder, but I believe he didn\u2019t play in the exhibition game between these two teams, either. Freshman sensation Boogie Fland returns, but he\u2019s missed two full months of action with a serious hand injury. He\u2019s probably still fast enough, rust and all, to cook DaJuan Harris. But will he have the ball\/finishing skills to match his performance back in October? The Hogs will be quicker on the perimeter, and have a mobile big man that can put Hunter Dickinson in bad spots.<\/p>\n But I think the Jayhawks will come together for two hours and dispatch the Razorbacks. KU 75, Arkansas 70.<\/p>\n That will bring Zuby Ejiofor and the Johnnies on Saturday. Like Arkansas, St. John will be much more athletic at every position than the Jayhawks. There is also that defense, the best in the country, which isn\u2019t exactly an ideal opponent for a team that has clicked offensively only a handful of times across 33 games. This is not the KU team to pull the upset.<\/p>\n However, I did take Ejiofor in my player draft. It would somehow be appropriate if he played like ass and KU knocked off SJU. <\/p>\n Nah, the Hoops Gods are more about punishing my real team for whatever reason than my fantasy team. St. John\u2019s 83, KU 70.<\/p>\n Florida over Houston in the championship game.<\/p>\n That was a pretty good Final Four, with a fantastic ending<\/a>. ↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I hate my picks. That\u2019s how I\u2019ll sum up this year\u2019s NCAA tournament. Which seems perfect for a college basketball season I have mostly hated. Spoiled KU fan, I know. As hard as I tried not to, I ended up going with all four #1 seeds to reach the Final Four. Which is an idiotic way to fill your bracket since it has happened exactly one time.[1] Some people think Auburn is creaky and vulnerable based on their late-season lull. I see a team that was focused on one thing – winning it all – getting complacent late. Some people are screaming the \u201cIt\u2019s March, that\u2019s Tom Izzo time!\u201d nonsense but I still don\u2019t think Michigan State is Final Four good. Auburn is, frankly, more Michigan State than Michigan State is this year. Houston has some injury issues, but if J\u2019wan Roberts can survive this weekend, I think the Cougars roll into San Antonio. Duke? Come on. They just blitzed the ACC tournament without Cooper Flagg in the last two games, and he\u2019s coming back. Although the ACC kind of stunk, so we should maybe tamp the excitement down a notch or two. And they got the easiest, by far, route to the Final Four. As usual. I really wanted to pick St. John\u2019s out of the West. In fact at first I did. But I think Florida is the best team in the country, and as fearsome as the Johnnies are on defense, they can\u2019t shoot, which will kill you in 2025. Seriously, a KU-SJU game Saturday could be an all-time brickfest. I found it hard to pick upsets, too. I have BYU in the Elite 8, for some reason. I could also see them losing their opening game and blowing up my bracket. I have Clemson and Illinois in the Sweet 16 in the Midwest, but those only require mild upsets. Otherwise my Sweet 16 is pretty chalky. Yuck. As for my Jayhawks, they should beat Arkansas tonight. Doesn\u2019t mean they will, but they should. The Hogs will be missing their leading scorer and rebounder, but I believe he didn\u2019t play in the exhibition game between these two teams, either. Freshman sensation Boogie Fland returns, but he\u2019s missed two full months of action with a serious hand injury. He\u2019s probably still fast enough, rust and all, to cook DaJuan Harris. But will he have the ball\/finishing skills to match his performance back in October? The Hogs will be quicker on the perimeter, and have a mobile big man that can put Hunter Dickinson in bad spots. But I think the Jayhawks will come together for two hours and dispatch the Razorbacks. KU 75, Arkansas 70. That will bring Zuby Ejiofor and the Johnnies on Saturday. Like Arkansas, St. John will be much more athletic at every position than the Jayhawks. There is also that defense, the best in the country, which isn\u2019t exactly an ideal opponent for a team that has clicked offensively only a handful of times across 33 games. This is not the KU team to pull the upset. However, I did take Ejiofor in my player draft. It would somehow be appropriate if he played like ass and KU knocked off SJU. Nah, the Hoops Gods are more about punishing my real team for whatever reason than my fantasy team. St. John\u2019s 83, KU 70. Florida over Houston in the championship game. That was a pretty good Final Four, with a fantastic ending. ↩<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,52,58],"class_list":["post-16157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-kansas-jayhawks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16158,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157\/revisions\/16158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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