It is okay to admit the truth.

I know you don’t want to admit it.

The SEC has dominated the college basketball season, and it continues as we have a record seven SEC teams headed to the Sweet Sixteen.

When some of the lower seeded SEC teams started dropping in round one, everyone headed to their favorite social media platform to deem the SEC the most overrated conference in the history of overratedness. I agree that Texas shouldn’t have made the tournament and I would argue Oklahoma didn’t deserve a bid either. When you go 6-12 in any conference you shouldn’t get rewarded. Texas apparently agreed with that assessment as they took about 3.7 seconds after their loss to fire Rodney Terry and hire Sean Miller as head coach.

All the other SEC teams absolutely earned their bids.

 Seven teams kept their seasons rolling.

The SEC went 59-19 against the other power conferences during the season. That is dominant. Then SEC teams bashed each other around for two and a half months after that. Now they set a record with 7 teams in the final 16.

It has been a historic season for the SEC.

Those are all facts.

It is okay to admit the truth.

The only thing left for the SEC is to win a national championship.

This year there are no Cinderellas. Derek Queen saw to that, when he put the dagger in Colorado State’s heart with this beauty. And, no, it is not a travel.

 

With the exception of St. John’s and Wisconsin, the best teams made their way through the first weekend. And Arkansas isn’t chopped liver. The Razorbacks might be one of the most talented 10 seeds in history. Wisconsin lost to the hottest offense in the country, BYU, which is hardly an upset. Iowa State lost as a three seed, but if the selection committee was paying attention the Cyclones wouldn’t have been seeded three.

My picks weren’t all that good, but my Final Four is still in tact.  Let’s take a look at the Sweet Sixteen region by region.

South Region

Could we see a “kiss the floor” rematch between Michigan and Michigan State?

That would require Michigan getting past the number one seed Auburn. That won’t be an easy task, but certainly not impossible. Auburn really hasn’t played great in a month. Michigan, on the other hand, has been playing great since the Michigan State loss.

Tom Izzo vs Chris Beard is a great coaching matchup. The difference is the Spartans have the better team. Mississippi has maxed out their talent level by reaching the Sweet Sixteen. Michigan State has advanced without playing their best basketball. I wouldn’t count on them playing below the line this week. Izzo will have his team primed for a Final Four run.

I am not changing my picks here, though a Michigan upset of Auburn wouldn’t surprise me. Michigan has the guard play and size to compete with Auburn.

  • Biggest disappointment: Louisville. The Cards reverted back to December Louisville, which was not good.
  • Biggest surprise: New Mexico. The Lobos upset Marquette and gave Michigan State everything they wanted. Richard Pitino is very good.
  • Best team: Auburn. Best as in most talented. Not sure they are playing the best.

At the end of the weekend I still think it will be Michigan State punching their ticket to San Antonio.

West Region

This has been a fun region.

Florida got pushed to the limit by two time defending champ UConn. The Gators didn’t take control of the game until around the one minute mark. Up to that point, UConn was in control. Give the Huskies credit for not relinquishing the crown without a fight. That is a testament to head coach Danny Hurley. His reaction after the game was vintage Hurley.

 

 

Has anyone considered that Hurley may be bipolar?

The Gators rose up like a championship team when faced with possible elimination. Particularly, Walter Clayton, who made big shot after big shot. It was a very impressive comeback.

The Gators get Maryland, who was pushed —literally— to the last second by Colorado State. The Rams were on an 11 game heater and looked like the better team for 35 minutes. Even when Maryland took control, CSU came roaring back and took the lead late. Then Derek Queen took over and bailed the Terps out.

The two seed in this region, St. John’s, won 30 games this year despite being in the brick layer’s union. The lack of shooting versus Arkansas ultimately ended the Johnnies season. Arkansas is much better than their record and John Calipari has done one of his best coaching jobs. But in the end it was what St. John’s couldn’t do that decided the game. The Red Storm have two stars, Kadary Richmond and RJ Luis. Both finished the game on the bench. Richmond fouled out and after going 3-17 Luis was benched for not passing and playing defense.

Texas Tech reached the Sweet Sixteen without much fanfare. The Red Raiders held off upstart Drake and should be favored against Arkansas. I’ve been high on Texas Tech all year and probably should have picked them to the Elite Eight in my original bracket.

  • Biggest disappointment: Kansas. This was easy. The Jayhawks were consistently disappointing all year long.
  • Biggest surprise: Arkansas. Beat both Kansas and St. John’s to earn a trip to the Sweet Sixteen.
  • Best Team: Florida. This isn’t real close.

I still think Florida advances out of the West Region. They are the toast of the town.

East Region

This could be looked at as the Duke Invitational after watching the Blue Devils win two games without breaking a sweat.

Not so fast.

Arizona and Oregon played a fantastic game in their reincarnation of Pac-12 After Dark. Can we please stop scheduling so many games for late on Sunday night when people go to work the next day? Anyway, it was a great game, with both teams showing offensive prowess. Arizona lost early in the season to Duke and only scored 55 points. The Wildcats areplaying their best basketball right now.

If Duke survives that game they will face one of two other offensive juggernauts in Alabama or BYU. Those two teams will score on anybody. I actually wish I would have picked BYU. They are so difficult to defend. Alabama will certainly outmatch the Cougars in athleticism.

  • Biggest disappointment: Vanderbilt. I thought they had a favorable matchup with St. Mary’s but the Commodores couldn’t maintain.
  • Biggest surprise: BYU. I am not sure this is really a surprise.
  • Best team: Duke. The most obvious statement in this column

I am going to stick with my original picks and say Duke beats Alabama to reach the Final Four once again. I just don’t think it will be a cake walk for the Blue Devils.

Midwest Region

The star of this region? LJ Cryer? Trey Kauffman-Wren? Nope. Mick Cronin. Cronin’s UCLA Bruins didn’t put up much of a fight against Tennessee, but we did get another fantastic Cronin press conference afterward.

 

Took a shot at the time of the game, the airline, and the food. Mick letting the NCAA know just what he thinks of them in a totally Mick Cronin way.

As for the fallout from this region, how about status quo. Top four seeds have advanced, and the only one I didn’t have was Purdue. I was unaware that Clemson wasn’t going to attend this year’s tournament. The Tigers fell to street ballin’ McNeese State who couldn’t clown their way past a well coached Purdue team.

I still think this is Houston’s region to lose. The Cougars should have no problem with a Purdue team that wasn’t playing well coming into the tournament. I would maybe be willing to argue that the Gonzaga game will be Houston’s toughest.

In the Elite Eight Houston will get an SEC team. Kentucky has beaten Tennessee twice already this season. Beating a team three times is ultra tough when they are as good as Tennessee. I also never trust Rick Barnes in the tournament. If not for Illinois carelessness, Kentucky may have lost that game. Tennessee will get their revenge.

Houston versus Tennessee could end up being a steel cage match. I can’t believe I am actually typing this, but I think Houston has the better offense.

  • Biggest disappointment: Clemson. They couldn’t have looked more disinterested for the first 30 minutes.
  • Biggest surprise: None. This was the most straightforward region. McNeese was a fun surprise but that was way more Clemson sleepwalking than anything else.
  • Best team: Houston. With an offense we will see how good they are.


It is time for Kelvin Sampson to finally lead the Cougars to the Final Four.

Large conferences, NIL, and the transfer portal has weighted things to the four conferences represented in this year’s Sweet Sixteen. Additionally, when these mid majors find a great coach —McCollum at Drake, Odom at VCU, Medved at Colorado State— they can’t retain them. Drake tried to match Iowa’s offer for McCollum but he still left for a bigger program.

March Madness is so much better with Cinderellas. They don’t have to make it all the way to the Final Four like some have, but a Sweet Sixteen run retains interest for the second week of the tournament, especially for marginal fans. So far only one buzzer beater in this tournament occurred. This one is tough to control, but the first week of the tournament lacked great endings. There were some great games, but not many nail biting endings.

It is still a great event. And there is still time for this to become a great tournament. If the games from here on out are fantastic, nobody will remember the average start to this year’s festivities.

Let’s hope for those fantastic games.

Oh, and I haven’t seen anything to make me want to adjust my Final Four picks. In Walter Clayton I trust.

Two Cent Takes

NFL

~Aaron Rodgers visited Pittsburgh and that sigh you heard came from Cam Heyward, who has already had enough of the Rodgers circus. Just ride with Rudolph and be ready to draft a QB next year.

~There are also a lot of rumors the Steelers may draft a QB this year, possibly in the first round. Unless Shedeur Sanders drops there is no way you can draft a QB at 21. It would be Kenny Pickett all over again.

NHL

~The Pens are still 6 points out of a playoff spot, so we won’t go there. But kudos to Sidney Crosby who has not allowed the team to quit. Love him or hate him, Crosby is still one of the best players in the game.

~Since winning the Cup 7 years ago, the Caps have lost 5 times in the first round and missed the playoffs once. They are the best team in the NHL this year. A first round loss would be surprising and unacceptable. Fingers crossed.

NBA

~The Sixers are doing everything they can to lock up more ping pong balls in the draft lottery. They have lost 5 in a row. The only bad thing is the teams in competition for those lottery spots are equally pathetic.

Golf

~Shout out to Scottie Scheffler for telling reporters they should ask the LIV guys when the players will be back together. The PGA guys always get asked the question, but it was the greedy LIV players who caused the divide.

MLB

~Can we please stop playing regular season games in Tokyo in the middle of March? Play exhibition games. The Japanese fans would still show up. To play games that count is idiotic.

The Weekly Shiny Penny

Kelvin Sampson often comes across as gruff and no nonsense. This scene after Houston beat Gonzaga was pretty compelling. Sampson has coached against Khalif Battle dating back to their days in the AAC. Sampson’s team won an incredibly hard fought game, ending Battle’s college career. Sampson was there to show Battle love. Pretty cool.

 

A Penny For My Final Thought…

Sell the team.

That is the sentiment that has run rampant among Pittsburgh Pirates fans when referencing owner Bob Nutting. Most felt this way because they felt Nutting was cheap and refused to spend money on the team. That changed last week. Oh, not the sell the team part. Just the reason for feeling that way.

A report from DK Pittsburgh Sports stated that the team was actually losing money. With no reason to doubt the reporting, my thoughts on Nutting changed ever so slightly. Maybe he isn’t full blown cheap, but he is full blown incompetent. 

Because of baseball’s financial setup teams like the Pirates are definitely behind the eight ball. In addition to that major factor, the Pirates also have a terrible TV deal. For a team with all those things working against them, and one losing money, it would seem logical the owner would be pushing big time for a salary cap. Bob Nutting voted no to a salary cap during the last contract negotiations with the players union.

According to the report, Nutting is now desperate to see a salary cap. Why did it take this long? Incompetence and fear to go against other owners would be my guess.

It would also seem that Nutting never heard the business axiom, “you have to spend money to make money”. If Nutting wants to fill his ballpark and turn a profit he needs to put a winning product on the field. Surely he remembers what it was like from 2013-2015. The Cueto dropped ball game was one of the great scenes in recent baseball history. But it was over a decade ago.

Do you know who remembers that game?

 

Yea. Paul Skenes. The best player to hit Pittsburgh in decades and maybe the best pitcher in all of baseball. He is sick of hearing about a wild card game. He wants more. He is a winner. Yet the owner doesn’t seem to share those sentiments.

Nutting hires incompetent people to run the organization. The big offseason signings were Tommy Pham, Adam Frazier, and some guy with a busted wrist who they traded a solid pitcher to acquire. If this was beer league softball maybe that would be okay.

A team losing money who can’t always sell out the park when Skenes pitches won’t spend some money to make the team around the star of baseball competitive. Skenes will leave in five years. Win now should be the plan. Money would start flowing.

It is incomprehensible that someone is that incompetent.

Of course let’s remember that it was daddy Ogden who made the money. Bob was just the beneficiary. He has the good fortune of knowing that his 100 million dollar investment is now worth 1.32 billion dollars. If times are so tough sell the team to someone who will try harder and pocket that incredible profit. Nutting allegedly wants to turn the team over to his daughter. Again, incompetent. Sell for the 1.32 billion and set her up for life, which she probably already is.

So, maybe it isn’t straight up cheapness.

But it is total, unmitigated incompetence.

He hires incompetent people. He votes against his best interests, thus incompetent. He refuses to spend to make. Again, incompetence.

The narrative may have changed a bit but the sentiment remains strong.

Sell the team, Bob.

Just my two cents…