For die-hard basketball fans, words cannot describe the excitement and aura that surround the NCAA Tournament, especially the week leading up to it.
There’s the speculation about why certain teams missed the field of 65, who this year’s hero is going to be and what clever excuses can be made up to skip class so you can watch your favorite team play in an afternoon game.
But no issue is more hotly debated than this: Who is going to be this year’s Cinderella?
And, for all the predictions made by the media, usually the team that emerges from the fray is one that nobody picked to do so.
Case in point: Many people last year knew of sensational guard Stephen Curry, but almost no one picked his Davidson Wildcats, a 10 seed, to get past the first and second rounds of the tournament.
The Wildcats not only got into the tournament’s second weekend, but they were a last-second shot away from making a trip to the Final Four.
Guess what? The media missed the boat again this year.
If you want to win your bracket competition this year, don’t listen to the hype surrounding teams like Florida State, Southern California and Syracuse. Here’s your real sleeper: Virginia Commonwealth.
I know the name doesn’t strike fear in the hearts of opponents, but in a couple weeks the nation will become very familiar with the Rams and star point guard Eric Maynor.
Sound crazy? Consider these facts:
• VCU is from the same conference as George Mason, the team that made the miraculous march to the Final Four in 2006. In addition, the Rams are an 11 seed, just like the Patriots were.
• The Rams, who were also an 11 seed two years ago, are no strangers to upsets. They knocked off Duke in the first round in 2006, when Maynor was a freshman.
• Like the Patriots in 2006, the Rams don’t have overwhelmingly difficult opponents in the first two rounds. UCLA is not even close to being the team it was last year when it went to the Final Four, and 3 seed Villanova has not played consistently all season.
• VCU has two key ingredients to make a deep tournament run: a solid point guard and a dominating post presence. Maynor averages 22 points and six assists per game, and forward Larry Sanders scores 11 points and pulls down eight rebounds on average. In the Colonial Athletic Association title game against George Mason, Sanders recorded an astounding 18 points, 20 rebounds and seven blocks.
• The Rams are on a five-game winning streak and have faced 10 teams that will either be competing in the NCAA Tournament or in the National Invitational Tournament. They won’t be scared of facing talented competition.
I guarantee this pick or your money back. The Rams will beat UCLA and Villanova in the first weekend, then they’ll knock off Duke (again) in the Sweet 16. Finally, they’ll run out of gas against Xavier in the Elite 8.
In the Midwest Region, watch for 13 seed Cleveland State to pull the upset over Wake Forest and 12 seed Arizona over Utah. Watch for either Tennessee or Oklahoma State to give 1 seed Pittsburgh trouble in the East Region, and don’t be surprised if another Big East squad, z, doesn’t make it past the Sweet 16 in the West Region.
