Madness in March

It’s time for the greatest spectacle in sports. Well, almost. Or, depending on how you look at it, it’s here already. The madness that is the month of March in college basketball has already started — in a way.

Conference tournaments have either started or are getting ready to start this week. I know you Carolinians (especially you Blue Devils) are excited for the ACC’s tournament to get started tonight. Shameless plug, but if you read my column from last week, you’d know that I, too, am excited for postseason basketball.

While there is more to come regarding my expertise in college basketball soon, I have been absorbing men’s hoops at an unprecedented pace. Will this come back and bite me when it comes to picking my bracket this year? Maybe, but only time will tell us that answer.

Whether you watched Duke vs. UNC this weekend, which capped off Cooper Flagg’s meteoric rise to the top as a lanky true freshman, suffered through NC State’s disappointing season after last year’s efforts, or you enjoyed Rick Pitino and what he’s done at St. John’s this year, I think you’ll enjoy what I’m about to say.

I purposely delayed writing this column so I could have the most accurate information. Yes, that means watching those pesky Blue Devils bounce back and throttle the beloved Tar Heels after what looked like an upset was brewing up there in Chapel Hill. But, I didn’t do it just for that historic rivalry. No, there was another reason.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the Sun Belt conference unveiled a new bracket for its tournament this year. And boy is it a doozy. In fact, I think it’s revolutionary and we could see more conferences go this route in the future.

Due to copyrights and trademarks and the like, I can’t post a picture of the bracket, but if you follow this link, it will take you there: http://bit.ly/4iCEVax

To sum it up, instead of a bracket that starts vertically and spreads horizontally, narrowing things down as things go along. Look at any other conference’s tournament or the springtime collegiate basketball championships (again, due to copyrights and trademarks, I cannot use the colloquial name, but I’m sure you get what I’m referring to) and you will see what I mean.

The Sun Belt’s bracket has just two games in each round, even with 14 teams playing. This is accomplished via byes that extend all the way to the semifinals. No, I’m not making that up.

If you’ve seen the ACC’s bracket, half of you will be happy to see that Duke, with its No. 1 seed, has a bye to the quarterfinals, while UNC, at the No. 5 seed, only has a first-round bye — meaning the Blue Devils have one less tournament game to play than their Tobacco Road rivals. NC State fans, just cry into your pillows and worry about finding a new head coach — no Cinderella run for the Wolfpack this year, I’m afraid.

In this bracket, though, there are three games in the first round and four in the second and third. It’s messy, clunky, and makes the kids play more basketball before the biggest part of their seasons — and sometimes careers — the springtime collegiate basketball championships.

With the Sun Belt’s new style of bracket, the better you do in the regular season, the less basketball you have to play to get to the conference championship. The best imagery I can give is the greater than sign (>), with the ‘mouth’ being the lowest seeds, and the point being the highest. Starting from right to left (so the point to the ‘mouth’), the highest seeds are placed. The regular season winner, South Alabama, and the No. 2 seed, James Madison, saw their first action of the tournament on Sunday night, while Southern Miss, Coastal Carolina, University of Louisiana-Monroe, and Louisiana all tipped off a week ago.

Last night was the conference championship, but due to deadlines, I don’t know who that will be as of yet. No. 3 seed Troy faces No. 4 seed Arkansas State — meaning the top two seeds in South Alabama and James Madison, who had their extended breaks, lost in their only games of the tournament, adding fuel to the ‘rest versus rust’ fire, and showing one of the only pitfalls of this bracket style.

I would love for more conferences to adopt a bracket like this. It’s a work of art, a change of pace, and something that rewards good basketball, yet sets up the underdogs for big upsets.