Monday, March 14, 2016

Rooting Guide for NCAA Tournament

Everyone's filling out a bracket right now. Experts and idiots alike all think they know who is going to win. But who do you actually want to win? Who do you hope makes a nice run. Obviously you can't root for BC. However, this year there isn't even a good BC-related angle to the Big Dance. BC guy Mark Schmidt and his St. Bonaventure team saw their bubble burst. BC alum Bruce Pearl didn't turn Auburn around yet. No Steve Donahue or Al Skinner guys snuck in with their mid-majors. It is slim pickings. Plus all our enemies seem to be there. Duke and Notre Dame got favorable draws. Holy Cross is dancing! Teams that have knocked us out of tournaments like USC and Villanova are there. UConn too. There is nothing to like. But here is how I am looking at things.

-- Providence. The Friars remains a basketball rival, but I can't root against Ed Cooley. He did great things at BC and probably should have been hired as Head Coach. It would be nice to see him make a run.

-- All ACC teams. It is hard for me to flip the switch and go from hating to liking an ACC team just because of the tournament. But seeing our conference mates advance does help BC. It makes the conference stronger which brings in more money and excites more recruits. 

-- Gonzaga and St. Joseph's. People root for mascots or uniforms. Why not root for other Jesuits? People wonder if BC cares about sports. Seeing other Jesuit schools using the Tournament as a platform is a good thing. Who knows, maybe our future leaders are now at one of those schools and loves basketball. 

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