A Little Early “Onions!”

So ladies, the Madness has officially started with Sunday night’s unveiling of the 65 team field for this year’s NCAA Tournament.  What does that mean for us?  A few things, a few verrry important things:  First, it means that you have a choice… for the next three weekends you can either get angry at your significant other for NEVER taking his attention away from the tournament, or you can embrace it and learn to love one of the best events of the year.  Personally, I choose to embrace it, mainly because of the possibility for shopping.  Thats right, I said shopping… that “just for fun” NCAA Tournament pool in your office?  All of those $10 or $20 entry fees add up quickly, if you have been paying attention like I’ve been telling you too throughout the season now is the time to turn that knowledge into some serious cash, which will translate to serious shopping (OK, I know we’re in a recession, so maybe you’ll do some serious saving instead, but hey, its still free money!) 

Whats that you say?  You haven’t been following the teams closely enough over the past few months?  Have no fear, sportsgirl is here to guide you to bracket success… full guide to come tomorrow, but for now here are a few interesting tidbits to get you started:

• Three of the four #1 seeds are from the Big East conference (Pitt, Louisville, and UConn).  The only #1 from another conference is North Carolina… But, did you know that if all three of those Big East teams made it to the Final Four it wouldn’t be the first time that three teams from the conference made it to the Final Four in the same year?  Thats right, in 1985 Georgetown, Villanova, and St. John’s were in the Final Four along with Memphis, and Villanova eventually won the championship over Georgetown (as a #8 seed!)
• Everyone who tells you that “Cinderella” rules the dance couldn’t be more wrong.  In fact, Cinderella routinely gets her glass slipper trounced on by the big, bad power teams… in fact, last year all four of the #1 seeds made it to the Final Four.  The defending champ (Kansas) and defending runner-up (Memphis) both have pretty high seeds this year, and it wouldn’t be a complete shock to see either of them in the Final Four again.
• Starting on Thursday at noon, the best 4 days in sports begin:  48 games will be played between then and early Sunday evening, filtering the field down to the Sweet 16 headed into next weekend.  There’s never a shortage of buzzer beaters, great finishes, unlikely heroes, and “ONIONS!”.  Not picking up the “ONIONS!” reference?  Apparently you wouldn’t get along with my husband… its one of his favorite college basketball announcer’s (Bill Raftery’s) catch phrases, and its a classic.  Check out the video below (at 0:08 and then again at 0:39), maybe you’ll fall in love too…  “Billy Raf” will be calling games over the next two weekends, and he makes everything more entertaining.

So, like I said I’ll be back tomorrow with some more tournament advice, and maybe a few other exciting tournament video links to get you excited… this really is the best event in sports, make sure you enjoy the next three weeks.  Talk to you tomorrow!

-sportsgirl