By Marc Lawrence — Sixty-eight teams, nearly 1,000 college basketball players, and millions of March Madness fans around the world.
It must be March Madness and with it there were winners and losers in this year’s bracket pairings.
The biggest loser: Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys were much closer to being a 2-seed than the No. 4 they received. West Virginia, which the Cowboys beat twice in the past two weeks, got a No. 3 seed despite trailing Oklahoma State by 14 spots in the NET. This is a clear seeding error.
The biggest winner: Every one of us who are overjoyed to have the world’s greatest sporting event back.
To read more on the complete list of winners and losers from this year’s bracket draws click here.
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In my book there were only two Hags … Merle Haggard and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
With Hagler’s passing yesterday we are down to none.
The Marvelous one won 13 undisputed middleweight championship fights.
Hagler’s fights with Sugar Ray Leonard were worth the price of admission, with the 1985 fight being declared as the “fight of the year” despite only lasting 3 rounds when he battered Leonard into submission. The first round was all-out war.
RIP champ.
Grinding Out The Profits
From this week’s Playbook MARCH MADNESS TOURNEY GUIDE: According to NCAA rules, if a team withdraws, the first order of business is to make sure all 31 conferences—with the exception of the Ivy League—are represented in the tournament.
With that there is an official replacement list of team awaiting a call.
Louisville, Colorado State, Saint Louis and Ole Miss have been selected as the replacement teams for the 2021 men’s NCAA tournament.
The deadline for teams to be replaces in the tournament is 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 16. The men’s tournament will begin Friday in Indianapolis.
That being said, thanks to a lengthy COVID pause, Saint Louis played just 10 conference games, finishing at 6-4 in the Atlantic-10.
Home victories over St. Bonaventure and LSU are among SLU’s four wins against the top two quadrants.
FYI: Louie is potentially one of only 3 teams in this tourney that were favored in EVERY game they played this season.
The other two: Gonzaga and Baylor.
