Durzblog

# 1 seed adds to Huskyland Hysteria

Customary high expectations and standards mixed with nervousness, stemming from a recent trend of poor post season play (and to some extent luck), has the Nutmeg State quite anxious going into this NCAA tournament.

I am starting this tournament off right -- with low expectations. (If and) When Uconn loses I am going to be gutted and devastated as always, but I am going to commence this big dance -- talking a good game at least.

I would just like to caution some fans that Ray Allen, Chris Smith, Donyell Marhsall, Rudy Gay and Caron Butler, to name a few, never played in a Final Four game and they are not bums or gutless (some words that have described this team by the peanut galleries on husky message boards). Connecticut has played in just two FF's in its history. So slow down with your proclamations that its Detroit or bust.

There is some good news though for the naysayers of the bunch: this is only the fifth number one seed in the program's history and they were 27-3 in a league with 3 of the top 4 teams in the country. Are they missing Jerome Dyson? yes they are, but even without him, they are a solid top 5-10 team. Lets just all settle down with calling these guys failures who have never won anything, or on the other side of it, Final Four locks playing in an easy bracket.

What is going to make me happy -- when all is said and done and I look back at this team and the players that are leaving?? Hmmmmm, I am not sure, but one thing is for sure, Detroit is about the last thing on my mind right now. Uconn is going to play this thing as three tournaments and the first one starts on Thursday, and likely will continue on Saturday. So until Saturday night, lets us all forget about Memphis and Purdue and worry about three teams: Chattanooga, BYU and Texas A&M. We get those two wins, then we can start talking about bigger prizes. Then you can start talking about what is apparently the new birthright of people born in Connecticut, to watch your team play in a Final Four every five years.

NOTES on the selections: Arizona has no business being in the tournament (and yes I have picked them to win their first game), the committee completely screws mid major teams. When they are looking at the"body of work" for a team like St Mary's I can understand there are some holes, but some of that is beyond their control in scheduling. In any event its ludicrous to reward the team that lost five of their last six..that is my only gripe -- so I guess they really did do a great job!...Its going to be a long wait until Thursday afternoon, that's for sure...BIG LOVE is getting real good...Way to go Phil, winning his first WGC event

the West Region

1 Connecticut
16 Chattanooga

8 BYU
9 Texas A&M
predict, Uconn over BYU

5 Purdue
12 Northern Iowa

4 Washington
13 Mississippi St.
predict, Purdue over Washington

6 Marquette
11 Utah St.

3 Missouri
14 Cornell
predict, Utah State over Missouri

7 California
10 Maryland

2 Memphis
15 CS Northridge
predictm Memphis over California