So what did I not see coming this year.....?

I didn't see Pitt losing in the second round to Butler. Though I should have. Butler made it closer to winning a national championship last year with a bunch who-were-those-guys than Pitt has ever made it with 100 times the talent. Pitt… More like the pits.

I didn't see Michigan State flaming out in the first round. Why? Because they never flame out in the first round. One of the great truths of the NCAA basketball tournament is that Tom Izzo can be relied upon to make more silk purses out of more sows' ears than just about anybody else in the game. So falling down against UCLA hurt. Even if John Wooden's great grandson is on the team.

I didn't see Wisconsin getting by K-State. Of course, I probably bought into the what-the-heck-was-that hype after the Badgers laid a 33-point egg in the Big Ten tournament against Penn State. Wisconsin is averaging 71 points over its first two games. Huh. More than I expected, gotta be honest.

I didn't see Purdue and Notre Dame packing it up in the second round. Frankly I was looking forward to Purdue and Notre Dame playing one another. Then I remembered it was basketball we were talking about. Sadly, I'd already submitted my brackets.

I didn't see the Richmond-Morehead St. second round matchup coming. Poor Rick Pitino…

I didn't see Ohio State being this legit. I'll admit it. The notion that Ohio State's basketball program is actually a power gives me the willies. Flyover states should not be basketball powers, simply put.

But most tellingly, I didn't see the Big East get absolutely steamrolled. You start with 11 teams in the first round, you should have more then 2 in the Sweet Sixteen, period. You know who else has 2 in the Sweet Sixteen? The Big Ten has 2 teams in the Sweet Sixteen. The BIG TEN! They started with 7. The SEC has 2 teams in the Sweet Sixteen; they started with 5. The Mountain West, home of San Diego State and BYU, has 2 teams in the Sweet Sixteen. They only sent 3 to the tournament; too soft, everybody said. They don't know how to play "tournament" basketball out there, everybody said. Huh. How many does the ACC have in the Sweet Sixteen? Well, they had to beg and claw to get just four teams into the tournament. Yup, that ACC, the one with Tobacco Road and all the tradition, got just barely more than a third of the tournament invites that the big, scary, Big East did. Well, they've got 3 teams in the Sweet Sixteen now, between UNC, Duke and FSU. The Big East will be represented by UConn and Marquette.

Blegh.

Seriously, from 11 down to 2 over the span of a weekend? Brutal. Big East? More like Big Least.

Maybe Maryland and Virginia Tech should've been invited after all. Maybe they really did get hosed.

Who knows. But I think it's safe to say the Big East may want to tone down it's chest-thumping and self-promoting next year. It's called takin' care of business, and it's hard to do when you're watching the second week of the tournament from your dorm room.

To be fair, I could just be bitter. After all, I did have two Big East teams in my Final Four.

Sucker.