Richmond was an easy pick this weekend. Notre Dame was a complete bust, as was the Big east as a whole. I thought Notre Dame would be scary based off of what they did in Big East play, but it would appear all of that was completely overrated. And Purdue, well, I was not really all that hot on purdue to begin with, however, I still think they are better than Syracuse, and BYU. The fact of the matter is that the best teams don't always win in the NCAA tournament. But I was thinking about this bracket today, and I will say you're right; it does appear KU has the easiest road to the final four, but maybe Richmond, VCU, and FSU were completely underrated and are legit challengers for a final four. We will find out this weekend, but do not be completely surprised to see Richmond in the final four after this next weekend. I am confident KU will get it done, but as evidenced by my bracket, I obviously had a feeling Richmond was going to cause major trouble, they were not a 12 seed.

 

-----signature-----

Amendial,

Not trying to flame here, but how does this ku loss fit into your rankings of historic ku ncaa tourney flameouts? I don't know how this would compare to some of the shocking early round upsets, or is it worse because ku had the easiest path to the final game ever (or at least would have with a 16, 9, 12, 11, and 8 seeds)

To me this would be worse, because I know if it had been Mizzou I would have been salivating at the thought of such an easy path to the finals. Granted, being from Mizzou I would know that we would lose cause we don't do that whole final 4 thing..

 

-----signature-----

No team that makes the elite eight should be considered a cake walk, especially after watching George Mason a few years back. I think people get caught up in the seeding of a team more than how a team is playing; and there is no denying that the past five games, VCU has been one of the best teams in the nation. This loss stings because it appeared to be a sure trip to the national title game, however, I did not think KU had a team that could win it all unlike last year. Last years loss was much worse than this years loss, just for the fact KU was unarguably the best team in the nation. Also I think the Paul Pierce 98 loss to Purdue or Rhode Island in the second round ranks above this loss. How we remember this loss will partly depend upon what happens next weekend. If VCU goes on to win the title, then how could you look at this as being one of the worst in KU history. Another factor about this loss in the National Title just three years ago, this loss hurts much less than say the elite eight loss to UCLA a few years back simply because we havn't had to endure 19 years of failure to get to this point. Plus I understand the nature of the tournament, the best team does not always win; the hottest team does, and there is clearly no team hotter than VCU right now.


What makes this loss hurt the most is the thought that VCU should have never been in the tournament to being with. The silver lining in all of this could be the Morris twins deciding to come back, and KU bringing back a highly talented team next year, that should be more capable of making a run to the final four. We need a leader to step up amoung our guards, my hope is that next season Johnson and Selby can step up and take control of the guards on KU's team. Our guards are why we lost this game, we shot horribly from behind the arc. Looking at a four man rotation of Johnson, Taylor, Selby, and Releford next year though we should be alright, with the two Morris twins and Robinson on the inside.

 

-----signature-----

So if VCU should never have been in the tourney... and they beat Kansas... that means Kansas had no right being there either.

 

-----signature-----

so you weight 1 game over a whole season?

taking into account vcus season before the tourny they had no right being in it. that said once in anyone has a shot and vcu proved that.

 

-----signature-----

Performance in the tournament has no reflection on whether or not a team deserved to be in the tournament. There is no way you can tell me VCU deserved that bid over VT or even better yet Colorado. Obviously now it looks like a great move by the commitee, but whos to say that Colorado would not have done the exact same thing given the chance. The fact of the matter is VCU did not deserve to be in the tournament over Colorado. And for the record, VCU's victory over Kansas does not in any way mean they are the better team. Kansas was cold as ice from all but 8 minutes of this game. And it wasn't VCU's defense that made them that way, Kansas missed over a dozen wide open threes, and almost a million free throws and lay ups. VCU was absolutely lights out form behind the arc, shoot well above their season average. If this was a best of three series Kansas would win it in three, if it was a best of five Kansas would win it in four, if it was a best of seven Kansas would win it in five. March Madness is not unfortantly, which is why just as often as not the best team in the nation does not win the national title in basketball. The only team in the final four that could make a case for being one of the best in the nation is UConn. This is why I have said for years, if college basketball wants to truely crown one of the best as champion they need to adopt the college baseball system. But they don't want that, they want the underdog story like VCU, George Mason, Northern Iowa,...,ect. There are only a few of us die hard college basketball fans that want to see a series of double elimination tournments established, that would be the best system.

 

-----signature-----