BC Wuz Robbed!

In what looks to me to be one of the most wide open tournament brackets in years (I can see this being a year when a team like Arizona in 1997 comes through with a win from the mid-seeding pack) i can say with reasonable assuredness that Boston College got a little bit robbed in the seedings. Don't get me wrong -- I love their bracket, LOVE IT. They get a potential showdown with Villanove, which not only is, to my mind, a bit overrated, but which also has difficulties with teams with an inside presence who play physical basketball. In other words, with teams like BC.

That said, can someone tell me how the hell North Carolina enters the tournament as a higher seed than BC? BC had a better record. BC made it to the ACC finals. Oh, and UNC and BC played twice this year, and BC won both, including on Saturday in the ACC semis. What possible rationale is there, then, for UNC being given a higher ranking? It will all play out in the next three weeks, of course, and I do believe that BC has a pretty good path ahead. But still, a little justice.

There will be more, much more, on March Madness in this space in the days and weeks to come. I have not yet filled out my brackets yet, but I have a sense of which teams I like. A few keys to picking the brackets -- a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The reason why the department secretary and other casual fans oftentimes win pools is because they don't overthink these things. people who hew pretty close to the seedings tend to do well, especially in the early rounds. It may make you look like a genius to pick that 2-15 upset, but really it was luck (you missed your upset special the last four years if you had a 15 losing). The first round is just a matter of staying in the game. Missing an upset won't kill you -- everyone else missed it too (that's why it is an upset pick). What will kill you is when the team you picked to be upset makes it to the Elite Eight, destroying all of your hopes for that side of the bracket. At the same time, however, all four number ones are not going to be playing in Indianapolis three weekends from now. Maybe two will. So after those early games, you need to make some judgment calls. (Hint -- Memphis and Villanova look awfully lucky to be where they are).

I'd love to put some sort of pool together for dcat readers, but I'll have to figure out whether or not it is viable to do so.

UPDATE: The unsurpassable Bob Ryan has his take on BC in today's Globe.