The Final Four Coaches

I was watching ESPN today, and someone said something that I didn't realize until now. The most famous people in this year's Final Four are the coaches.

If you know anything about college basketball, you know the name Coach-K. This will be his 11th trip to the Final Four. That's the second most all-time. And you still have no clue how to spell his name when trying to Google him.

Tom Izzo was in the Final Four last year, and this year will be his sixth appearance in the Final Four. He's not such a bad coach either.

Bob Huggins is a well known in the college basketball world. He joins Coach-K, Jim Boeheim, and Jim Calhoun as one of four active coaches with over 600 wins.

Lastly, I don't know about you but the only person I really recognize from Butler is their coach Brad Stevens, who looks like he should be out on the court playing.

There is no John Wall. There isn't a Carmelo Anthony type who everybody has to watch. These teams obviously have some very good players, otherwise they wouldn't be there, it doesn't matter who the coaches are. But in terms of star quality, it's all about the coaches.

My Bracket Sucks

So, my bracket is officially finished. I had Baylor, Kansas, Kentucky, and K-State. How many of those teams made it to the Final Four?...damn it. I am not a happy camper. And when Ben Lasky is not happy it is a big f#%@ing deal!

I really felt good about my Baylor pick in the finals. So what if I accidentally put them in instead of Kentucky. How amazing would that have been if it had happened?

Wow! Close Games

The most exciting game Thursday was the double overtime win by Kansas State over Xavier, 101-96

However, what most of us care about at this time of year is how our brackets are doing. If you had Butler somehow beating Syracuse in the Sweet 16, you're looking pretty good my friend. I don't think it's that big of a deal since most people had Syracuse at least making the Elite Eight. No one picked Syracuse to lose in the Sweet 16 in my pool. However, if you picked them getting to the Final Four or the final, well then you might be screwed.

The only game not worth watching tonight was Kentucky and Cornell. Not only because Cornell was manhandled, but the halftime score was 32-16. I'd rather sit through a Jonas Brothers than watch that game. Okay maybe that's a little extreme.

Even though the West Virginia and Washington was close until about halfway through the second half. It's too bad we won't be able to watch Isaiah Thomas. No, not that Isaiah Thomas. Not the Hall of Fame point guard and former New York Knicks coach who covered up an accidental overdose and blamed it on his daughter. No, not that great guy. I'm referring to the sophomore guard who averaged 17.1 ppg for the Washington Huskies this year. I'm going to miss him because he's a great player, but mostly because his being in the tournament allows me to make fun of the other Isaiah.

The most exciting game of the night was the double overtime between Kansas State and Xavier. Every time it looked like K-State was pulling ahead, Xavier would hit a bomb from behind the arc. However, in the end Xavier must have caught a glimpse of K-State head coach Frank Martin. And once you do that, you're done. Just watch the video above. I just did...and on that note, I need to change my pants.

Tough Loss for Spartans

A day after a great win over the Maryland Terrapins, The Michigan State Spartans have received the news they feared they would. An MRI has revealed that the team's leading scorer, junior guard Kalin Lucas ruptured his Achilles tendon in yesterday's victory.

However, this should not be as big of a loss for their next game as it would have been had Kansas won on Saturday. Whenever a team plays Kansas, every player needs to bring their best game to the table, like Northern Iowa did.

I love what Northern Iowa has done and hope the run continues because that will make this blog way more exciting than if we have all high seeds in the Final Four. However, I believe the team's run may be coming to an end. Ali Farokmanish has been great, but I don't believe the UNI Panthers are quite ready to take down a Tom Izzo led team. Then again, Bill Self isn't too bad a coach himself.

What a Day

Wow! Were today's games nuts or what? Two of the teams that a lot of people had in the Final Four didn't even make it to the Sweet 16.

St. Mary's win was a huge upset when the team that made it to the Final Four last year with most of the same players from this year's team. But as ESPN pointed out, Scottie Reynolds has not been the same player in this tournament with his shot being way off.

I'm not trying to take anything away from St. Mary's, but that victory was not even close to the biggest upset of the day. Not only did Northern Iowa destroy millions of NCAA brackets with their win today, it was one of the greatest upsets ever. Not in the NCAA Tournament. I mean in the history of sports.

I was sitting watching the last few seconds of this game when all of a sudden my mom summed up what this story was when she blurted out, "Who the hell is Northern Iowa?" Before this tournament, not many knew that Northern Iowa existed, much less that they had a basketball team.

Taking on the number one seed in the tournament, no one gave this team a chance. I still wasn't giving them a shot until Ali Farokhmanesh hit the three with less than a minute to go that basically put the nail in the coffin for Kansas.

I think we should tally how many times the phrase "David vs. Goliath" is uttered on ESPN and CBS until the end of this tournament. Over/under a million?