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Kansas has gotten into more trouble than alcohol in my life -- and I have two MIPs.
I'm serious. I had to pay fines, and do some community service for those MIPs, but if you add up all the "units" I put into bracket pools where I've picked Kansas in my lifetime, it very likely surpasses those fines. I've been filling out brackets since I was 7, and I imagine in those 20 years that I've picked the Jayhawks to win 12 times. Seriously. I've probably picked them eight of the last 10 years, and that's definitely not an exaggeration. The bitch of it is, I picked Pitt to win the year the Jayhawks actually won the title. So I'm 0-fer when it comes to picking the Jayhawks.
Is that going to stop me this year, when I feel they have perhaps the best overall team in the country? Probably not.
Top Dog: The Jayhawks are led by the Morris twins -- Marcus and Markieff ... really, Markief -- who are the team's top two scorers and rebounders. They also have one hell of a point guard in Tyshawn Taylor. All three are juniors, and as we've found out recently, your best players having experience is probably the biggest asset for a tournament team. Outside of a bad half against Texas and a bad game against a motivated Kansas State team, Kansas has been perfect this season.
Top Contender: I never really thought I'd see the day that I had a chance to pick Notre Dame to get into the Final Four and wouldn't be looked at as a crazy person. But it is here, as the Irish have their best team under Mike Brey, and really their best team since the Digger Phelps days. The Irish can shoot from outside and have terrific ball movement, which is only accented by the fact they aren't afraid to hold onto the ball for 35 seconds a possession. If they're not moving, however, they're easy to guard, as Louisville found out in the Big East semifinals.
Top First Round Game: A lot of people were considering Richmond a bubble team before the Atlantic 10 tournament ended, and it turns out the Spiders probably would have wound up on the bad side of the bubble had they not won the A-10, as they're a 12-seed. But this is a 12-seed that owns a neutral court win against Purdue and carries a seven-game win streak into the tournament. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, was up and down in the SEC. That was mostly down, though, against the top teams in the conference. In all reality, I feel Vandy is over-seeded, and Richmond is under-seeded.
Cinderella: Anything above a four seed is a Cinderella, right? OK, good, because I'm going with Georgetown. The Hoyas stumbled into the postseason, but that's mainly because point guard Chris Wright was injured. The Hoyas' best player is probably Austin Freeman, but the offense runs through Wright, who claims he'll be back in time for the tournament. Yes, a four-game losing streak to end the season (actually losing five of six and the one win being over USF by 6) is very disconcerting, but the Hoyas have some brilliance in them, and could possibly make a run.
Who Wins?: So do I pick the team I follow all year or the team I pick every year? Somehow, I feel as though I lose either way. But I'm going with (misguided) head over heart and taking Kansas, just because it's the most complete team in the bracket and possibly the nation. I see a lot of people picking Louisville to upend Kansas in the Sweet 16, but the Cardinals simply don't have the big men to handle the Morrises. And neither does Notre Dame.
