Cinderella Wears a Cement Slipper: The Tournament Squares Pool

We are on to the Sweet 16 and the most important lesson we have learned is that the impact of NIL and the transfer portal is significant! Early evidence suggests that the power conferences are going to dominate the NCAA tournament for the foreseeable future and there just doesn't seem to be a way to produce true Cinderella's anymore. Small school success will be ever more difficult because they will not be able to attract or hold onto real talent. 

It is true that Texas (11 seed), Iowa (9 seed) and Tennessee (6 seed) upset higher ranked teams to play in the second weekend, but like EVERY other school remaining, they are from power conferences. Teams playing in this year's Sweet 16 hail from the following conferences:

This is only the second time that the Sweet 16 has been made up of only power conference teams. When was the last time it happened? Last year. Yeah, Sorry George Mason, no second weekend basketball for you possibly ever again. 

Couple of other notes from the weekend:

• America's University has it's man! Welcome back to the Dome Gerry McNamara. Hopefully, we will meet you with some improved NIL commitments and set you up with a chance to really succeed.
• I will pat myself on the back for things I have written in this space in the past that continue to be true. 
• Kansas is not good is not good and that fouling strategy at the end of the St John's game was poorly executed and an indication of poor coaching
• I will continue to believe that Virginia is a trash fire that probably should have lost to Wright State on Friday
• Even with losing Florida last night, we still have a pretty chalky Sweet 16. I should have learned this would be the case a couple of years ago.
• For the second time in three years, I get the chance to remind you that an 11-seed is NOT a Cinderella. We are done with those Possibly forever. 
• Olivier Rioux, the 7'9" Florida Center recorded a DNP Coaches Decision yesterday. The only conclusion that I can draw other than he just doesn't like basketball is that I don't know ball at all.

As for the Squares Pool, the results are below. We have some people racking up a bunch of early victories! Congratulations to Tony Lasch, Karl Kailing and Ryan White as they are our only three time winners so far.

We have a couple of days to catch our breath, then we are back at it! Happy Monday everyone.

--Your Tournament Host

You Can't Sell What You Don't Know: The Block Pool Elite 8 Day 2 Results

Are you excited for the Final Four? 

Ah, storylines. Every year I hear people talking about how refreshing it would be if March were truly madness. The tournament would be so much better if Duke wasn't winning every year and we got some new teams to root for. What about the Cinderella's and true underdogs? 

Well, you got it. And now we will see if that is what you really wanted. 

My guess is that you don't want this. I am heading to Houston this weekend for the Final Four, and I am going to guess that game tickets will not be that expensive and TV ratings won't be overwhelming. I mean, I think the ratings will be better than a LIV tournament, but that isn't saying much. 

There is a reason that four of the five most watched non-NFL sporting events of 2022 were the Alabama-Georgia BCS Championship Game, the UNC-Duke Final Four semi-final, the Kansas-UNC Final Four final, and Celtics-Warriors Game 6 in the NBA finals. Familiarity and sustained success matters, and people tune in to both root for and against "important" teams. 

In other words, congratulations on getting this Final Four.

Your tournament host is in Los Angeles this week and didn't get to watch much of any of the Elite 8 games. What that means is that I was spared having to watch Wooga Poplar make a free throw with 5 seconds left in the Miami-Texas game to take me out of the money. 

I. HATE. GAMBLING.

With that Emily Lawson continues her streak of winning a box in every round of the tournament so far. And for some of us, there are only three opportunities left. Here are the full results from the Elite 8.

Stakes double again on Saturday to 400 units per win. Good luck out there.