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It feels like the more I cover this sport, the less I know. As Sam Basel mentioned on Twitter yesterday, we're all just "silly little bloggers" with our "silly little takes." He's right.
In what I believe to be the top ten leagues in this excellent sport, I went 0-for-10 in picking the correct conference champion. I went 9-for-34, which equates out to just over 26% of the correct choices. Sure, it's a decent average for baseball, but not for a contest that you're supposed to make some more educated choices!
Let's start with the top ten leagues - the Power 6, and the "next four."
I was blinded by hope for Providence, Kentucky, and Baylor, all of which I'd seen good things from but had some serious flaws. Sure enough, all of them didn't see Championship Weekend. As for UCLA, since they'd beat Arizona once this year already, I thought they could do it again, but the Wildcats were simply too much for them. Duke and Purdue had no excuses, as they were in position to win.
Memphis was throttled by Houston (probably for their own good). Colorado State was mopped by San Diego St. in the MWC semifinal. Dayton fell victim to red-hot Richmond, while Towson was a victim of the cutthroat conference that is the CAA.
Here are the rest.
Shoutout to the Catamounts, Murray State, and the Bryant Bulldogs for taking care of business; I knew that unless there were some serious upsets, they'd be hoisting their trophies. I was bullish on Yale to upset Princeton for the Ivy League title, and Azar Swain delivered - yes!
Oddly enough, there were a lot of favorites that are in the red. Texas State, Cleveland State, Liberty, and Nicholls were just a few. And, of course, Rick Pitino's Iona Gaels failed nearly everyone by not taking care of business. It did, of course, yield Saint Peter's in the NCAA Tournament, and without Rickie's loss, we wouldn't have seen a small school in New Jersey knock off the #2 Kentucky Wildcats last night. Serves them right for letting me down.
People I finished ahead of:
Our own John Fanta (55)
Dana O'Neil (56) - The Athletic
Rocco Miller (33)
Mike Vrabel (was it really him?!)
Vinny Simone (friend of Jaden Daly)
Hopefully we see some more favorable results next year. This is March.