Magic 8 Review 4 (Final Four)

How quickly things change. Within the space of one evening, I went from having a good chance to win it all in both pools I entered, to having absolutely ZERO shot at any more points -- zilch, nada, số không.

However, unfortunately, I was entirely correct about the basketball state of affairs. Earlier, I said this:

The Final Four ... number 1's. Booooorrrrringggggg. Hopefully, it will make for good basketball. That's what everyone on TV and in the papers keep saying.

"Oh, the first time in 25 years all four #1 seeds make the final four! What great games we'll have!"

I'm sorry if I don't believe. I want to believe, but they were saying the same things with the Elite Eight, and what happened? The ONLY good game was the one with the double digit seed -- #10 Davidson botches their last possession and loses by two to Kansas.

All other supposedly close games ended up with margins of 19 (UCLA), 18 (Memphis), and 10 (UNC).

Well, I was right and they were wrong. This gives me solace since I was totally wrong on who would actually be playing FOR the national championship, but I did pick those teams far before news peoples said this. If I had to guess after the Elite Eight, i would have chosen Memphis v UNC, and I would have been 50% correct.

That, however, would be only half of Mr. Grant Wahl. Yet again, he is 100% correct that one of his Magic 8 (picked in JANUARY) will win the whole thing. Quite amazing in my book. Especially because he had the likes of Georgetown, Indiana, and Xavier on there.

Here's looking at them:

Results:

1. Georgetown -- WRONG. One 7' Goliath felled by Davidson (couldn't bring myself to change my quote ... I liked it).


2. Indiana -- WRONG. They pretended all season long.


3. Kansas -- CORRECT. Kansas beat UNC by 18 but only beat Davidson by 2 - and b/c of a botched last play. What does this tell us? Could Davidson have been the FOURTH best team in the tournament?


4. Louisville -- WRONG. If I had been a selector, I would have made Louisville a #2 in the same region of Stanford. The Cardinals against the Cardinal -- who would win?


5. Memphis -- CORRECT. When I read that only Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated picked Memphis to beat UCLA -- yes, 4 of 5 writers picked UCLA to not only beat Memphis, but win the whole thing -- I about fell out of my chair. Did they watch the same tourney I did? Did they see the utterly suspect UCLA team when playing a physical, athletic team like Texas A&M (and Memphis)? Did they not watch Memphis destroy a very good Texas team playing in Houston? Yet they get paid for this...


6. Tennessee -- WRONG. Good song by Arrested Development.


7. UCLA -- WRONG. I can't tell you how hard I rooted for them to lose, knowing it would screw my bracket. Goodbye Backstreet Boy.


8. Xavier -- WRONG. How come, if you had someone like Professor Xavier with your namesake, you didn't call on his powers to help you win it all? I would have.