Getting Ready for March

It still feels like it was yesterday. The floor pulsating. Vibrations, picked up by my feet, riding up my spine. Bands battling. The audience humming. Basketballs bouncing. All grew louder as I made my way down the tunnel toward the main event. I felt like a tree branch floating along in a tributary that spit you out into a vast ocean. When I entered the Palace at Auburn Hills, my life was forever changed. I was overwhelmed with so many emotions.

It was the first time I'd ever covered an NCAA Tournament. To this day, that moment stands as the happiest I've ever been in my life.

So you can see why I'm amped up for March 2010. Just like every year since my childhood, March is my favorite month. The frenzied pace at which college basketball's regular season ends and spills into the postseason just fills me with joy. You know what else makes me happy? Bracketology.

If the Tournament was today, this is how I think it would look ...

1 seeds: Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Duke

2s: Kansas State, West Virginia, Villanova, Purdue

3s: Ohio State, New Mexico, Michigan State, Pitt

4s: Wisconsin, Temple, Vanderbilt, Tennessee

5s: Gonzaga, Texas A&M, Butler, Xavier

6s: Baylor, BYU, Texas, Georgetown

7s: Maryland, Northern Iowa, Missouri, Richmond

8s: Wake Forest, Clemson, Oklahoma State, California

9s: Florida State, Louisville, Marquette, Georgia Tech

10s: Notre Dame, Illinois, UNLV, Florida

11s: UConn, Old Dominion, UTEP, Utah State

12s: Mississippi State, UAB, Minnesota, Saint Mary's

13s: Kent State, Murray State, Siena, Cornell

14s: Weber State, UC-Santa Barbara, College of Charleston, Oakland

15s: Stony Brook, Coastal Carolina, Morgan State, Sam Houston State

16s: Lipscomb, Robert Morris, Lehigh, Jackson State, Troy

What Makes a Coach of the Year?

It's been a while. Too long, even. But nothing gets you thinking about blogging like a Chipotle burrito for lunch, coffee for dinner and a burning question that eats away at your mind: What makes a coach of the year? (I understand that normal people don't fret about these things.)

There are so many stances to take. You can be a numbers guy or gal -- the coach of the best team should be the coach of the year (Bill Self). You can go by the most miraculous -- see: Martin, Frank. You can side with the How Do They Do It? folks who love to see coaches win and win again despite losing huge numbers of impact players -- looking at you, Jim Boeheim and Jamie Dixon. Or you can even saddle up on a feel-good pony, like someone who might like BYU's Dave Rose or New Mexico's Steve Alford.

Or you can go the John Calipari route. It's hard to argue with these folks -- because they're in your camp, whichever tent you sleep in. He's a numbers guy -- 25-1 through Friday night. He's a miracle worker -- the man basically infused Kentucky's roster with a veritable McDonald's All-America team and turned an NIT team into a national title contender in a matter of months. (Seriously, say NIT in Kentucky and they think it's a new government stimulus program.) He's a How Do They Do It guy with an asterisk, but not because he juiced up like Big Bad Barry Bonds, more because he has done the whole reloading-not-rebuilding thing at every program he's coached. He's the feel-good pony for roughly 3 million people, which, for those counting at home, is about 3/4 of the estimated population of the state of Kentucky. (The other quarter roots for Louisville, Western or Eastern Kentucky, Murray State and/or some kind of miracle.)

Now I think I just argued that Calipari should be coach of the year. It's not decided -- I think Boeheim is right there with him, along with Martin -- but how can he not win it? Dude left a cushy job for a high-intensity one, a relatively relaxed, if-he-wins-it's-great-if-he-loses-whatever atmosphere for a he-better-win-every-game-or-we'll-run-him-out-of-town one. Lots of pressure. And he has done nothing short of blow it out of the water.

On a side note: Imagine the expectations for Calipari after this season, regardless of how far the Cats go. If they win a title, Cal will never sleep again. Call it the reverse championship bonus, like winning the presidency or a lifetime supply of Popeye's. Normally when you win (or eat, if you're still tagging along with the Popeye's joke), you pass out from celebrating. But at Kentucky, you wake up the next day, put your title ring on and go recruit the next class of champs. At least that's what the section under "job responsibilities" said when Cal saw the opening on coachingjobs.com (not a real site, people). But that's a topic for for another time.

Anyway, I'm not saying pressure -- or handling the pressure -- only affects Coach Cal. It's a pretty intense hoops community in Syracuse and Lawrence, too. But the coaches there are established, comfortable in their seats. Boeheim would have to lose like 100 recruiting battles to Tim O'Shea, Bryant's intrepid coach who inexplicably left Ohio to coach a transitional D-I school that is a whopping 0-8,000 this year (they're actually 1-28). And Bill Self would probably have to tell the local paper that he loves K-State or Missouri to get the locals to even think about heating up his seat.

Throw in Cal's incredible recruiting job and his handling of the 37 egos crammed into the 13 heads that look at the coach during film sessions and it's hard to not give him the coach of the year award.

The point is this, you can be in any camp you want, observe any coach-of-the-year mantra you want, but if one guy plays to every crowd, it's hard to deny him that honor.

Now watch Kentucky become the first-ever No. 1 seed to lose to a 16.

5 Huge Disappointments So Far

It's only the first week of January and conference play is just starting up, but it's hard to ignore the teams that have failed to live up to expectations so far. Let's run down a list of five teams that have been huge disappointments so far. And I want to mention the caveat that these teams could easily improve with about half of a season to play still.

OK, so here's the list. It's based on preseason ranks and expectations. The AP preseason rank is listed first, coaches' poll second.

5. North Carolina (6, 4): The Tar Heels (11-4) are returning champs and stacked with talent. Yes, there have been some injuries to key players (Marcus Ginyard, Will Graves). And it's not like UNC has lost four terrible games -- only one ... at College of Charleston -- but it'd be nice for the Heels to win a big game or two to make us feel warm and fuzzy.

You can't play down the early-season struggles of a team that features one of the top NBA prospects in America (Ed Davis) and a veritable who's who list of former McDonald's All-Americans. I can only assume the Heels will get it together for conference play. But for now, it's been a pretty disappointing start for the defending champs.

4. Illinois (23, NR): These days, the Fighting Illini are usually good for 20 wins, maybe a third- or fourth-place finish in the Big Ten and a first- or second-round loss in the NCAAs. That's not exactly a bad thing. But once again, there's plenty of talent on Bruce Weber's roster.

And that's why it's disappointing that Illinois (10-5) is off to just an OK start. Losses to Utah, Bradley, Georgia, Missouri and Gonzaga have the Illini in a tough spot. Weber's crew has three solid wins: Clemson, Vanderbilt and Northwestern. But five nonconference losses prior to a rugged Big Ten slate means that Illinois has to try to get to at least 11 wins in the conference to stay in a good spot.

3. California (13, 12): Cal was supposed to be the best team in the Pac-10. And it's not like the 9-5 Bears are terrible. But Mike Montgomery has a team that should be at the top of heap in the conference and in the running for a nice seed and favorable region in March. Instead, the Bears have whiffed on four chances for great resume wins (Syracuse, Ohio State, New Mexico, Kansas).

And then there's the loss to UCLA. Seriously? UCLA? I know there have been some injury problems and size was always going to be an issue for Cal, but even after three straight blowouts (including one against Stanford), losing to UCLA this year is not a good sign.

2. Oklahoma (17, 16): The Sooners have the talent (notice the running theme?). We were ready to commit to Oklahoma as the third wheel in the Big 12. Then, a few things happened: The Sooners lost to VCU, San Diego and Houston in a five-day span. And then Kansas State, Texas Tech and Texas A&M started playing well.

And here we are: Oklahoma is probably, at best, going to finish sixth in the Big 12. With Willie Warren back and Tiny Gallon coming in, and several other solid players on the roster, it looked like Oklahoma would be fine. But the post-Griffin brother era in Norman is not going as well as planned.

Bonus: UCLA (NR): No, the Bruins weren't ranked in either poll to start the season (although they were receiving votes). No, they weren't expected to be anything overly exciting. But they are UCLA. And there's no shortage of talent on Ben Howland's bench. So, where's the beef?

The Bruins are 7-8, albeit 2-1 in the Pac-10, with losses to ... drumroll please ... Cal State Fullerton, Portland, Butler, Long Beach State, Kansas, Mississippi State, Notre Dame and Arizona. Couple of bad apples in there, huh? But wins over Arizona State and (as we already covered) Cal have Howland's crew thinking positive.

1. Michigan (15, 15): The No. 15 team in both preseason polls, Michigan is 7-6 and in a lot of trouble. The Wolverines have to finish in the top four of the conference -- meaning 12 wins or so -- to even have a prayer at making the NCAAs as an at-large team. Losing to Kansas and Marquette isn't exactly terrible, but Utah, BC, Alabama and Indiana? Not ideal.

And it doesn't get any easier. There's a four-game stretch starting January 17 where Michigan plays UConn, at Wisconsin, at Purdue and then Michigan State. As Jerry Seinfeld says, good luck with all that.