For a few, sweet hours, the two teams I root for (Syracuse and Iowa) are in the finals of their respective conference tournaments. I'll be rooting for the Orange tonight, of course, but this is definitely a case where I'm just happy they made it.
For those of you looking for a complete dark horse in the NCAAs, look no further than the Hawkeyes. They just held Michigan State to nearly 30 points below their season average, and while the game wasn't pretty, it was a good sign. The Hawks have loads of senior leadership, good guard play, and great team defense. I don't see them running with the big dogs like Duke and UConn, but they can definitely play with the next tier of teams, and with the right bracket, are more of a threat to go to the Final Four than most of the country realizes. In fact, it's going to be tough for me to ignore my heart when the brackets come out in a few days.
In the meantime, though, I don't have to. Go Orange and go Hawks!
Seems like you must be happy on many points this evening!
I think the Gitters and Gamecocks set records yesterday for "not pretty." At one point SoCar was 3-25 shooting. Florida had 18 turnovers. Why don't they start these tournaments earlier and give the fellas a day of rest before the final? That would make for much better basketball.