All Aboard The Upset Express

Warren Buffett is one happy camper right now.

Not one single bracket remains perfect from this nearly-finished first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and you can thank a bunch of 12-seeds for that.  North Dakota State, Stephen F Austin and Harvard  (yes, THAT Harvard of Jeremy Lin fame) decided a small sling shot and a well-heeled senior class was good enough to advance past the big boys in this latest edition of March Madness.  The Tennessee men, themselves owner of an 11-seed, hasn't played like one so far in crushing UMass.  But the Volunteers better beware of who is across from them in the bracket.

Mercer, the Atlantic Sun tourney champ, has become this year's giant killer by taking down - rather convincingly - Duke.  You know, the one with potential NBA prospect Jabari Parker on it.  The beat down was so telling that the Chicago native is now reconsidering his jump to the big leagues.  The Bears made a ton of friends the moment the final horn sounded with that major victory and could find themselves in a very enviable position.  As if a Round of 32 date with Tennessee wasn't cool enough.

You don't have to go far to find this year's Florida Gulf Coast... well, yeah you do.  Atlantic 10 at-large team Dayton, a full four states and nearly two-thousand miles away, holds that distinction this year, having taken down in-state compatriot Ohio State, then pulling the rug from under former top-ranked Syracuse a round later.  Who knew the host school of the fairly-new First Four would finally party like it's 1984?  That's the last time the Flyers made the Sweet 16.  Everyone on UD's roster weren't even remotely afterthoughts when that happened.  But I guarantee you the Buckeyes aren't putting the Flyers on the non-conference slate anytime soon.

All we need now is for Wichita State to knock off Kentucky.  Then you REALLY would have a busted bracket for sure.

SPECIAL - Selection Sunday Not So Lucky for Some

It is appropriate that this week's Connection is being released on St. Patrick's Day, because for some programs in NCAA Division I men's basketball, luck may have run out on them. 

We'll start with a program most of the pundits thought would surely make the Field of 68: SMU.  Yes, those Mustangs have finally dug themselves up from years of being under the 1984 'death penalty' slapped on them by the NCAA, only to be the last one on the outside even with a late Top 25 ranking.  Larry Brown's latest post-season entrant is now the overall #1 seed of the "other" big tourney, the NIT.  A shot at Madison Square Garden isn't a bad consolation prize, either.  If history serves like it normally does, programs who do well in the NIT could set themselves up for major NCAA success the following year.  Fear not SMU fans, your day is yet coming.

Perhaps the unluckiest in the Big Dance may be the one nobody has beaten yet.  Wichita State, owners of a school and pre-tournament best 34-0 record, has the second-best number-one seed.  The road to Dallas and the Final Four, however, will have three major speed bumps.  Kentucky and Louisville are potential opponents of the second-ranked Shockers and own the last two Division I championships.  Should WSU survive those matchups, Pac-12 tourney runner-up Arizona would be at the doorstep to try to block a potential back-to-back Final Four run in the Elite 8.  Coach Gregg Marshall may need to muster up more than courage juice to get past that gauntlet.

Of course, someone has to hang on to their four-leaf clover to get this far.  The recipient this year, Big West tourney champ Cal Poly, is firmly grasping theirs.  The 8-seed in their own conference tournament, the Mustangs (sorry SMU) enter the NCAA Tourney with just 13 wins, an overall record six games under .500 and an equally laughable conference ledger four victories under the Mendoza line.  But try telling coach Joe Callero his team doesn't belong.  Along the way, the 'Stangs outlasted league regular-season titlist UC-Irvine, which has the tallest freshman in recent memory in 7-6 Senegalese sensation Mamadou Ndjaiye, who is a lot more athletic than the late Manute Bol.  You get past a team like that, you can open a lot of eyes and ears on the selection committee.  Also, Nebraska has a piece of lucky green in their stash as well.  Yes, I said Nebraska, the football-crazy school that hasn't seen the Big Dance since Nolan Richardson and Arkansas gave the 'Huskers 40 minutes of hell in 1998.  Nebraska was picked t be dead last in the always-tough Big 10.  A late surge in conference play and stronger showing at the tournament in Indianapolis not only has the folks in Lincoln thinking about a trip to Dallas, but has raised the profile of coach Tim Miles, whose last major project was seeing North Dakota State move to Division I.

Which ever of these programs is going to get to their respective championship game will need the same chemistry that got them in the field... and a lot of luck.

No Shocker at All: Wichita State is the Real Deal

Anyone who thought the Wichita State Shockers men's basketball team would take a relative nose dive from their historic Final Four run last year is eating a ton of crow and duck with tarred feathers as we speak.  Not only did the Shockers run the regular-season table for the first time in school history, they have done so by making their mark in a number of areas.

First and foremost, as of press time, the big number to note is 34, as in a school best 34-0 record that gives the Shockers the distinction of having the most wins without a loss before the NCAA Tournament.  This also breaks last year's 30-win campaign that saw the Black and Gold come agonizingly close to knocking off eventual national champ Louisville, coming within four points of the Cardinals.  Secondly, WSU's trail of terror features now-marquee victories over Saint Louis and Davidson, one a budding Sweet 16 contender, the other a former Elite 8 club.

What's surprising to note is that for a mid-major program like Wichita State, the margins of victory this year are anything but mid-major.  If you throw out the overtime thriller January 11 at Missouri State (whom the Shockers have now beaten a third time with the rout of the Bears in the Missouri Valley tourney) and single digit verdicts against Northern Iowa, Tennessee, Saint Louis & Alabama, Wichita State has a very comfortable double-digit margin of victory.

Also of note, Wichita State is trying to become the latest mid-major with consecutive appearances at the Final Four.  The last to do it was former Horizon League member Butler, now in the revamped Big East. Another run to the national semis would make it four of the last five years that mid-majors would have reached the final stage.  The last time such a run happened was between 1978 and 1983, when then-mid-majors Notre Dame, Louisville, DePaul and Penn made the Final Four [Louisville won two of their three titles as members of the Metro Conference].

What does all of this mean?  It means Gregg Marshall, in his seventh season as the head coach, is about to be NBA jail bait very soon.   All he has done is lead the program to 63 wins in the last two years and three MVC regular-season championships.  Look for him to get a call from Brad Stevens of the Celtics (and formerly of Butler) in regards to handling those types of inquiries.  That is, if All-American candidate Cleanthony Early doesn't persuade him to stay a few more years.

What Did You Expect? Another Bruce Smith?

Apparently, many tongues are wagging over the rather pedestrian performance turned in by Michael Sam at the recent NFL Combine in Indianapolis this past week.  Sam, as is now well known, announced that he is gay and is trying to get into the NFL as the league's first openly homosexual player.  The stats from his day at the combine would suggest he's just like any other senior trying to get paid to play, not someone the caliber of Hall of Fame defensive lineman Bruce Smith of Buffalo.

A rather average 4.91 in the 40-yard dash.  Just 17 reps in the bench press.  Only 25 feet for a vertical jump.  If he were anyone else, there wouldn't be this much ink on him, if at all.  Which makes you wonder the real motive for the coming-out announcement made by the co-defensive MVP in the SEC and one of the leaders of a Mizzou team that earned its first major title of any kind since winning the Big 12 North in 2010.  You would think the way the mainstream media [ESPN included] covered the Texas native they would have made him the second coming of Jason Collins, who by the way is back in the NBA on a 10-day contract with the Brooklyn Nets.

As much as I applaud the young man for being courageous in making his social stand, I'm not sure if the NFL Combine was the place to do it.  The NFL draft is over a month away and all the activists worth their rainbow flags are sure to point their ire at Roger Goodell and the boys if their newest poster boy doesn't crack through the ranks at Radio City Music Hall in NYC.  What this does do is take the spotlight away from another deserving Missouri Tiger who has been one of the dark horses to make the league, fellow defensive end Kony Ealy.  I personally know about this young man, having covered him in high school in his native New Madrid, MO, and thought for sure a basketball career was ahead of him.  He thought otherwise now they have the all-SEC selection at no worst than the second round.

THAT, sports fans, is the bigger story.  Not another Black man set to be used by those who really wouldn't sit next to him anyway.