The people for whom the NCAA men’s tournament is all there is, they don’t notice the 270 teams who are already done. For the truly nuts, the madness and sadness began yesterday, when some kids played the last game of their lives.
I was complaining about the sprints in March demeaning the regular season marathons, like, half an hour ago, but if I pause to think about having to win 10 games in a row, holy crap. TEN!?
I’m fair sure that the team that wins the Pac-12 tournament goes through a tougher field of eight than the eventual NCAA champion. Take UCLA — to win the Pac-12 tournament, the Bruins have to beat 2021 national finalist Arizona, followed by 2023 conference co-champions Stanford and Utah. Utah hardly gets an easier run as the 2nd seed: Washington State, Colorado, Stanford.
I’ll stop pondering the enormity of those three games, then seven more. The Cougars are first, a fair dark horse bet as the #7 seed.