Pitchin with Pritch: Upsets break plenty of brackets

This column is being written on Friday before the Sweet 16 portion of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament is played. 

I don’t know how most basketball fans are doing, but I would have picked a lot of wrong games by the time the Sweet 16 was played. 

A lot of favorites of the sports writers, the talking heads on TV, and even just the real basketball fans that watch all conferences etc. during the season probably have picked the wrong team in many of the games that have been played.

Take the Big 10 for instance. Most basketball fans have said all season that the Big 10 was the top conference in Division I of the NCAA. 

The Big 10 responded by getting nine teams into the tournament this year, and yet going into the Sweet 16 they only have one team, Michigan, left. The Pac 12 has four teams left. 

So now that there are only 16 teams left, you might have to take a hard look at what really happened to get the 16 teams that are left standing and who did make it and maybe, how did the make it.

Four double-digit seeds made it to the final 16 teams. UCLA, which has a rich tradition in basketball, is a No. 11 seed. Syracuse is another “Blue Blood” team and yet this year they were a No. 11 seed. Oral Roberts was a 15th seed and Oregon State was a 12th seed. 

Oral Roberts is probably the biggest surprise in the group but they may be the hottest team right now as they defeated Ohio State a No. 2 seed in the first round, and then No. 7 seed Florida in the next round. 

Another team that was an 8th seed knocked off Illinois, a No. 1 seed, in the second round, which was a big upset.

Right now I think Gonzaga is still the best team playing extremely well but so is Syracuse. 

My favorite now is, of course, Creighton however they were set to play Gonzaga.

My KU team was stomped on and took one of the worst whippings ever suffered by a KU team playing in the NCAA tournament.

 No excuses. USC, on that particular night, was far better in every phase of the game and delivered a knock- out punch early in the game.

Even when your favorite team is eliminated, this is still a great time for basketball fans.

With underdogs beating big favorites, and the great teams overcoming by playing great basketball, it is going to be interesting to see who survives and ends up playing for all the marbles on April 5.