Don’t even get me started on who had St. Peter’s in the Elite Eight or that the Big Ten shouldn’t have had nine teams in the field or that the ACC must have been the best league since it has three of the final eight.
The regular-season and the conference tournaments have NOTHING to do with the selections/seeds and ultimate outcomes of March Madness. One-game elimination means there will be chaos and correctly predicting what will happen is nearly impossible.
No data would tell you that these eight teams would end up in the final weekend of the season.
How do we know this? Because, of course, nobody had a perfect bracket — again!
And the previous season has nothing to do with the current bracket just like 2023’s bracket will have zero to do with the final outcomes of this tournament.
Ranking the final eight is still based on who teams beat, the overall talent and predictions. So, that means we will all likely be wrong again. As much as I would love to say St. Peter’s should be in the top four because of the Peacocks improbable wins over Kentucky and Purdue, the 2 and 3 seeds in the East Region, it is hard to do so based on their overall resume, talent pool and what may still happen.
But they have earned not to be last in the final eight rankings.
So, of course, this will present debatable points.
Here we go:
1. Houston: The Cougars have proven to be the toughest team remaining in the field. Kelvin Sampson isn’t a finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year award but he may end up being the coach of the NCAA tournament. The Cougars outmuscled Illinois and then Arizona for two of the more impressive wins, thus far. If you had polled anyone after last season’s Final Four, let alone earlier this year, and said which of the four Final Four teams from 2021 would be back in 2022, there is no way the answer would be Houston! And yet, the Cougars are the last team standing among that group.
2. Kansas: The Jayhawks are the final No. 1 seed remaining. Kansas has found a re-engaged and healthy Remy Martin to lead them. They have one of the four remaining player-of-the-year candidates in Ochai Agbaji. Bill Self has been here before and while the wins over Creighton and Providence weren’t overwhelming, Kansas still remains a solid machine heading toward New Orleans.
3. Villanova: The Wildcats have Collin Gillespie and other teams do not. He has proven to be a game-winning player who can crush teams' hopes with dagger threes, free throws and ball handling. Jermaine Samuels can pick up key boards. The Wildcats are winners. This team doesn’t make many mistakes and finds a way to close out games. The Nova-Houston game should be the most intense of the Elite Eight games.
4. Duke: The Blue Devils showed tremendous moxie by handling challenges from Michigan State and then Texas Tech and rising up to win. Paolo Banchero has played like a top-three pick, Jeremy Roach was outstanding in the clutch against the Red Raiders and Mark Williams has been a rim protector/stopper in the post. Duke didn’t look like a title contender a few weeks ago, but the Blue Devils do now.
HERE'S TO HISTORY: The Elite Eight table is set, from the fate of Coach K to Saint Peter's
5. Arkansas: The Hogs, like Houston, have played at another level defensively. They throttled Gonzaga in the Sweet 16. Jaylin Williams was money from the perimeter. JD Notae finishes around the rim and can break down defenses to get to the rack. This team has something special going on and feeds off Eric Musselman’s energy. There’s no reason why the Hogs can’t be one of the teams to cut down the nets in New Orleans.
6. Saint Peter’s: The Peacocks run tremendous offense under Shaheen Holloway (a likely done deal to his alma mater Seton Hall when this is over). But it was their defense that was so impressive Friday night. They did a great job of pressuring Purdue and fluttering their guards. Purdue continued to start their offense far out and even when the ball got inside, they were pests and forced awkward angled shots. St. Peter’s can beat North Carolina and get to the Final Four — said NO ONE two weeks ago. But it could really happen.
BRACKETS: Here's how many brackets picked seven Elite Eight teams right (Perfection, there was not)
7. North Carolina: The Tar Heels found a way to beat UCLA by going to struggling Caleb Love. He delivered big-time Friday night. I still love the high-low action of Bradey Manek and Armando Bacot. The Tar Heels better not fall prey to being another team that overlooks the Peacocks or they will be the latest brand name to be stunned.
8. Miami: The Hurricanes had a methodical win over Iowa State and continued to get strong play out of Kameron McGusty and Charlie Moore among others. This team took a punch from Iowa State at one point and came back and finished the Cyclones off. This Miami team has had moments of greatness and some average as well. Yet, here they are, with a legit chance to get to the Final Four.
