O'Reared Weekend for Mid Majors

Holy Farohkmanesh it was a wild one! The first weekend of March Madness has officially concluded, and for the vast majority of us, so too has our bracket. Kansas, Georgetown, Nova, Pitt: trendy picks to head to Indy all took Scarlet-esque tumbles. There are several things that I think can be taken away from this weekend. A) Never again fill out a bracket. You will be much more satisfied watching people mourn the loss of their precious cash while you simply sit back and watch Cinderella go to work. 2) The Big East is about as over rated as...something that is really over rated. The so called elite conference in all the land watched 6 of its teams pack their bags the first weekend, several of which checking into heartbreak hotel. D) There are some teams that just have a knack for winning in March. Tom Izzo is a master of orchestrating Michigan St runs seemingly year in and year out, and the same can be said about that little Jesuit school over there on Victory Parkway. Experience kills, but perhaps Kentucky will beg to differ. And 4) Lucas O'Rear has an amazing set of burnsides on him.

Of the 16 sweetest teams in the land still remaining, 5 of these squads are reppin non-BCS conferences once again proving to the nation they can play. Northern Iowa shocked the world by taking down #1 overall seeded Kansas. Phenomenal, that's what it's all about. As I watched Ali Farokhmanesh knock down that 3 to essentially act as a dagger, I couldn't help but give a fist pump. The guys got balls the size of Canada, and UNI simply out willed an over confident Kansas team. Cornell has also turned some heads with their lights out long distance ability, and seemingly unlimited supply of ONIONS. It's hard to see these guys squeaking one out against UK, but let's look no further than George Mason taking down UConn just several years back for evidence that anything can happen when a team is knockin em down from deep, and facing the big boys face to face. Butler is homo, so that's all I'm going to say about them. Lastly, how could I possibly forget the St. Mary's Gaels. After getting snubbed last year from an at large bid, the Patty Mills-less Gaels have let America know what's up. Omar Samhan has played like Shaq in the '02 finals, and a slew of Aussies, led by Matthew Dellavedova, have vaulted the Gaels into the national spotlight. An elite 8 is by no means out of the question for these guys as Baylor has enough trouble not sniping their own teammates let alone winning NCAA tournament games.

And oh yeah, there's that Xavier team. Note the separation from those other "mid-major" programs, because what they accomplished yesterday along with the past 25 years is hardly mid-major. The Xavier Jordan Crawfords, I mean Musketeers, advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 3rd time in as many years. The only other team to have done that? Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans. There's something about March that gets this team going. In their past 8 tourney appearances, the Muskies boast a 13-8 record including 2 elite 8s and 2 sweet sixteen appearances, not to mention they were merely a Greg Oden javelin toss of Justin Cage, and a Ron Lewis prayer from having another! Look all you want at the Kansas St. box score from earlier this year to see what Thursday nights game is going to look like, but understand, like every other year, Xavier is simply a different team in March. I like their chances, but heck, if I ever say I don't, there's probably something wrong with me. Hats off to the Muskies, and let's only pray J Craw can keep working his magic.

That's all I got, but stay tuned for El Fuerto's post tomorrow in regards to the rise of these mid-major studs. Should be a good one. As for me, Burnside gone.