Last week, I thought that Oregon had a chance against Virginia in their Sweet Sixteen matchup, and I was right. Though Oregon ended up losing by four points, the margin was never more than five for the last fifteen minutes of the game and was usually less. If there was any consolation to be had by the Ducks, their opponent turned out to be the only #1 seed to survive to the Final Four, which laid waste to the rest of my bracket. The Texas Tech and Auburn slots could be considered upsets, especially in Auburn’s case since they had lost one of their key players to injury, but Duke had been playing with fire all through the tournament, winning their previous two games by a total of three points and surviving very makeable missed final shots from both of their opponents. The only real difference was that Michigan State made their winning shot instead of clanking it like the others.
This should be an entertaining Final Four, if only because the path to a championship seems pretty wide open for all four of the remaining contenders, unlike last year when we were pretty much waiting for Villanova to finish crushing their competition. Moreover, the presence of Auburn, Charles Barkley’s alma mater, should make for some fun in the CBS studio as the Chuckster takes ribbing from his fellow color analysts and gives it back in kind. I admit that I enjoy watching that crew, and I look forward to seeing them when the NBA playoffs start. Whoever came up with that format deserves a lot of credit for making NCAA and NBA basketball worth watching.
– Chuck Strom
Charles’s Champion Bracket _ Tourney Pick’em _ Yahoo! Sports 2019 (1)
