College Hoops: Let the Games Begin

The conference tournament appetizer dish is now finished, and it's time to bring on the main course.

Thursday begins the 2003 edition of the NCAA basketball tournament. As usual, the NCAA selection committee has screwed up the seedings; although the only teams they left out of the Big Dance that my power ratings show should have received invitations are Boston College and Texas Tech. Auburn, Butler and Southern Illinois should consider themselves lucky to have gotten into the tournament.

As we can see from the chart below, in the first and second round of the tournament there has been no discernible edge for favorites or underdogs, so the individual matchups need to be analyzed. ...