The Season that Keeps On Giving

David R.

March 13, 2011 - 2:22 PM

So, remember when I told everyone that college basketball was over at Matthew Knight Arena? Well, I lied...CBI baby!

I was just informed this morning that the Oregon Ducks mens' basketball team has accepted its bid to play in the CBI Tournament beginning this wednesday. Its official name is the College Basketball Invitational presented by Zebra Pen, and it includes a total of 16 teams that will all play first round games beginning on Wednesday. The tournament includes teams like Rutgers, Miami and Creighton (Coach Altman's old team), and it should be exciting to see if the Ducks can make a little run.

I'm not too sure of how the logistics of the tournament work exactly, but I know that we are facing off against Weber State in Eugene on Wednesday night. I heard that depending on whether we win or not, we could be playing second round games in Eugene again or at one of various other locations (pretty random it seems). I was ready for the Duck basketball season to be over, but I'm glad the team will get one last chance at a tournament championship after an impressive run at the beginning of the Pac 10 tournament played in Los Angeles last week.

While the Ducks are preparing for their upcoming game, the grand-daddy of all college basketball tournaments is set to kick-off this week. Yesterday I watched the release of the brackets on ESPN and suddenly, like that, the March Madness mayhem was back in full all across the country. I, like thousands and maybe millions of others, printed off a bracket right after it was released and began making picks. I took my time, went slow, and analyzed every pick carefully. I may fill out another bracket before tournament time technically begins, but as of now I have Kansas winning it all over San Diego State after the Aztecs run the table in their sector of the bracket.

Tournament time is always a streak of madness across America. People lose their minds over their picks and make new bracket after new bracket. Already the commercials have come out showing the different, goofy ways that some people go about making picks. It really is up to a higher being it seems, because there are shocker games every year that throw a kink in everyones bracket. For example, last year I was sitting around a table watching everyone cringe over Kansas' loss to Northern Iowa, especially the people who had Kansas doing some damage.

As there seems to be every year, this year there were some very questionable decisions made by the tournament committee. My Buffs in Boulder got snubbed for Virginia Commonwealth and UAB. Seriously guys? Give me a break, the Buffs beat Kansas State THREE times this season, and recently defeated the top 10 Longhorns in Boulder. Even in a loss in the Big 12 tournament, the Buffs lost to Kansas by single digits. I'm just disappointed they won't have a chance to be a bracket buster, but the tournament should be interesting anyway, considering that all of the analysts have agreed that the talent in this year's tournament is somewhat weak (way to spice it up guys).

I don't mean to make everyone jealous before I head out, but I'll be in an airplane to sunny Las Vegas the next time you hear from me...talk to you then.