Talking the NCAA Big Dance

We are approaching the stretch run of the college basketball season and anxiety and excitement fill the air.

If your team is on the NCAA Big Dance bubble, it’s anxiety. If your team is playing well and has racked up a number of wins, you’re feeling pretty confident and excited.

This time of year is a real indicator of how the post season will probably turn out. You want to secure a number of wins in a row and be playing at a high level. Michigan State is usually a team that reflects this case. Consequently, if you are struggling now and even make the NCAA tournament, chances are you won’t be making much noise there. Until last Saturday night, I would have said Creighton fits that bill. But it won a huge BracketBuster game and maybe turned the season around.

Conference tournaments start in the next 2-3 weeks. Bubble teams want to perform well and even win their particular league tournament. But the teams firmly already in the tournament really cannot improve their seeding that much. Of course, the below .500 teams are hoping for a conference tournament miracle but they probably will just be playing out the season.

You will hear of many different NCAA Big Dance predictions this time of year. But don’t believe them. How anybody can predict a No. 14 seed against a No. 3 seed in a particular region puzzles me. But I guess people read the stuff, so the predicators stay in business.

But I can wait until Selection Sunday. It will be all black-and-white on that day and then the fun really begins.