Madness is Approaching
March is right around the corner, and that means one big thing: March Madness will soon be upon us. Players will become legends, teams will achieve glory, Cinderella stories will be written, and hearts will be broken. So why not talk about some teams that we should keep an eye on this March? I’m going to do just that.
St. John’s Red Storm
The Red Storm are led by one of the most legendary coaches in college basketball: the great Rick Pitino. Coach Pitino has the Red Storm ranked first in the Big East Conference. They are currently ahead of teams like Marquette and the UConn Huskies, the back-to-back defending champs.
Pitino’s first full season at St. John’s ended with the Red Storm finishing 5th in the Big East with a record of 20-13. Now, he has them sitting at the top of the conference with a 23-4 record. That right there is the Rick Pitino effect. When Pitino started coaching at the University of Kentucky, he ended his first season with a losing record and missed the NCAA Tournament. His second year with the program showed significant improvement as he coached the Wildcats to a Final Four appearance for the first time in many years.
Still don’t believe in the Pitino effect? Fine. In his first year at Louisville, the Cardinals finished the season with a record of 21-13. In his second year, they improved to 27-7. That’s what Pitino does—he improves teams and wins. Thanks to Pitino, the Red Storm should be doing a lot of winning this March.
Florida Gators
The next team I want to mention: the Florida Gators. The Gators are currently ranked #2 in the country and would be #1 if Auburn didn’t exist. They are just behind Auburn in the SEC.
Despite this, the Gators are deadly. They have a 23-3 overall record and a 10-3 record in conference play. They have beaten some strong teams like Texas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. Yes, they did lose to Tennessee too, but that was an away game in hostile territory.
I think the Gators are just as good as the Auburn Tigers, and I have Florida going all the way this March. They are my pick to win the National Championship.
North Carolina Tar Heels
The final team I’ll talk about in this brief blog post is the UNC Tar Heels. At the start of the season, the Tar Heels were ranked #9 in the nation. Now, UNC may not even make the tournament.
UNC has completely collapsed this season, and the main person being blamed is Coach Hubert Davis. The Tar Heels have a talented team with guys like RJ Davis and Ian Jackson. However, this is not the most talented roster UNC has had. Last year’s Tar Heels team was a lot stronger thanks to veteran talent from guys like Cormac Ryan.
Even still, UNC has been embarrassing this year. They got destroyed by their arch-rival, Duke, and could very well get embarrassed again on March 8th. The Tar Heels would have to win many—if not all—of their final games to even be considered for the NCAA Tournament this March.
Coach Davis should be especially worried because a missed tournament selection could mean he is out of a job by the end of the month.
