The Sweet Sixteen is meant to be a showcase of the best teams
in the tournament. A place for the top four teams in each region to square
off on the national stage for a trip to the final four. The memo is not
getting to the lower seeds. Or like pestilent children, they just won't
cooperate.
Four double digit seeds have infiltrated the Sweet Sixteen.
None more so than St. Peter's, who backed up the biggest upset of the tournament
by knocking off Murray State in round two. Michigan is also moving on,
after they dumped Tennessee. And then you have the Cinderella Guarantee,
either Iowa State or Miami, FL will play for a trip to the final four because
they square off in a Midwest semi final game.
Now for those underdogs to prevail, you have to eliminate
some favorites. We'd like to than the SEC for volunteering (I swear that
was on intentional. Convenient, but not intentional) most of their teams
to vacate coveted Sweet Sixteen spots. Kentucky is four days into
replacing their team with a new recruiting class. Auburn played like they
were in the Iron Bowl and Tennessee did a big ole' Rocky Flop. The only
SEC team to survive is Arkansas... go Pig Sooey.
Ironically, the only other two seeded teams that failed to
reach the Sweet Sixteen were Illinios (who lost to a fifth seed Houston, that's
not so bad) and Wisconsin. Both from the Big Ten. A conference very
familiar disappointing tournaments.
The result of all this carnage is a slightly jumbled, but
still very intriguing pool. Braden Knight 2 has climbed to the top of the
tables with 216 points. What makes Braden's sheet so intimidating to those
chasing him is his final four is still intact. Amy Melone is the next
closest with all final four teams left in ninth place. Dalonda Morris and
Jonathan Kim also have their final four teams left, but are likely too far back
to make a run.
Second place is Jennifer Harrell 2. Eight points back
of Braden, she is sitting pretty and poised to strike. She's four up on
David Woolums, and the Mark Douyere twins are fourth and fifth at 201.
Nobody in the top six has lost their national champion, and five different
national champion picks are represented in the top six in the standings.
So for those of you in contention, cling to your champion, you're gonna need 'em.
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