Boyd Bergquist’s Countdown To March Madness: T-Minus 1

EDITOR’S NOTE: Boyd Bergquist was the sports director at KETS-TV in East Tree Stump, Nebraska for almost 40 years.  Known across the “Husker State” as the voice of the Boy’s High School Basketball Tournament, Bergquist was a four-time winner of the Marv J. Butz “Golden Cob” Award For Excellence In Nebraska Broadcast Journalism. That background, along with his quick if not cliché-riddled wit and love of single-malt scotch makes Bergquist a perfect fit to be our “Question and Answer” guy,

Hey sports fans…your favorite 70s TV sports anchor here. You know, March Madness is closer than you might think. That’s why we here at Dubsism decided we would get out in front of the “Johnny Come Latelys” who slop out bracket advice two days before the tournament starts. It seems silly to say this, but there’s a lot you can learn about college basketball during the season!

There’s one Sunday left between today and the “big one” on which the NCAA Tournament field will be announced. After that comes the four days of filling out brackets until the tournament goes “full bore” on Thursday, March 17^th. That’s why will we countdown each of those Sundays like a NASA launch, and on each of those Sundays, we’ll be offering bits of advice so you don’t end up as that person who has four B1G Ten teams in their Final Four.

We’re just trying to help you people…

• Click here for the Tips from Week T-Minus 5
• Click here for the Tips from Week T-Minus 4
• Click here for the Tips from Week T-Minus 3
• Click here for the Tips from Week T-Minus 2

Tips for T-Minus 1 Sunday…

A “Way Too Early Sleeper” Candidate: Murray State

Ok…so I got some mail last week claiming I “dissed” the Murray State Racers. Really, all I said was the Ohio Valley Conference isn’t exactly the B1G Ten. But to be honest, this is a team which sewed up it’s spot in March. They are the rare small-conference squad which won’t need to win it’s league tournament to get in. Depending how the brackets stack up, this team has all it takes to make the proverbial deep run.

This team isn’t “huge” but the combo of 6’10” 245 lb. K.J. Williams and and 6’8″ 235 lb. Nicholas McMullen offer enough heft in the front-court to allow Williams to be the Racers leading scorer. But it’s the pair of guards Tevin Brown and Justice Hill who combine for 30 points per game that give the Racers their hard-to-handle “inside-outside” offensive combination.

If this team comes into the tournament as a #7…where they would likely get a #2 in the second round…and they get a favorable match-up there…like a team they could “inside-out” to death (I’m looking at you, Duke)…anything is possible.

Let’s Keep Talking About Snubs:

Last week, I mentioned Rutgers. Since then, they’ve lost twice. Even though both of those were on the road, and one was at Purdue, dropping the game at Michigan is going to hurt the Scarlet Knights. In fact, this is going to make the B1G Ten tournament even more of a “Cannonball Run” to get into the “Big Dance.”

The three most likely racers in this rally are are going to be Rutgers, Michigan, and Indiana. This will all come down to their last three regular season games.

Indiana	Michigan	Rutgers
@ Minnesota	Michigan State	Wisconsin (2/26:): lost 65-61
Rutgers	Iowa	@ Indiana
@ Purdue	@ Ohio State	Penn State

After that, it’s all about the B1G Ten tournament, specifically how deep they go. As it stands right now, Michigan is most likely in and Rutgers is losing at the wrong time. But what’s really killing the Scarlet Knights is an early non-conference loss to Lafayette. After losing to Wisconsin last night, Rutgers most likely need to win the B1G Ten tournament.

As for Indiana, losing to Minnesota would be disastrous for their tournament hopes. But if the Hoosiers win out, not only would they be the final nail in the coffin for Rutgers’ hope for an at-large bid, but they would have not one, but two wins over Purdue. Nobody else has done that this season.

Not Buying:

Gonzaga: In another nod to Murray State, what happened to Gonzaga last night just goes to show going undefeated in any league is a tough thing to pull off. So, when you are the “belle of the ball” like Gonzaga…if you’re the “big fish” in the small West Coast Conference…the problem isn’t that they lost this game. It’s how they lost it.

Gonzaga clearly came into this game on “cruise control.” and when St. Mary’s punched them in the mouth, they couldn’t click out of “auto-pilot” to react. Don’t think every coach who may have to face Gonzaga isn’t going over this game frame-by-frame.

Don’t get me wrong St. Mary’s is a damn good team. It takes a damn good team to do what they did last night. But in a couple of weeks, any team facing the Gonzaga Bulldogs will be a damn good team…which leads me to the other problem I’ve got with Gonzaga. They don’t have a “convincing” win.

Just look at their non-conference schedule. Sure, they have wins over Texas, UCLA, and Texas Tech, but early on, neither of those teams had really figured themselves out yet. On the other hand, Gonzaga came up short against the incredibly over-rated Duke and got straight-up outplayed by an at-the-time unranked Alabama team.

Yet, the “TV Blow-Dries” love this team. I don’t get it.

The Pac-12 (particulary Arizona): There’s maybe four teams in this conference that might be tournament-worthy, and the one the “Blow-Dries” think deserves a #1 seed got handled last night. J-Dub hates the word “exposed” but I think that’s what happened to Arizona.

The Wildcats became “fatcats” early on by hanging a hundred on the Texas-Rio Grande Valleys and North Dakota States of the world, then took down a Michigan team before anybody saw how incredibly “#10 seed” the Wolverines are.

Since then, Arizona got run off the floor by Tennessee (that game was nowhere near as close as the 77-73 score says), split with UCLA, beat “bubble-licious” Oregon, and still needs to beat USC on Wednesday to avoid splitting with the Trojans.

There’s just no way this team belongs on the #1 line.

A Question For The Selection Committee:

With what happened yesterday…with all six of the AP Top 25 losing…if a team wins both the B1G Ten regular season and B1G Ten tournament…considering that league figures to get the most teams into the “Big Dance, how could they not be a #1 seed?

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Got a question for our 70’s TY Sports Anchor? Got your own take? Nothing is “off-limits,” and no take is “too hot.” The only questions or comments Boyd Bergquist can’t handle are the one you don’t send him!

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