The state of Alabama put four teams in the NCAA Tournament for the first time, and that’s super, but we all know what’s more important this time of year than some manufactured idea of phony state basketball pride, and that’s your own personal bracket.
Sure, you might have grown up a fan of the song “Sweet Home Alabama,” but that doesn’t mean penciling the Crimson Tide into the Sweet 16 this time around makes any rational sense. It doesn’t. Jacksonville State grads, we know you’re excited about this team that backdoored its way into the NCAA Tournament, but are y’all really going to pick the Gamecocks over Auburn in the first round?
Didn’t think so.
If we’re going to be a basketball state, then let’s start acting like it. Rule No.1: Picking against your team is not same thing as wanting your team to lose. It’s just a business decision, and everyone is very much in the business of bragging rights over their fathers or husbands or that jerk boss who refused to let you off work for the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA Tournament.
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Good news, though. That jerk boss can’t stop you from taking a “mental health day” because the stress of not watching every second of Memphis vs. Boise State (tipoff: 12:45 p.m. Thursday) is too much to handle. Bryan Harsin, if that doesn’t work, then just tiptoe out the backdoor when no one is looking. We know how it is … and Go Broncos.
Alabama was the first team from the state to learn its destination for the first round, and the Crimson Tide will now put building its new arena on hold to pay for these flights to San Diego. Great military town, San Diego. Good beer, too, and better weather. A swanky pub called Bootlegger is the official Alabama bar in town, so don’t think that the Crimson Tide will be without rowdy fans so far from home.
Will Alabama make it to the second weekend, though? Tough to say because Alabama doesn’t even know its opponent.
Most teams learned on Selection Sunday who they would be playing in the Round of 64, but Alabama must wait until Wednesday night for Notre Dame vs. Rutgers. The Irish and Scarlet Knights have a play-in game in Dayton, Ohio, for the right to face No.6 seed Alabama at 3:15 p.m. on Friday. The Crimson Tide lost to UCLA in the Sweet 16 last year, and the Bruins were an 11 seed that had to win a play-in game just to make the Round of 64.
The NCAA Tournament selection committee either has a sense of humor, or really wants Alabama to be everyone’s favorite team in the tournament on the second weekend. If Alabama makes it out of San Diego, the Crimson Tide could face No.2 seed Duke in the Sweet 16. Bigger prize, national championship or being the team to end Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career with a loss?
If this is the first time you’ve paid attention to college basketball this season, then just know that Alabama no longer has Herb Jones to defend every player on the court. Life without Jones hasn’t been easy for coach Nate Oats. His team was projected to possibly be a national contender at the beginning of the season, but inconsistencies throughout the lineup have persisted.
Translation: Everyone is going to be picking against Alabama, so going out on a limb with the Crimson Tide might not be a bad idea. SoCal native Jaden Shackelford should feel right at home, too.
But my dumb pick out of the West Region: Davidson, which knocked off Alabama 79-78 in Birmingham. There’s a reason the Wildcats received an at-large bid out of the A-10. Davidson is a great team with a potential NCAA Tournament superstar in 6-7 guard Hyunjung Lee of South Korea. A No.10 seed, Davidson opens the tournament against No.7 seed Michigan State, and Lee will be looking to avenge a poor shooting night in the A-10 conference championship game, a surprising 64-62 loss to Richmond.
Speaking of upsets to shock the world, Jacksonville State … yeah, no.
I know how much everyone not affiliated with Auburn wants to believe that JSU can somehow upset the mighty Tigers in this intra-state mismatch, but it’s going to take some all-time March magic for Auburn to go down in the first round against a team that shouldn’t really even be in the tournament.
JSU is dancing only because A-Sun tournament champ Bellarmine was ineligible. JSU won the league’s regular season title, so the Gamecocks get the nod. It’s a great accomplishment, so let’s not take anything away from coach Ray Harper and his players, but they’re now cannon fodder for Auburn star Jabari Smith. The NCAA Tournament selection committee didn’t give Auburn a No.1 seed, but this first-round matchup against the No.15 seed Gamecocks feels like a consolation prize (tipoff: 11:40 a.m. Friday).
My dumb pick out of the Midwest Region: Of all the No.2 seeds in the tournament, Auburn appears to have the most favorable path to Final Four, and an Midwest regional championship game against No.1 seed Kansas will be a rematch from the 2019 NCAA Tournament. Auburn, the SEC regular season champ in a banner year for the league, is my dumb pick to make it out of the Chicago regional.
There was only one Division I-A conference champion in the state of Alabama this season, and that was UAB, which is dancing for the first time since 2015. No.12 seed UAB is going to be a trendy pick to make the Sweet 16, and long-time fans of the Southside Dragons absolutely love this Round of 64 matchup against No.5 seed Houston (tipoff: 8:20 p.m. Friday).
UAB is 18-6 all-time against the Cougars, an old rival from when CUSA was actually a basketball conference. I wrote before the CUSA tournament that UAB needed to win the conference crown and make the NCAA Tournament to truly kickstart the Blazers’ basketball revival and that’s exactly what happened. A win against Houston would matchup UAB with either No.4 Illinois or No.13 seed Chattanooga, the SoCon winner.
UAB features one of the NCAA Tournament’s national players to note, guard Jordan “Jelly” Walker, who set a school record this season with 42 points against Middle Tennessee State, and then dropped 40 points against MTSU in the conference tournament. Walker is a legitimate star, and the kind of player who can lead a team on a run in the NCAA Tournament.
All that said, my dumb pick out of the South Region isn’t the Blazers. No.1 Arizona won the Pac-12 conference and tournament titles, and the Wildcats have the most favorable road to the Final Four.
My dumb pick out of the East Region: From the beginning, I said pick these brackets with your brains and not your hearts, so who else could it be other than Kentucky?
Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.
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