While all sorts of experts are going to be pushing North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis, and Georgetown as the favorties this year, keep in mind the following fact:
Starting with the 2003 NCAA Tournament, no Elite Eight team has advanced further in the following year's tournament.
How can this be? Partly it is due to attrition. Partly it is due to the fact that a team must have some luck to have a deep run in any year, and that is hard to duplicate. Partly it may be due to the fact that certain groups of players have a set ceiling. Memphis has reached the Elite Eight two years in a row, but what additional experience are they going to gain in Conference USA to push them over the hump this year? (And of course, mainly this is just a statistical fluke.)
But I love the stat, and in order for it to hold up this year,
Ohio St. cannot win the national title this year - Plausible
UCLA cannot advance to the championship game - Hmmm
Georgetown cannot advance to the championship game - Hmmm
Kansas cannot advance to the Final Four - Really?
North Carolina cannot advance to the Final Four - Really?
Memphis cannot advance to the Final Four - Really?
Oregon cannot advance to the Final Four - Hmmm
Get ready for me to quote this statistic mercilessly during the season folks.
The blog is now going on a vacation. Have fun with Midnight Madness and I'll be back in a few weeks!