The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

    EDITORIAL: Big weekend tournaments ahead

    Championship week has approached. You can sense the madness in the air. Madness, I tell you. It must be March. With selection Sunday approaching, your Mountain Dew caps are becoming more valuable. Just to let you know, you can throw out your cap that reads Sacred Heart University – they don’t have a chance.
    However, if your cap says Stanford, it’s a keeper. Stanford is the only legitimate team in the nation who should have a No. 1 seed locked in the NCAA tournament.
    They can do no worse than share for the Pac-10 title and their 27-1 record speaks for itself.
    However, where teams are seeded in the national tournament has more to do with how they finished their season.
    A team’s performance in the beginning and middle of its season counts just as much. Stanford deserves a No. 1 seed, even if it is to be upset in its conference tournament.
    The Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 10 have proved all season that they are the two toughest conferences, top to bottom, in the country.
    The fates of Michigan State, Illinois, North Carolina and Duke (N.C.) lie in how they perform this weekend.
    With strong finishes in their respective conference tournaments and a little luck, two or even three of these schools may be seeded as high as No. 1.
    This Sunday’s championship game of the Big 10 tournament could come down to a rematch between Illinois and Michigan State. Both teams are nationally ranked in the top 10 and would both be legitimate representatives of the Big 10. The Wisconsin-Indiana rubber match could create some havoc in the top half of the Big 10 bracket. The winner will likely face Illinois, who gets the winner of Purdue-Minnesota. If you’re a Gopher fan, don’t fright – there’s always the National Invitational Tournament.
    The ACC tournament should prove to be just as exciting with Duke, North Carolina and a hot Maryland team all looking to bring home a tournament championship.
    The Tarheels from Carolina probably face the toughest opposition as they probably will have to go through Maryland and Duke to bring the championship trophy home to Chapel Hill.
    But then again, what’s the advantage of being a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney anyway? Sure, it looks good on paper, but after you beat the 16th seed in the first round by 40, it’s anybody’s tournament.
    That’s the beauty of the national tournament. It doesn’t matter where you’re seeded or who you’re playing – every game is a must-win.
    And as everybody knows, the person who wins the $500 pool for filling out the most accurate brackets is the 13-year-old girl who picked the winners by how cool the school’s mascots look.

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    EDITORIAL: Big weekend tournaments ahead