Oscars and NCAA College Basketball
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 22:34
It’s been a wild and wacky NCAA college basketball season–just like this year’s Oscars.
And the Gold Statue Goes to…
Filling out my Oscar selections last night, I was struck by the similarities between this year’s Academy Awards and this year’s NCAA college basketball season:
Wide open.
After winning the major Guild awards, Argo looks poised to win Best Picture in a season that originally had no front-runner. But in doing so Argo would become only the fourth film to win Best Picture without receiving a Best Director nomination. And most Oscar prognosticators only favor Argo in two other awards categories, Editing and Adapted Screenplay–so no grand sweeping of the awards.
Now for college basketball…
Team after team has fallen from the top slot in the rankings. Most of the favorites have had either a shockingly embarrassing defeat or a series of losses to shake their standing. Four teams each have been ranked #1 in the AP and Coaches Polls. In Week 13, the two polls had different #1s–Michigan in the AP, Kansas in the Coaches–neither of whom were #1 in either poll any other week. Traditional powerhouses Kentucky and North Carolina have had terrible years. Duke was blown out by Miami by 27 points. Kansas suffered a three-game losing streak that included a loss to TCU–currently at a 1-12 conference record in the Horned Frogs’ first season in the Big 12–which included a 13-point Jayhawk first half.
The best team of all may be the Duke-tormenting Miami Hurricanes, but even they’ve had nerve-rackingly close games against lesser competition.
Of course, only March Madness will say for sure.
 |
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
