March Madness is everything but predictable in 2013


By Tim Cornell

This college season has proved to be impossible to predict and filled with upsets. No team has been safe from upsets this season.

None.

Even the team who has sat on top of the standings for eight out of the 16 weeks, Indiana, has seen all three of its losses come against unranked teams (Butler, Wisconsin, and Illinois).

Though Indiana has seen all its losses come against unranked teams, it has continually succeeded in defeating ranked opponents.

The teams biggest wins come against at the time of those games, No. 8 Minnesota, No. 13 Michigan State, No. 10 Ohio State, and No. 1 Michigan.

Through week 16 only four different teams have sat at the top of the polls: Indiana for eight weeks, Duke for five weeks, Michigan and Louisville for one week each. None of which included the preseason rankings.

The top five has seen many different teams throughout the season and has gone through weeks where four of the top five teams have seen a loss. Which leads to dramatic shakeups.

In total, 13 different teams have been in the top five this season. The team that has seen the worst drop of course has been Kentucky. Who in week two of voting was ranked third with one first place vote.

Kentucky now sits at 17-8 and coming off its worse loss ever under Calipari, 88-58 against unranked Tennessee.

In the voters defense, Kentucky looked like it was going to have another great young team, led by Nerlens Noel and Archie Goodwin, but the season has been anything but great.

Especially with Noel going down with a season ending ACL tear, the season looks more bleak for the Wildcats.

Another top five team that has seen a huge drop is Ohio State, who sits at No. 18 in the week 16 rankings.

Ohio State has seen such an extreme drop in the polls because of its inability to beat ranked teams.

The only ranked team to fall to the Buckeyes was No. 2 Michigan on Jan. 13th.

Since that victory, the Buckeyes have lost to No. 18 Michigan St, No. 3 Michigan, No. 1 Indiana, and most recently a huge loss to No. 20 Wisconsin with a final score of 71-49.

With no team safe from an upset and difficult end of the season schedules for many teams, it will be interesting which teams can fight through the end of conference play and grab strong seeds going into March Madness.

One team to look out for includes No. 2 Miami.

After tough back to back losses to No. 4 Arizona then unranked Indiana State, Miami has been dominate, winning 13 straight games.

Some of the victories during the streak include wins over No. 1 Duke and No. 19 North Carolina State.

Miami has a pretty friendly schedule for the rest of the season with the exception of a road game against No. 6 Duke on March 2nd.

Miami annihilated Duke at home 90-63, but playing Duke at their home will be an entirely different beast.

Other teams to keep an eye on include No. 1 Indiana, who have a tough schedule to end conference play.

They will face No. 4 Michigan State on the road, Minnesota on the road, No. 18 Ohio State at home, then end the season against No. 7 Michigan on the road.

No. 3 Gonzaga has a fairly easy schedule to end the season as they have had all season long.

It would not be surprising if they ended the season with an NCAA best 29-2 record but with such a weak schedule it will be unlikely for them to grab the No. 1 spot.

The teams toughest test will be on the road against BYU.

A couple more schools I am going to throw out there just for fun include No. 6 Duke. Expect them to finish the season strong after an upset loss to Maryland on the road.

Also keep an eye on Kansas, who after recently dropping three straight games, has won against Kansas State and Texas in dominating fashion.

This should be a fun and exciting end to the season.

Full of upsets and breath taking individual performances.

Expect many changes to the polls as there have been all season long.

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