Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
March 19, 2004, Washington Post

Dreams of Madness

Grab your brackets and let's get started. Everybody is getting ready for the Big Dance -- the NCAA basketball tournaments. That's right, it's March Madness time again: 129 teams, 127 games. Three weeks of wall-to-wall basketball action to decide who are the men's and women's college basketball champions. It is just about all any sports fan is going to be watching or talking about.

Here are some of the hoop dreams I've been thinking about. I give you my predictions at the end.

The Women: Picking the winner in the women's tournament used to be a cinch. Only two or three teams had a real shot at going all the way. Not any more. Women's games are much closer and more competitive. In fact, the top four teams in this year's women's tournament lost more games (15) than the top four teams in the men's tournament (11). Ten or twelve women's teams have a real chance to win it all.

Bracket busters: The men's tournament has lots of low-ranked teams with a chance to pull off the first-round upsets that turn everybody's carefully chosen picks into a big mess. This year, I look for six teams to score an early upset: the Southern Illinois Salukis, Dayton Flyers, Western Michigan Broncos, Manhattan Jaspers, Richmond Spiders and East Tennessee State Buccaneers. All are hot teams with cool nicknames that could make a big splash in the tournament.

Maryland: Nobody is hotter than the Maryland men's team. The Terps aced their ACC tests by beating three top teams to win the conference tournament championship. Now, can Coach Gary Williams work the same magic in the NCAAs? I am not so sure. The Terps are super-talented, led by rising star guard John Gilchrist. But they are still a young team that was only 7-9 during the ACC regular season. I figure the Terps will slip by the University of Texas-El Paso Miners today, but fall to Syracuse in the second round.

Favorites: So whom am I rooting for? Well, I've got to root, root, root . . . for Air Force. After all, this is the first NCAA tournament the Falcons have played in 42 years. And the Air Force kids won't go on to the pros after college; they will protect our country.

On the women's side, I like the St. Francis Red Flash. Why? They are from the smallest school in the tournament, with about 2,000 students. (Heck, there are high schools bigger than that.) I always root for the teams from the smaller schools.

My favorite player? Kevin "Butter" Johnson of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte 49ers. With a nickname like "Butter," you figure he must have a creamy, smooth jump shot.

PICKS

Okay, enough fooling around, it's time to pick the teams I think are going to make it to the Final Fours. A drumroll, please.

The Women: Penn State, Duke, Stanford and Texas. I know, after saying how many more teams have a shot at the title, I pick three No. 1 seeds. But this year's women's tournament will be full of tough, exciting play.

The Men: Oklahoma State, Duke, Gonzaga and Connecticut. Duke has a real chance to bring home two championship trophies -- men's and women's -- this year. But if Connecticut's big man, Emeka Okafor, is healthy, the Dookies better watch out for the Huskies.