Breaking Down the Brackets: 2009

The tournament is here. Games start today a little after 12:00pm.

Here are our brackets and a brief overlook of the reasoning behind them:

NCAA: I consider the NCAA Tournament to be the greatest sporting event of the entire year. Really, Opening Day, the weekend of The Masters and the yearly Penn State v. Ohio State football game are the only things that I could remotely put in its category. Why, it’s quite simple; the fact that Bucknell, a small school in central Pennsylvania can come through and knock off a national power like Kansas make it appealing to everyone. This year, a few cinderellas stick out among the pack.

2009 Brackets

Penn State begins their postseason tonight against the CAA’s George Mason, a team who just three years ago made the Cinderella run of cinderellas going all the way to the Final Four before losing in the national semifinal. Of course I have Penn State winning the NIT, and I will post the bracket on Thursday morning when I come out with my NCAA bracket.

Let’s hope two posts from now we’re not doing a season recap…

For now, printable NIT and NCAA brackets:  NIT  NCAA

So We Think We Can Dance: Pre-Big Ten Tournament Edition

Tomorrow afternoon the Big Ten Conference Tournament gets underway at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. After losing their last game in overtime at Iowa on Saturday, Penn State dropped from a 2-seed all the way to a 6-seed. Instead of getting a first-round bye, the Lions will now face Indiana in a game that has no benefit for Penn State. Win, and they’ve beaten a team that has 6 wins, lose and they’ve lost to a team that has six wins. In past years, a win over Indiana would mean a lot; look at last year.

But in past years, the chance to be in the NCAA Tournament has not been on the table with a week to go in the season. Things are much more complicated this time around.