Some things to ponder if your bracket now looks like the last 15 minutes of The Departed:1) What does this say about Kevin Durant? He couldn't carry his team the Final 4, so he's no Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, Mike Bibby, Marcus Camby, Grant Hill or Danny Manning. Then again, he's also no Jay Williams, Juan Dixon, John Wallace or Bryant Reeves.
How many current NBA stars failed to reach the Sweet 16? Shaq is probably the most well known, going 0-for-3 when he played for LSU. Steve Nash never reached it in 4 tries, but he played for little-known Santa Clara, and in his presence they made 3 tournament appearances in 4 years, including one incredible upset as a 15-seed over a 2-seed.
Probably just as important: Kobe Bryant, Tracey McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming and Amare Stoudemire never reached a Sweet 16, let alone a Final 4. So yeah, there's that.
2) This is the first bracket since '95 without a single double-digit seed reaching the Sweet 16. This is no coincidence. The '95 draft was also the year Kevin Garnett was taken 5th overall straight out of high school. This opened the door for Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O'Neal in '96; Tracey McGrady in '97; and you know the story from there.
This was the first year that the NBA instituted its age limit, and college basketball has been the beneficiary. Though the irony may be that a lot of these freshman sensations flamed out in the first two rounds, and the Sweet 16 is littered with veteran teams like UCLA, Florida, Butler, Texas A&M, Georgetown, Southern Illinois and Pittsburgh.
3) David Wells has diabetes. In other news: Pete Rose bet on baseball, Roger Clemens can't make a decision, the sky is blue and the War in Iraq is fucked.
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