I have to say, I like the fact that Indiana made it to the Final Four while Bobby Knight once again got bounced in the first round. For several years, one of my hard and fast rules for handicapping the NCAA Tournament was “always pick the Hoosiers to lose in the first round”. May you never see the Sweet Sixteen again.
It’s awfully tough for a non-BCS conference school to make it to the Final Four. Since Marquette won the championship in 1977 in a Final Four that included UNLV and UNC-Charlotte, only 17 of 104 participants in the Final Four have come from non-BCS conferences. Four of those are UNLV and three are Houston in the Olajuwon/Drexler years. Only Cincinnati (1992) and Utah (1998) have done it in the last ten years.
Personally, I find that I’m more interested in the early games, when the little guys are still around. I know there have been some great games this year, but to me it’s like watching the NBA playoffs: You know in the end there aren’t going to be any surprises.