CBCC Round 1: The Atlantic 10 – A Billion Reasons to Hate Them

By the Cold Hard Truth

What the Atlantic 10 delivered during the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament was pure magic and total frustration – at least from the perspective of this Dirty-Dawg CBCC competitor.

It all started on Day 1 when the Dayton Flyers Vee Sanford hit a layup with 3.8 seconds on the clock to beat Ohio State 60-59. Sure, the Flyers entered the tourney winning 10 of 12 games, but who honestly thought they had a chance against Ohio State. OSU had in most people’s opinion, righted the ship after a mid-year slump. How does the 6th best team in the A-10 win against OSU? As the self-proclaimed expert of the CBCC, I’ll tell you – I have no idea.

One of my first round upset specials was my prediction of NC State to beat St. Louis. Is NC State good? – of course not. My favorite team (unjustly left out of the tournament) went onto the Wolfpack home floor in late December and beat their butts. However, NC State had luck on their side. Somehow, they got a tourney bid over a much more deserving SMU squad. That gave them unexpected life. It has been my observation that teams in this situation always play better in the tournament. They know they don’t deserve to be there, so they play relaxed and motivated. So they beat down Xavier, an ex-Atlantic 10 team now a part of the vastly overrated Big East, and then they begin to dominate a St. Louis Billikens squad. I happened to watch St. Louis play St. Bonaventure last weekend. They looked awful! I realize that I probably should be doing something much more important on the weekend than watching the Billikens and Bonnies play basketball, but it was like a train wreck you can’t take stop looking at! So I’m feeling pretty good – up by 19 points. Even when the Wolfpack is up by 14 with 5 minutes left, I'm not worried. So who can’t shoot a free throw to save their life? You guessed it…the 7th best team in the ACC. …and the Billikens, which apparently means foul every possession, win a game they don’t deserve.

What more can the A-10 offer? I will tell you that the best team in the conference is VCU. They beat #1 seed Virginia earlier in the year. They have been on a tear recently. They are athletic. They were poised to make a deep run and I had 54 points on them to prove it! I think they are better than UCLA – their “next” victim. So they are playing a good Steven F. Austin (SFA) team and everything is going fine. Up 9 in the final minutes of regulation – no problem. They had taken control in the second half. It was another routine game against an opponent on a 28 game winning streak. So how does VCU miss 4 free throw in the last 32 seconds? More importantly, you’re up 4 and you foul a guy shooting a three pointer? I'll tell you how it happens. I think they hate me and my perfect bracket. It was a heartbreaking moment. I have to say that I didn’t see that coming.

The Atlantic-10, another grossly overrated conference went 2-4 in Round 1. Their best team lost, their worst team won, and the other poor teams showed their true colors. We are one billion dollars poorer for it!

So I might seem a little bitter right now, but I take comfort in the fact that that I am beating over 100 of you CBCC Dirty-Dawgers after Round 1. You must feel worse than I do. Am I in first? No, that distinction goes to Linda Ashford from Concord, N.H. She apparently is not phased like the rest of us by all the crazy upsets and incredibly poor decision making. Congrats on the great opening round of the CBCC!