Tournament Time

With the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament now in full swing (leading up to the inevitable victory of the Kansas Jayhawks on April 5th), I renew my call to the media to show restraint in anointing teams as "Cinderella". From this post in 2006, I repeat my two rules that should be followed before bestowing this title on any team:

1) They must have beaten at least two higher-seeded teams in the tournament.

2) The only exception to Rule 1) is if a 16 seed ever beats a 1 seed.

As you see, unless Duke or Syracuse gets beat tonight, the first time a "Cinderella" could potentially be named would be on Saturday. Even then, I would hesitate to name Washington as a Cinderella if they beat New Mexico, since I think that beating a team from the Mountain West Conference shouldn't really count.

How 'bout that Big East? Isn't it cute when people think that conference is supposedly the best in basketball? They're so funny...

Update 1327 20 March: OK, so St. Mary's now qualifies as a "Cinderella", but let's face it -- it appears that beating a "Big Least" team this year isn't really that much of a surprise...