Whenever I think of St. Patrick's Day, I'm reminded of the only St. Patrick's Day I spent at Notre Dame. It was 2005 (I transferred in and I was on spring break in 2006) and it was one of the great random sports days of all time. Kyle, Jorge, and I had stolen cable a few days before. We split the cable from the lounge next to our room and ran a cable into our room. We did this in the middle of the night as if it would prevent anybody from noticing. It lasted for about a week until we were told to disconnect it, but we had it for St. Patrick's Day. We had the steroid hearings in Congress where Jose Canseco was the only one who told the truth. The NCAA Tournament was starting. Shaquille O'Neal had 25 points and 12 rebounds in 13-point win for the Heat against the Lakers (the second game against the Lakers for him after getting traded). And there was a lot of day drinking. Such a great day. It's hard to believe it was nine years ago.
Anyway, we're now just a few days away from the best four-day stretch of the year in sports (which is made even better this year because of baseball season starting in Australia on Saturday at 4:00 in the morning, I'm definitely getting up). I've decided to rank all the teams in the tournament by how much I want to see them win. From number 1 to Michigan, here we go:
1. Creighton
Doug McDermott has to be the best college player I've seen in person. I want his college career to end with a championship.
2. Providence
3. Xavier
4. Villanova
The rest of the Big East. Providence beat Creighton and Xavier gave Creighton a tough game. Villanova couldn't make it to Friday night for me to see them in person.
5. Manhattan
6. Dayton
7. Gonzaga
8. Mount St. Mary's
9. St. Louis
10. St. Joe's
The other Catholic schools. There's not much rhyme or reason to the order other than Manhattan (which is in the Bronx) is a local school.
11. George Washington
My brother went there. Also, George Washington was a great man. He liberated Boston 238 years ago today.
12. BYU
I like Mormons.
13. UCLA
If I could go back in time and I had to pick a state university to attend, I'm thinking I'd want to go to UCLA. It's in Los Angeles and they don't like USC.
14. Cal Poly
15. Albany
16. Texas Southern
17. Coastal Carolina
18. Weber State
The 16 seeds other than Mount St. Mary's. Obviously, they have no chance to win the tournament, but I would love to see a 1 seed lose their first game.
19. Harvard
I don't like the Ivy League, but I respect schools that care about educating their athletes and Harvard obviously does.
20. North Dakota State
How cool would it be if a team from North Dakota won a national championship in basketball?
21. Wofford
22. Western Michigan
23. Kansas State
These schools are playing teams that I despise in the first round. If any of them win, I'll be very grateful.
24. American
I'm an American. I love St. Patrick's Day as a Notre Dame alum, but when students ask me if I'm Irish, my response is always the same: "I'm American."
25. Eastern Kentucky
I was there for a 15 seed winning last year. That's always fun to see.
26. Stephen F. Austin
27. Texas
Don't mess with Texas.
28. San Diego State
I saw them play a nice game last year in Philadelphia. Kyle is a fan.
29. Wichita State
30. Virginia
My first 1 seeds. Wichita State going undefeated would be really cool. And when I was visiting colleges back in the day, I was really impressed with Virginia's campus. They're an ACC team and they care about academics.
31. Delaware
One of my favorite former campers is a student there.
32. VCU
Shaka Smart is a pretty awesome coach.
33. Mercer
34. North Carolina Central
Low seeds. Whatever.
35. New Mexico
36. New Mexico State
Two teams from a state that I can't imagine having a reason to visit, which is a problem considering I want to get to all 50 states someday.
37. NC State
38. Pittsburgh
Two more ACC schools.
39. Louisiana-Lafayette
I like the Marquis de Lafayette.
40. Milwaukee
Our last school that doesn't play big time college football. The last such team to win was Villanova in 1985. Milwaukee would have been much higher on my list as a 15 seed if they weren't playing Villanova.
41. Kansas
Kansas has a very high success to hateability ratio. And Paul Pierce went to Kansas.
42. Arizona State
43. Tulsa
44. Baylor
45. Tennessee
46. Arizona
I would have no problem with any of these teams winning, but I wouldn't be excited either. I like the warm weather in the state of Arizona, but Arizona is the last of these four just because they're one of the favorites.
47. Oklahoma
48. Oklahoma State.
I have no thoughts about these two teams.
49. Massachusetts
50. Memphis
Two teams that used to be coached by John Calipari. I'm not a fan.
51. Duke
They care about academics. I don't hate Duke like some people do, but I don't want them to win either.
52. Cincinnati
53. Iowa State
54. Florida
55. Colorado
Cincinnati is a former Big East school. Iowa State beat Notre Dame last year. Billy Donovan is a great coach. And I'm not a fan of Colorado's drug laws.
56. North Carolina
I was never a fan of Roy Williams, but this solidified it. I just want to watch basketball. I don't need to hear political nonsense from a basketball coach.
57. Oregon
The only thing I associate with Oregon is terrible uniforms.
58. Michigan State
Even though I despise the Big Ten, I like Tom Izzo. Is that allowed?
59. Stanford
They care about academics, but I can't stand Stanford.
60. Iowa
61. Nebraska
62. Wisconsin
63. Ohio State
I have nothing in particular against these schools other than being in the Big Ten. That's enough.
64. Connecticut
I've always disliked Connecticut. It's a little harder to dislike them without Jim Calhoun.
65. Kentucky
John Calipari and his team of mercenaries that probably never go to class.
66. Louisville
Notre Dame's rivalry with Louisville will resume in the ACC next year and I'll never forgive Rick Pitino for what he did to the Celtics.
67. Syracuse
Jim Boeheim.
68. Michigan makes the championship game and it's determined before the game that all of their players are ineligible and so the game is never played.
69. Michigan makes the championship game and some catastrophic event prevents the game from being played without anybody dying.
70. Michigan
Nightmare.
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