March 18: Championship Week in Vegas

Welcome back to Week 5 of my sports newsletter. It is officially the very best time of the year - get those brackets in! But first...

So I was thinking about ... all the ball I witnessed in Vegas

In what has become a bit of a tradition now, I joined some friends in Vegas last week - but we spent more time in basketball arenas than at the Blackjack table, or even the sportsbook. Yes, we were there for Championship Week. And over the course of five days, we watched 10 games featuring five different conference tournaments -- all relatively close to the strip. The experience reminded me why I love men's college hoops so much.

It's been a weird year for the sport, with the transfer portal and NIL making figuring out rosters and placing names to teams harder than beating UConn. This form of free agency has not only made fact-checking rosters a part of every game, but has also made it abundantly clear when guys are, shall we say, perhaps not fully committed to a team or coach.

With maybe one exception (I'm looking at you, USC), the Vegas tournaments renewed my faith in the sport -- or at least in guys caring come March. There were incredible atmospheres, barnburner finishes, improbable tournament runs, surprising Big Dance tickets punched and more. Not only that, but walking the strip is so entertaining during the week because of the number of school shirts and jerseys people are wearing. I can't count on both hands the number of "Go Ducks" and "Go Lobos" greetings we exchanged with passersby during the five days.

A few other observations from the experience:

1 - The Mountain West is awesome: For a second straight year, we got tickets for the title game at the Thomas & Mack Center on UNLV's campus, and the atmosphere was absolutely electric. We sat in the last row of the lower section, and soon learned that NBA great Jamal Mashburn was in a suite directly behind us watching his son lead the Lobos to a thrilling win over San Diego State. We hear all the time about the SEC, Big 12 and Big 10, but sleep on the MWC at your own risk. They're sending six teams dancing...

2 - Courtside seats are the best: Not every game was packed during the week, especially not the Big West first round game we watched Wednesday evening in Henderson, about 20 minutes outside of downtown. We wanted to experience every conference, so we watched UC Riverside defeat UC Bakersfield in a back-and-forth battle, sitting in the second row at midcourt. The experience reaffirmed my belief that when you're close-up at a game, you gain a greater appreciation for the players and their talent level. For instance, watching 5-foot-10 Bakersfield guard Kaleb Higgins put on a 35-point scoring clinic was a thing of beauty. It would have been harder to witness his greatness from farther away.

3 - Getting hot at the right time: The genesis for this trip started with my Oregon friends, who would visit Sin City each March for the Pac-12 tournament. With the conference basically dissolving (sorry, Beavers and Cougars), missing the last version of the tourney wasn't going to happen. Also not likely to occur? Four seed Oregon winning three straight and clinching an NCAA bid. But that's exactly what happened, as we watched the Ducks survive UCLA in a nailbiter; then come from behind to take down powerhouse Arizona in front of a 90% Wildcats crowd; and finally do just enough in front of a very sparse crowd (most of the 'Zona fans had left Vegas) to dethrone Colorado Saturday night. As the green and yellow confetti fell, none of us could really believe it. But that's the beauty of March in college hoops. You just don't ever know.

Now, speaking of the Madness...

So about that... women's bracket

Holy Hawkeyes, you can't possibly be happy! ESPN execs must be nervous, too. Because somehow, someway, the second No. 1 seed Iowa and generational icon Caitlin Clark got - by far - the most difficult region, and will have a brutal path to the Final Four through Albany. We all knew undefeated South Carolina would be the No. 1 seed, and the Gamecocks easily have the easiest road to Cleveland. Makes sense. But other top seeds USC and Texas have much less-bumpy paths than Iowa, which would likely have to beat:

• Either Colorado or Kansas State in the Sweet 16. Iowa lost one of two to the Wildcats this season, and the Buffs are a dangerous team that just needs to get hot. They ran LSU outta the gym way back in November.
• Speaking of, Iowa would then likely face those Tigers in a title game rematch or UCLA - arguably the best two seed - in the regional final.

All that to say, if Caitlin Clark - who has garnered so much attention, ESPN is going all LeBron on her with Holly Rowe following her every step this March - is somehow able to get Iowa through this region and win a national title, her legend will reach apex levels. But I'm not predicting it. My early pick: USC vs. South Carolina in the title game. Subject to change!

I'm looking at you... Michigan

While sitting at the sportsbook on Friday morning watching dozens of meaningful hoops and looking at my betting slips in disgust, my phone buzzed with a social media notification: Juwan Howard was OUT at Michigan. I cheered!

This has been the most disastrous season in Ann Arbor since I started closely following the program and basing my happiness on it back in the mid-2000s. I know, I know... The Wolverines went 8-24 and 3-17 in the Big Ten. They won two games after Christmas. Their best player, point guard Duc McDaniel, was suspended for six road games for academic reasons. The program was, clearly, a mess. Even worse? Howard got into an altercation in December with longtime and highly respected strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson. That's what did it for me. I, and many others, was begrudgingly willing to chalk up some of the season's malaise to Howard having heart surgery and missing all of October and November. But going after Sanderson just added to the dumpster fire. He had to go.

As I alluded to at the top of this newsletter, player movement from year to year is inevitable these days. So it's no surprise whatsoever that here, three days later, my phone is once again buzzing with news that McDaniel is transferring and Michigan's top-30 recruit is decommitting. But whatever. There will be a new coach and a (mostly) new team next year, and that's all I can ask for.

But enough about bad basketball. Let's end this newsletter with another photo from that epic Vegas trip. And here are three teams that played in Vegas whom you should pick in your brackets:

1 - St. Mary's OR Grand Canyon. Yes, the committee loves to pit fun mid-major programs against each other, and they succeeded again. Whoever wins this first-round matchup can cause some real chaos.

2 - New Mexico. I'm telling you - the underseeded Lobos can go far!

3 - Oregon. It's typically dumb to pick a conference tourney winner in the Dance, but I'm riding with the Ducks. They might keep quacking all the way to the Sweet 16.

But UConn will probably win the whole thing ... again. Enjoy the MADNESS!