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Bernstein: NCAA Tournament Is A Real Crowd-Pleaser, With Something For Everyone

By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist

(CBS) There are differing philosophies regarding what constitutes a maximally entertaining NCAA Tournament.

One camp appreciates utter chaos, the triumph of the unknowns and upstarts. Long runs for low likelihoods, with viewers learning new names and faces as directional schools and small-conference champs topple blueblood programs. Think George Mason, VCU and Florida Gulf Coast and all the talk of party-crashing. This group wants novelty.

Another wants seeds to hold, assuring matchups of famous coaches and future NBA players, big names for big games. This is the side of comfort in history and familiarity.

Neither is entirely right or wrong, and it may just be that this year's event can hit the sweet (16) spot with just enough of both. Out of all-time early chaos to please one side, a surprisingly satisfying slate of games has emerged to satisfy the other.

A clamorous first weekend saw a record number of double-digit seeds reach the second round, with 10 such teams advancing. Any tourney anarchist craving Stephen F. Austin and Little Rock and Hawaii and Middle Tennessee and Yale got what was desired. Then there was Sunday night, with both the greatest late-game comeback in the history of college basketball and another win on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

What's left -- even after all that -- contains the four top seeds. The West region came out 1-2-3-4, the South 1-2-3-5 and the East 1-5-6-7. There are two double-digit seeds remaining to face each other in Chicago in the Midwest semifinals, and those are heritage programs in Gonzaga and Syracuse -- major brands in what's typically a mid-major position.

Nine of the remaining 16 teams have won a national title since the event began in 1939, with a total of 23 championship banners represented.

And even as some established schools have been knocked out, plenty of potential future professionals are still on display for those of us who enjoy this as a scouting opportunity. Per the rankings at DraftExpress.com, 14 players in their top 45 prospects for this year's draft are still going. What's more, that group of 45 contains 11 international players, and subtracting those means 41 percent of the top American collegiate professional talent pool for this year is getting ready for this weekend's regionals.

It was a strange year for college basketball, with no goliath team putting its season-long hegemony to the March test and a memorably fluctuating group at the top spot in the rankings over the last months. If it in any way helped make for a tournament that just happens to end up being just right, then perhaps that's a good thing.

Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter  @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.

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