Initial thoughts

This is my favorite time of the year. They just announced the NCAA brackets on CBS and frankly could they draw the announcement out any longer. I wish they would speed things up but I guess they want to build the anticipation. Here are my initial thoughts:

1. The committee had no respect for the Big 10. Maybe this is deserved but how is Wisconsin, who won both the regular season and tournament, not at least a 2 seed. MSU surprisingly has the second best draw of the conference as a 5 seed but they have a tough match up with Pitt in round two. But the real injustice was moving Purdue down to a 6 seed and IU to an 8 seed.
2. The east coast bias is alive and well as the Big East gets 8 teams despite being ranked as the 5th best conference by the RPI. Villanova did not deserve to be in. I really don't see what the hype is all about and the conference will probably disappoint again.
3. Duke gets over seeded again. How many years in a row can they over seed the same team? They didn't win the regular season and didn't even make the tourney finals in a conference with only 4 total bids yet they are still a 2 seed? I realize Coach K has a lot of tourney wins but he owes many of them to the committee who annually give him the easiest schedule to sweet 16.
4. The big conferences get richer while the little guys get stiffed again. Of the 34 at-large bids only 6 went to mid majors. You would think that George Mason's run would have opened the eyes of the committee members to the mid majors place in the tournament but apparently not.
5. Tennessee got screwed big time. Not only do they lose the 1 seed, they get the 2 seed in N. Carolina's bracket. Then they have potential tough match ups in both rounds two and three. Tennessee deserved much better; like say Duke's draw.
6. UCLA appears to have the easiest road of all the 1 seeds while Memphis has probably the toughest bracket. If UCLA doesn't get to the final four I'll be stunned. On the flip side having to play Texas in Texas will be no picnic for Memphis.
7. There are no obvious sleepers yet. Usually one mid major stands out above the rest but not this year. A lot of people say Davidson but having Georgetown in the second round keeps them from being a major threat. And no 12 seeds look like winners this year. Which of course means all of them will win. I may pick Temple over MSU just to spite all the Spartan fans.