A few years ago, the NCAA basketball bracket was a crap shoot to pick. Each year the national pundits would try to predict the winner and find each year’s “Cinderella.”
However, there has been much talk that Cinderella is dead, gone forever from the tournament.
In the past two years, the men’s basketball bracket has had six No. 1 seeds, one No. 2 and a surprising one No. 3 reach the final four, including the four No. 1 seeds last year. But Cinderella isn’t dead, she’s just moved to a different bracket: the NCAA hockey bracket.
Cinderella no longer wears a glass slipper; she wears a glass ice skate. For the past two years, the hockey bracket has been extremely difficult to predict.
In 2008, two of the top seeds reached but a two and a four (the lowest seed in the tournament) also made it. Not the best example of parity but it is nothing compared to this year’s bracket.
Chances are, unless you’re clairvoyant, lucky or blessed, if you filled a bracket, it was torpedoed by the second round.
Going into this year’s Ice Hockey championship, the pundits were raving about how strong the four No. 1 seeds were—that they would dominate. Two days later, one No. 1 seed remained: Boston University.
Once the “Frozen Four” arrived, Boston remained standing along with Vermont (3) Miami of Ohio (4) and Bemidji State (4). If the numbers weren’t enough, the games themselves were outstanding.
Boston had to score two goals in the third period to move past Vermont and into the championship game. Then, they had to score two goals in the last minute of play in the championship game to force overtime before eventually winning in overtime.
While NCAA basketball was as predictable as it ever has been, the hockey bracket was just as unpredictable. There were ten games decided by two goals or less, four overtimes and just incredible entertainment value.
Contact CU Independent Breaking News Editor Aaron Musick at Aaron.musick@colorado.edu.
