🏀 Expect Plenty Of Madness This March

We are just two days into the month of March and the madness has already begun. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider with Martin Rogers: The end of the 2021-22 men’s college basketball season promises to be as unpredictable as any and wilder than most ... Germany has become the ideal spot for young American soccer stars .... and more! We’ve barely touched March, yet the madness has already begun. Don’t expect it to slow down any time soon. The conclusion of the 2021-22 men’s college basketball season promises to be as unpredictable as any and wilder than most, and last weekend was just the warm-up. This isn’t a year for chalk. It is not a year where there is a superteam cutting its way through the pack and establishing itself as the frontrunner. It is a time where frankly, your guess is as good as anyone’s when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, even if you’ve only just started paying attention now. “People get so excited when there are big upsets,” FOX Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy told me. “And I think there will be a lot of them this year.” [STORY IMAGE 1] It took only until mid-January for the last undefeated team to go down. Every squad has lost in conference play, with the exception of Murray State and South Dakota State. Every team has now lost at least three times except for, again, Murray State. Sure, it is feasible we could see a Final Four filled with top seeds, but a situation where there is perhaps one, or none, seems far more likely. There’s parity, and parity means surprises, and surprises mean brackets getting busted all over the darn place. We have seen upsets all season long, but that didn’t prepare the sport’s fanatics for the carnage that unfolded on Saturday. No. 1 Gonzaga, with Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren, got smoked by Saint Mary’s. No. 2 Arizona went down, battered by Colorado. Bruce Pearl’s return to Tennessee with No. 3 Auburn ended in tears. No. 4 Purdue came unstuck against Michigan State. Baylor took care of No. 5 Kansas. And No. 6 Kentucky, faced with an increasingly hot and seriously good Arkansas team, completed the extraordinary six-pack, with No. 9 Texas Tech’s defeat to TCU providing a little icing on top for those who love to see the big trees tumble. Truthfully, it was an anomaly. Never before have so many highly-rated teams fallen like that, one after the other, but there was also a quirk in the scheduling at play. For never before have the top six each faced such strong opposition, all on the road, at the same time. Even so, this is a wide-open season that provides opportunity for a significant number of teams to go on a run if they survive the early gauntlet of the tournament. [STORY IMAGE 2] DeCourcy believe the unpredictability has a lot to do with point guard play, namely the lack of a truly elite PG class this season. “Usually you might have between four to six point guards predicted to go in the first round,” DeCourcy added. “This time it might be two. It is almost like having an NFL Draft without any good quarterbacks coming out of college football.” Kentucky’s TyTy Washington Jr. appears likely to go high in the NBA Draft, while Tennessee’s Kennedy Chandler and Alabama’s JD Davison have also gotten positive reviews. However, the lack of strong play across the board at the position has made it easier for underdog teams to find ways to match up against more esteemed opponents. The ability to control the ball and the tempo of the game is always critical, but never more so than in the tense moments of the tournament itself. “Everyone will try to get themselves into the best seeded positions but there will be lower seeded teams who will like their chances of going on a deep run,” DeCourcy said. “A lot of it can come down to matchups, which teams can survive an unfavorable one and make the most of more beneficial situations.” [STORY IMAGE 3] We are already at the point where things begin to get serious. The fragility of the top teams shook up the rankings this week and has created opportunity for others to emerge as serious contenders. Arkansas certainly gave their prospects a boost as they continue to rebound from a shaky start. Saint Mary’s gave Gonzaga the runaround in a way no one truly expected and defending champion Baylor is back in form after a mid-campaign slump. As for the highest-ranked team not to lose – could things be aligning for Mike Krzyzewski in his emotional final year at Duke? The Blue Devils are not without flaws and the pomp and ceremony surrounding Coach K’s imminent departure looms over everything, but the Blue Devils should not be discounted. [STORY IMAGE 4] If it feels like the season has flown by, that is probably because it has. We are now here, where the final shuffle for position is underway, where some smaller conference tournaments have already started, and thoughts turn to the makeup of the bracket once more. It is one of the most anticipated times on the sports calendar, a frenetic window of time when the games come so quickly that you can scarcely keep up. But in a year like this, where the only thing we know about what’s going to happen is that we probably won’t predict it correctly, everyone is in the same boat. [STORY IMAGE 5] [IN OTHER WORDS] - As conference tournaments begin, [FOX Sports College Basketball Analyst Andy Katz picks teams in one-bid leagues that could surprise this week — and in March Madness](. - What gives Florida the edge over Arizona? It's not spring training so much as a history of producing MLBers, [FOX Sports MLB Writer Pedro Moura writes](. - What makes Germany the ideal spot for young American soccer stars to hone their craft? [FOX Sports Soccer Writer Doug McIntyre has the answer](. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] Xavier at St. John’s (FS1, 6:30 p.m. ET) Colby Jones and the Xavier Musketeers take on Julian Champagnie and the St. John’s Red Storm in a Big East showdown. New York Knicks at Philadelphia 76ers (ESPN, 7:30 p.m. ET) Julius Randle and the New York Knicks travel to Philadelphia to take on James Harden, Joel Embiid and the new-look 76ers. UConn at Creighton (FS1, 8:30 p.m. ET) Adama Sanogo and the No. 18-ranked UConn Huskies battle Ryan Hawkins and the Creighton Bluejays. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Zion Williamson’s team in 2022-23: New Orleans Pelicans: +125 New York Knicks: +175 Atlanta Hawks: +400 Los Angeles Lakers: +500 From FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd: I don’t find this terribly salvageable. There are those that believe he will sign an extension. It’s guaranteed money and he has health risks. I think you cross your fingers, and you hope he gets into shape. Zion does have something to play for, which is pride and that extension. But it’s not hopeful. I don't think this organization (Pelicans) has a team in five years. I think the NBA is going to move it to Vegas. 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