I’ve seen a lot of nonsense before in my life but I haven’t seen as many ridiculous notions as the one Jay Bilas suggested on Selection Sunday. Analyzing the brackets for ESPN, Bilas revealed his pick of Cornell to reach the Elite Eight in the East Region. I know March Madness got its nickname because of the improbable upsets in the tourney and the insanity it causes for fans making picks, but nonetheless I think it’s nothing short of absurd to say Cornell will reach the Elite Eight.
Can they beat Temple in the first round? Possibly. Wisconsin in the second round? Unlikely — not the way the Badgers play defense. If they got some help from Wofford, yeah, Cornell could reach the Sweet Sixteen, but I doubt that would happen. Then, should Cornell reach said Sweet Sixteen, they would theoretically have to beat Kentucky to reach the Elite Eight. That would never happen in the college basketball universe as I know it.
I know March is about picking upsets and finding sleepers, but calling Cornell to the Elite Eight is something reserved for Ivan from Ithaca who calls my radio show, not supposed credible analysts like Jay Bilas. I know ESPN encourages their analysts to go out on a limb with predictions but it should never get to the point where it hurts one’s credibility as this likely will for Bilas. If Jay turns out to be correct, I’ll rename this site Jay Bilas Sports for a week and apologize to the man personally. If not, I reserve the right to question Bilas’ credibility moving forward. By the way, Jay, the reason why everyone’s picking chalk isn’t necessarily because they’re afraid of picking upsets; it’s because all the good teams got jammed in the Midwest for some inexcusable reason.
