Luck of the Irish
With Virginians celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, and sports fans in Richmond, Fairfax, Norfolk and Hampton hoping to cheer their college teams to a national championship, we thought you might enjoy this Richmond Times-Dispatch sports section article about the Governor’s NCAA tournament picks!
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McDonnell favors luck, and skill, of Fighting Irish in NCAA tournament
By Paul Woody
Published: March 17, 2011
Two things quickly are evident in the NCAA men’s tournament selections by Gov. Bob McDonnell.
McDonnell’s politics are conservative and so are most of his selections in the NCAA field.
And if you didn’t know it, you would suspect McDonnell has strong ties to the University of Notre Dame.
In fact, he earned his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame in 1976. That has much to do with McDonnell’s idea the Fighting Irish will not just reach the Final Four, but also will play for the national championship.
“Absolutely,” McDonnell said. “That, and they’re good this year. They were second in the Big East, the toughest conference in the country, and have five seniors who I think will handle the pressure of the tournament.
“And, when you start the tournament on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, that’s got to be good luck for the Fighting Irish.”
In a phone interview, McDonnell displayed a thorough knowledge of the NCAA field, despite having a few more important things to handle than who deserved to be in the tournament and whether George Mason and Old Dominion deserved better than their No. 8 and No. 9 seeds.
“I’ll let the NCAA deal with that,” he said laughing. “Although based on the criticism, they’ve got as many problems with the tournament field as I’ve got with my budget.
“I was happy to see five Virginia schools make the tournament, but I think it should have been six. Virginia Tech got robbed.”
In the interest of full disclosure, McDonnell has a daughter who graduated from Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth University. Might that explain his decision to go with ODU over Butler University in a first-round game Friday?
“I wouldn’t count ODU and George Mason out when it comes to pulling off upsets,” McDonnell said. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see ODU take Pitt to the mat. Of course, ODU has to get past Butler first. Butler is no slouch.”
McDonnell also has a daughter who is a James Madison University graduate and his twin sons attend the University of Virginia.
JMU and Virginia are not in the men’s tournament.
JMU is in the NCAA women’s tournament and plays Sunday in Charlottesville against the University of Oklahoma.
“Dawn Evans at JMU deserves consideration for player of the year,” McDonnell said, flashing his women’s basketball creds. “And we’re counting on Notre Dame to get to the elite eight in (the women’s tournament).”
The governor frequently selected the team with the better seed in the men’s tournament, but he does have Richmond, seeded 12th, upsetting No. 5 Vanderbilt. He likes Utah State, also a 12th seed, over No. 5 Kansas State, then beating Wisconsin, a No. 4 seed, in the third round.
He likes No. 8 George Mason over Villanova.
“Villanova is on a slide,” McDonnell said. “I’ve watched them play a couple of times recently.”
McDonnell, whose brackets are available for viewing at his Facebook page, thinks Notre Dame is going on a hot streak in the coming weeks. That’s not so surprising when you learn McDonnell was in the crowd in 1973 when Notre Dame ended UCLA’s 88-game winning streak.
This year, he thinks the Fighting Irish can handle Akron, Florida State, Georgetown, Kansas and Pittsburgh on their way to the title game, where he thinks Notre Dame will face Duke. That is where McDonnell sees his favorite team’s magical run ending.
“I like the Blue Devils in big games,” McDonnell said. “Coach Krzyzewski, year in and year out, is the best coach in America. His teams have great military discipline. They never get rattled.”
But if McDonnell is wrong about his championship game prediction, he will not be at all disappointed.