10 letters about March Madness, pt. 3

This is the earliest into the tournament I've done my "10 letters" post. In 2011, I wrote letters before the final weekend; last year, it was during the Elite 8. For those without a Twitter and any knowledge of college basketball, the Sweet 16 starts tomorrow night, and as such begins my second of two "best four days of the year" in March. And with that, here's my third (of who knows how many) "10 letters about March Madness."

1. Dear anyone who thinks the First Four is a good idea,
In 2011, you had VCU in the Final Four. The year after, South Florida upset #5 Memphis to make it to the Round of 32. Last year, #13 La Salle made the Sweet 16. This year? #11 Tennessee is in the Sweet 16, but had to beat an overseeded UMass team and a 14th-seeded Mercer team. The First Four is still terrible.

2. Dear Duke,
I'm getting this out of the way early in this post. You let me down. Where was the defense?! Hey, maybe Jabari Parker will stay one more year.....

3. Dear Creighton (and by Creighton I mean Doug McDermott),
You were my only Final Four team to lose in the first weekend, an embarrassing blowout against Baylor. I'm convinced that you all forgot you were supposed to win, and stuff like that.

4. Dear Florida, Virginia, and Louisville,
You three are my other Final Four teams. DON'T LOSE! For once, my bracket actually looks in decent shape after the first weekend. Could be better, but it could also be a lot worse.

5. Dear T.J. Warren and the rest of the N.C. State Wolfpack,
The only thing you can do at the free throw line that's worse than missing is to make the free throw but commit a lane violation. You're telling me the ACC Player of the Year is supposed to go 6-for-14 at the free throw line (violation not included)?

6. Dear every head coach with the ball in a tie game while the shot clock is turned off,
Don't start your offense with 6.5 seconds remaining. It's a high ball screen, your guard dribbles around to the wing, gets double-teamed, and puts up a terrible look. It happens at the end of every half and at the end of every tie game. Run your real offense with 11 seconds left, leaving you a much higher probability of scoring, while still leaving an opportunity for an offensive rebound if need be.

7. Dear anyone who doesn't know what I just talked about,
Try this article on for size. It might not make any more sense than what I just explained (if anything, it's probably more complicated), but it presents this idea very well.

8. Dear winner of #11 Dayton / #10 Stanford,
Have fun losing by 30 to Florida, whichever one of you makes the Elite 8.

9. Dear Warren Buffett,
You're the real winner of March Madness. Everyone knows about your brilliant plan to award $1 billion to whoever comes up with the perfect bracket, and to my knowledge, everyone is out of the running. Must be nice to have billions of dollars to throw around like that. Spare me some?

10. Dear March Madness,
Despite all of the things I may want to change about you...don't ever stop.