It's not unusual to pick a No. 2 seed as a national champion when the brackets are released. Bruce Pearl's Volunteers are a highly attractive No. 2. As are Rick Barnes' Texas Longhorns. But that's like getting behind breast cancer or orphans with diseases.
Me, I'm a silent killer backer. That's why I like Georgetown, the unsexiest of all unesexies, to win this tournament.
Let's start with the bracket variables. UMBC isn't a slouch, but it's a No. 2 seed. It shares a common opponent with the Hoyas, American, who both teams beat. But UMBC lost to West Virginia badly, and Georgetown swept West Virginian 2-0 this season. That's as far as one probably needs to go to defend your national champion pick getting past a 15 seed.
(Looking past matchups other than the first round is a tireless, pointless endeavor. The variables change too often in this tournament to project anything meaningful.)
I also dig how the Hoyas aren't playing in D.C., but they aren't playing that far away from D.C. Raleigh is far enough to avoid distractions, but not far enough where we're talking annoying elements like time zone differences or tempting warm weather. Same applies to Detroit, where the team would move to for the Sweet 16.
But what I like most about the Hoyas is the one thing everybody drops the hammer on them for -- Roy Hibbert. He's Charmin' soft. He's as aggressive as Bob Ley. He's 7-2 but plays 6-2. Those criticisms come from people who don't know Georgetown basketball -- specifically John Thompson III basketball. JT3 could have entered this season, looked at his team sans Jeff Green and said "you know what Wallace, Sapp, Freeman, Summers and Li'l Ewing? We're going to feed Roy until he throws up." But he didn't do that when plenty of lesser coaches would have. He realized, "you know what, I actually have a team seven or eight deep here." He realized feeding one guy the ball only means good things for Hibbert's draft stock, but has little real value to the Hoyas' tourney prospects. 
So he forced his team to play like a team. Hibbert won't be the engine. He's a piston. So is Summers, Wallace, Sapp, Freeman and Li'l Ewing. It's the same recipe that's powering the Houston Rockets right now.
Wonder why Houston is still winning without Yao Ming? Simple, they don't have to feed him the ball. There's nothing restricting the team's natural flow. There's no Yao factor, the Rockets just play basketball. "They share," Phil Jackson says.
"They share the ball," said the Lakers coach. "Their defense is solid. I'm sure their three-point shooting hasn't been like that in the past, but Tracy had probably as poor a game as he's probably played and they were still able to win."
Sharing? Good defense? A star on an off night, yet the team still wins? Sounds like the Hoyas' recipe.
Let's start with good defense. Here's what Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said about the Hoyas earlier this season.
"I'd say they're by far the best defensive team we've played all year," Cronin said. "It's very, very hard to get an open shot, and then when we did get some open shots, we didn't even hit the rim a few times. But I think that's a byproduct of how hard you've got to work to get an open shot against their defense."
Let's now talk about sharing.
"Everyone else calls it lucky," said Li'l Ewing to Posty Sally Jenkins. "We're a good team. We're a good team. We do a lot of things that maybe people don't understand how good we are. We do things as a team. If I see a good shot, and I see someone with a better shot, I want to give it up. I want to give up a good shot for a great shot. Coach talks about that a lot."
Star not bring his A-game? Foul trouble limited Hibbert to a stat line with zero points, four turnovers and five fouls last week.
"This is a great start, but we know it's not over," guard Jessie Sapp said. "I think we showed a lot of people what we can do as a team. With the big fella being back next game, it's going to show what we can do on that level."
Defense. Chemistry. Ability to adapt. The Hoyas have all three. Plus, they're under the radar, well, as much as No. 2 seed can be. But they also have experience. Having done the Final Four deed, knowing the proper way to prepare for this tournament's grind is worth more than a few Bear Stearns stocks.
This team is complete, but not on paper. The stats this team shows the public are deceptive. There's no Stephen Curry. No Tyler Hansbrough. No O.J. Mayo. Superstars don't reside on the Hilltop, which is frustrating to most, because we so desperately want Hibbert to be one.
But he's not. JT3 won't let him. That's what good coaches do. They don't let one person, other than themselves, run the show. And that's why this team can make a run. There's nobody looking to prove anything, there's lowered expectations and there's a relatively tepid path (sorry, I know I don't look past the first game, but I wanted to use the word tepid) to the Final Four ahead of them.
Of course, now that I've posted this blog, Georgetown is destined for an early exit. Sorry.
