Filled Your Brackets Yet?

[Eric]

I have. Here's my Sweet 16:

Florida
Maryland
Oregon
UNLV
Kansas
VT
Pitt
UCLA
North Carolina
Boston College
Ohio State
Long Beach State
Texas A&M
Memphis

And my 1st round upsets are:

#12 Old Dominion over #5 Butler
#13 Holy Cross over #4 Southern Illinois
#15 Belmont over #2 Georgetown
#12 Long Beach State over #5 Tennessee

and that does it. I love Belmont. They're a tournament-experienced team, gave UCLA a run for their money last year, have size, and can get very hot from 3-point land. If, and only if, Belmont can light it up from 3, they'll upset Georgetown. I've just had that little eerie feeling that always makes me feel like an idiot pop-up whenever I see that game. I've had a feeling that all year long a 2 would go down to a 15 so I have to go with my gut. My gut is rarely right though

I was really surprised to see that LBSU got the respect that they did. I do not think that they are better (probably equal) to Holy Cross, Oral Roberts, or Wright State, but they are good team and I felt that they would be overlooked like they normally would be. The team has gone on a tear and the pairing with Tennessee seems to have that Nevada/Montana feel to it and it seems there is always a 12/5 upset somewhere on the bracket.

Those Irritating "Close, but No Cigar" Kind of Games (here's mine):

Davidson vs. Maryland
Winthrop vs. Notre Dame
Miami OH vs. Oregon
Texas A&M-CC vs. Wisconsin
Wright State vs. Pitt
George Washington vs. Vandy
ORU vs. Wazzu


The worst bracket out there is the South region. Here's why:

1. Ohio State is the worst #1 seed.
2. Memphis is the worst #2 seed.
3. Texas A&M is the worst #3 seed.
4. Virginia is the worst #4 seed.
5. Tennessee is the worst #5 seed outside of Butler.
6. This bracket contains the worst mid-majors. North Texas was the #5 seed in the Sun Belt, Penn is not that great, Albany is totally overrated (they're telling me Albany is better than Oral Roberts? ), Xavier lost to Cincinnati (no offense bar3cat5, but they did finish last in the Big East). Louisville, the 6 seed, has a realistic shot at making the Final Four from this conference.

Got Shafted:

Missouri State (again)
Florida State
Drexel


Got Lucky:

Arkansas
Illinois
Stanford

[Eric]

Yeah, I'm probably not right with Belmont. When I made my selections, I always thought that they battled UCLA to a 15 point loss, but I got reminded by ESPN that they lost to UCLA by 34

But then again, different year, different team I guess. Belmont probably isn't as good as some of the other mid-majors out there, but they have some components of being an upset team.

My only Cinderella is LBSU and the clock will strike midnight against Ohio State

[Eric]

11-5

Heck, what's new? I go for the upset, the favorite wins. I go with the favorite, they get upset. I can't do anything right

Every game that could go either way today besides Gonzaga/Indiana I got wrong today. Not a very good job.

If LBSU can come through for me tomorrow, I think I'll be in good shape. I was counting on Boston College beating Georgetown anyway so I felt I could go with the wacky upset.

UNLV is going to have to beat Georgia Tech, too. I have them in the Sweet 16 and if BYU's preformance in a loss to a mediocre Xavier team is any indication of conference strength, I don't know if I'll be doing too good tomorrow

[Dossenator]

No way Missouri State deserved to be in the NCAA tournament. They had one quality win all season....that's it one. They beat Wisconsin. They played Southern Illinois twice and got beat both times. Other then that their schedule was weak. They just got beat in the first round of the NIT by San Diego State.

Looks like Long Beach State is going to get thrashed by Tennessee. Tenn is up by 20 in the second half.

As for Arkansas I think they were as deserving as several teams. Look at the comparison of USC a 5 seed and Ark a 12 seed. They play tonight in the first round. When you look at the numbers and then look at Ark's quality wins then Ark and USC should be seeded almost identical.

Eric. Not sure how any team gets in the tournament really...outside the automatic bids. I mean look at USC vs. Arkansas. USC is a 5 seed and Arkansas is a 12 seed. They play each other in the first round. But when you look at the numbers either they seeded USC too high or seeded Arkansas too low.

Arkansas SOS (strength of schedule) comes in at: 10
Ark Non-Conference SOS comes in at: 35
Ark finished 11-3 in their non-conference games.
Ark finished 21-13 overall (only a two game difference then USC)
Ark went 5-3 against top 25 opponents (had quality wins against: Southern Illinois, Oral Roberts, beat Vanderbilt twice, and West Virginia, as well as beating Alabama twice when they were ranked in the top ten and then the top 20).

USC SOS comes in at: 43
USC Non-Conference SOS comes in at: 181
USC finished 10-3 in their non-conference gaes.
USC finished 32-11 overall

See it does not add up. If Ark would have played a cupcake out of conference like USC they would not have lost any out of conference games. Ark out of conference record was 11-3 and the out of conference SOS schedule was 35. That is why I believe they put Ark in the tourny. Outside of the SEC Ark was extremely good. Getting 21 wins with the 10th toughest schedule is not that bad.

Arkansas is the only SEC West to get in the tourny. You mentioned Miss St. as an option. Well Miss St only won 18 games and they only beat one top 25 team all year (Alabama). Their out of conference schedule was very poor. Then you look at Ole Miss who finished first in the SEC West. They won 20 games but did not play a tough out of conference schedule. Then their is Bama. Highly ranked at the beginning of the year and slipped during the second half of the season. Look at how those teams faired against Arkansas. First Ark won more games then any of those teams. Ark played Bama 2 times and beat them 2 times...or should I say creamed them 2 times, they played Miss State 3 times and beat them the last two times they played, they played Ole Miss 2 times and split with them (ark won the second game by about 20 points). If any team from the West was going to the dance it had to be Ark. Now I completely understand the case for taking no teams from the SEC west.[/b]

[Eric]

I think that Missouri State is good enough to play in the tournament. Of course, sometimes we have no idea of what a team's physce is going into the NIT. Either they will lay an egg because they see no purpose of being there or they come out there with something to prove. We'll never know exactly why.

Either Missouri State is not very good or they didn't want it enough. FSU might not even be that good and it may all be mental; they might feel that they got the shaft and are wholloping everything in their path or it might just be business as usual.

Again, Arkansas is probably good enough to play in the tournament. I just don't know if I'd put them first in line for an at-large bid.

Yeah, I got none of my upsets

I felt I could go with my gut and pick Belmont because I thought even if Georgetown whipped them, they would be defeated by Boston College in the 2nd round. For my sake, I hope so

[Spence]

Georgetown is pretty good.

[Eric]

My bracket got ruined because I had Boston College in the Elite 8. I also had my upset team, Long Beach State, in the Sweet 16 but I had no clue their defense was so bad

I have UNLV today, but Maryland is the only other team I have in the Sweet 16 that failed to make it there.

It's usually about this time where I just throw my bracket away and cheer for who I want to win. But I'm still alive in my pool, so UNLV has to come through for me.

Nice job, lowandslow, that's pretty solid. I had 8 wrong in the first round . My upset specials always bite me in the butt, I'll never learn

[wvjohn]

Well Eric both our sweet sixteen picks were pretty good, 13 in for me.
After watching most the teams play, I don't hold much hope for the rest of my picks. This is what they were.

Elite eight:
Tennessee / Memphis
N. Carolina / Georgetown
Kansas / UCLA
Florida / Wisconsin

Final Four:
Memphis / Georgetown
UCLA / Wisconsin

Championship Game:
UCLA / Georgetown

Winner:
UCLA

After watching this weekend, I'd go with Kansas to go all the way.

If it goes the way you have it I don't think UCLA can beat Georgetown, they are good.

[Eric]

My Final Four is UNC vs. Memphis and Florida vs. UCLA. I think this has a very realistic shot of a happening.

If UNC meets up with Georgetown in the next round, I would take UNC. They can just wear you out running up and down the court like they do.

[Eric]

My Final Four is UNC vs. Memphis and Florida vs. UCLA. I think this has a very realistic shot of a happening.

If UNC meets up with Georgetown in the next round, I would take UNC. They can just wear you out running up and down the court like they do.

[Eric]

I did have 7 of 8 in the Elite 8, but only 2 of 4 in the Final Four.

My championship game was between UCLA and North Carolina. I'm very surprised that UNC lost. I thought they were a better team than Georgetown. Usually, UNC will just wear down a team as the game progresses, but that didn't happen tonight.

I will say that the championship will be contested between UCLA and Georgetown with the Bruins taking it home.

That darn gut instinct, burns me every time and I never learn

[Spence]

I heard a guy today on ESPN radio say that while he thought Florida and Georgetown where going to be in the championship game, that any combination of teams would be possible because they were all capable of winning. He said that these games hold no clear underdog.