NCAA Tournament!

As the NCAA tourney gets ready to start, I’m going to venture a guess at the happenings of the tournament. I will be wrong. But it’ll be fun to see how close I come, right? Good. Let’s begin.

The South: Duke will beat Pitt for a spot in the Final 4.

No huge surprises here. Though I go to Alabama, I really don’t think we’ll fare all that well in the tournament. We’ve had a problem with consistency lately that will hurt us a few rounds in. Look for Bama to lose to Pitt in the regional game.

The problem here is that Bama is the only team in that region who has the game to beat Duke. If Duke and Bama play their best games, Bama would win (if the officiating was reasonable). Bama has a hard time playing its A Game though.

Duke will beat Charlotte (after Charlotte upsets the Golden Domers). They’ll play Indiana who’ll upset Southern Cal. Bama will get by Florida Atlantic and Oklahoma State, falling in a close game to Pitt. In that game bama will probably not shoot above 35% from the field and we’ll shoot something horrible like 10% from behind the arch.

The final summary? Look for Duke to come out of this bracket, unless Bama can find the consistency they had at the beginning of the season.

The West: Overrated? Yes, but Cincinnati wins anyway.

Cincinnati doesn’t deserve a number 1 seed, but they’ll play like they do. Expect the favorites to win the first round, though Ole Miss will give UCLA a game. The one exception? Missouri. Miami won’t get by the 12 seed that started out the season on fire.

The favorites win the resulting games to get into the Sweet sixteen. Cincinnati beats UCLA, Ohio State beats Missouri, and Oklahoma beats up on Xavier. In addition, look for a HUGE win out of Arizona over Gonzaga as the Zags play their first real basketball game of the season.

<rant>I don’t care how many people like them… Gonzaga is horrible. They play no one, and play them poorly. Have a look at some of Gonzaga’s single point wins: St. Johns, Texas (by 3), St. Joes (by 3), New Mexico (by 5), Santa Clara (by 2), San Diego (by 1 and 8), and Pepperdine (by 6). Swept by San Diego? Split games with PEPPERDINE? The only teams that Gonzaga plays that are worth the uniforms they play in are Illinois and Marquette (who suck pretty badly themselves). Gonzaga lost to U of I, Marquette, and Pepperdine. They have the 153rd most difficult schedule in the nation. Dan Dickau has a 20 point average because he plays on a team that schedules games against Day Cares and schools for the physically handicapped. IF they manage to beat 11th seeded Wyoming, Arizona is going to show them why the WCC shouldn’t get an automatic bid into the tourney.</rant>

I’m looking for Arizona to upset Oklahoma. OU is good, but Arizona plays well in tournament games. If Oklahoma gets by the Wildcats they could pose a threat to top-seeded Cincinnati… so they’re my back-up pick for the final four.

The East: Maryland on a mission, Final Four Bound.

After a shocking loss to NCSU in their conference tournament, expect Maryland to come out thirsty for blood. Neither Wisconsin nor Kentucky will pose a challenge for the Terps, and they’ll win their regional game handily.

I’m not expecting ANY upsets in the first round action of the East regional. Things start getting hairy in the second round, however. Marquette will not have the power to beat Kentucky, who has to be upset about being ousted from “Their Tournament” in the Georgia dome a week or so ago. Bobby Knight’s Texas Tech will win a close game with the Dawgs from Georgia. Georgia has the better team, but I have a feeling that they’ll forget to play. NC State used everything they had to beat Maryland in the ACC Tourney. It was a fluke, and UConn will ruin UMD’s chances to get their payback in the regional game. Look for UConn to beat NCSU and Texas Tech only to lose to Maryland in the elite eight.

Kentucky has the tournament experience and the clutch players to pull off an upset against the Terrapins, so if anyone wins the East aside from Maryland, it’ll be Kentucky.

The Midwest: The best team, the easiest bracket. Kansas, no problem.

If the Jayhawks can keep focused on playing one game at a time, they’ll WALK through the Midwest bracket. I’m a little unsure about the Western Kentucky/Stanford game… but I’m still picking Stanford. No upsets in first round play.

Udonis Haslem and the Florida Gators will prove, yet again, that the SEC is a mean place to play basketball as they soundly beat the Fighting Illini. Mississippi State earned their number 3 seed, and will prove it when the beat Texas in the regional game. You can also look for MSU to upset the second seeded Oregon. Oregon doesn’t deserve a two seed and the Dawgs will show them why. MSU will get a shot to upset Kansas for a spot in the Final four, but they won’t do it. Nevertheless, if someone besides Kansas goes to the final four, it’ll tbe he Mississippi State Bulldogs.

The Final Four: Let’s look at the options.

Duke or Bama versus Cincinnati or Oklahoma: Bama won’t hold out for the championship game, but neither Cinci nor Oklahoma can beat Duke. The West Regional has to count on Bama to play it’s best game… until the final four. I firmly believe, however, that the only team in the nation that can beat Bama’s best game is Kansas. This side of the championship is squarely in the Tide’s hands to lose… and I think they will.

Look for Duke to beat Cincinnati and play for the title.


Maryland or Kentucky versus Kansas or Mississippi State: Kansas. I don’t care who they play, Kansas will win. Maryland would beat Mississipi State. MSU would beat Kentucky. If you’re the Terrapins, you hope for a Kansas upset (either Florida or MSU). If you’re Kansas… just play one game at a time and a spot in the championship game is ALL yours.

Kansas beats Maryland in a close game to play for the national title.


It is my prediction that Kansas will win the national title.

So… how do you think the tourney will pan out?