I love the chatter surrounding the tournament and how some things shape up in consensus but disappear completely by person. For instance, everyone is agreeing that this year there are no “great” teams… but it seems like 95% of people have Kansas winning it all (including 4/5 Yahoo experts and a vast majority of ESPN experts).
Everyone talks about how much of a dogfight the Midwest bracket will be… but everyone has Kansas winning anyway. Along the same road, everyone talks about how easy the South is… so why won’t Duke win it? Because they’re Duke and nobody likes them? I hate Duke as much as the next guy but they seem to match up very well with everyone in that region. I couldn’t find a place for them to lose.
I had the toughest time picking the West. For some reason, every tool I use to evaluate teams rated BYU extremely well. I figured I must be on to something (as in, how NOT to pick winners), but I was too far along to turn back. Go BYU!..
I have Kansas coming out of the midwest (over OKState in a tough battle). Syracuse over BYU. Kentucky topping New Mexico (who scrapes by Mizzou). And Villanova beating Texas A&M.
Kansas loses to Kentucky (mainly so they stay happy with their coach and don’t go poaching mine)
I love Xavier’s chances of going fairly deep and wearing the glass slippers. That being said, I don’t see a way out of a WV/Kansas final: With the exception of Carmelo Anthony, freshman mojo doesn’t go that deep, which hurts Kentucky. 'Cuse limped out the end of the season, and I’ve seen this team from Duke too many times.
My big upset right now is calling Purdue beating Siena in the first round. Even without Hummel, I like More and Barlow enough to think that the ‘upset’ everyone is waiting for won’t happen.
Maybe, but Anthony was only one guy. UK has scads of freshmen seeing significant playing time that are really good players. Whether that hurts them or not remains to be seen. So far, it hasn’t…much.
It’s funny, so many folks worry about the early round upsets, and they can make a difference. But ini almost every bracket competition I have beenini, it is almost impossible to win without picking the actual Champion correct, due to weighting in the final round. I have 'Cuse winning it all. The first and second round games are basically tie breakers, in my experience.
In one of my brackets I have Villanova losing to Richmond, but right now they’re in trouble against Robert Morris! I like BYU to do some damage in the West and I like Siena and maybe Murray State.
Is there any chance you could stop doing that? I don’t care about the Big East and frankly it doesn’t seem like anybody but you really does all that much either.
Looks like Richmond is going down, so that’s my first wrong pick. In my regular bracket, no big deal - I had 'Nova beating them anyway. My ‘upset special’ bracket is busted, though, since I had Richmond beating 'Nova AND Old Dominion. Ah well.
Gosh I hate living near Kentucky. They are blowing out ETSU and my affiliate is sticking with this game. We got another BIG EAST team getting beat and I am stuck with this blow-out. I would much rather see Georgetown lose to Ohio University.
And yet another Big East team is on the ropes. Marquette is only leading the Washington (and the hapless PAC10) by 3 points.
Become a fan of the best program in NCAA history and enjoy the blowout. What did you expect, a 16 and a 1 going into OT, perhaps?
I have a friend that’s a Louisville fan and a HUGE Big East homer. He kept texting me to “warn” me about how great a showing the Big East would have in the tournament.
He’s all “UK doesn’t want none of Marquette!”
To which I replied “Louisville might not win their first tournament game!”
Tell me you didn’t pick the Ohio U Bobcats to beat Georgetown…that’s a BIG bracket buster right there. G’town was playing so well at the end of the season, too.