I realize time is running short for this poll, but I’m gonna throw it up anyways.
Every year a 12 seed upsets a 5 seed. This year’s canidates are:
#12 Weber State vs. #5 Wisconsin
#12 BYU vs. #5 Connecticut
#12 Butler vs. #5 Mississippi State
#12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee vs. #5 Notre Dame
I’m thinking UW-Milwaukee is the big boy, with Weber State a close second.
Also, just for kicks, Dayton’s gonna lose in the first round.
While all of those 5 vs 12’s offer interesting possibilities, I think UConn is the safest.
My pick is Weber State only because Wisconsin has had some bouts of horrific offense. Those tend to be magnified even more in the tourney.
I believe the only real chance for an upset is Weber St. over Wisconsin - and they better since I took Weber St. in both of the office pools.
Wisconson-Milwaukee is going to have to put up a lot of three-pointers to beat Notre Dame, which I don’t think is likely. UConn and Mississippi State are relatively safe.
I don’t know, Notre Dame has looked just awful lately. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they coughed it up in the first round.
Well, while Notre Dame is certainly a nice offensive team, they probably won’t be able to simply outscore UWM. While Notre Dame averages 80.1 points per game, UWM is right there at 77.3. I agree that they will probably need to shoot well from the arc to win (probably in the 42% range as opposed to a season average of 35%) to counter-act size, depth, and ability deficiencies. But, based on how poorly Notre Dame has been playing defense, this one doesn’t strike me as a stretch at all.
Well, I’m going to the ND game tonight, with family coming in for Saturday’s game, so they better not blow it! My money is on both Butler and Weber State to pull the upsets.
I have 2 on my bracket - Weber and Wis-Mil. I HAD Butler, too, but They’re not as good as past teams, and Mississippi St. is GOOD…
hrh
Well, so far I’m 1 of 3 games. Better hope some of my upsets pan out if I’m going to blow all the #8 v. #9 games.
The reason I think Wisconsin is going to win against Weber State more so than the Notre Dame upset is because Wisconsin plays aesone defense and they only tend to struggle against really tall teams. Weber State doesn’t have the size. Wisconsin does alot of things that usually mean Tourney wins. They shoot well from 3, they play outstanding defense forcing low opponents shooting pecentages, they never foul, and they alays make their free throws. That a tough equation to beat.
Weber State is the best of the 12 seeds, but I just don’t think they’ll find the magic against this team. Bad match up for them.
I have Butler winning two games in my bracket. They’re the only low seed I have going to the Sweet Sixteen (well, unless you count #6 Maryland).
Not sure I can logically defend the pick, though - I think it was a matter of me getting to the end of my sheet and saying, gee, I haven’t picked enough upsets!
They have a gaudy W-L record but really haven’t beaten much of anybody.
I pick all of the #12 seeds, because our pool gives extra points for correctly picking any win by a 12 seed or less. In the past few years there has always been at least one win by a 12 seed. The benefit of picking even one of the 12-seed upsets outweighs the benefits of having any of the 5s in the second round. Of course, if one of the 5s goes to the final 4, I’m screwed, but such is the nature of the pool.
I had Weber State and UW-M, and they both break my heart. Damnit.
My bracket sucks, as it usually does. But, the games are very entertaining. And, no matter who I might pick to win, I always end up rooting for underdogs because it’s just more fun.
Geeze, what happened to all the 12s this year? I guess Tulsa stepped up instead. Come on Butler!! (I did pick Cent. Mich. and ASU, so I’m not getting killed, yet.)
Butler did indeed come through. But I’ll trade that for Maryland’s miracle comeback (I have them in the Final Four).
For some reason I feel compelled to bump this…