Well I'll start with saying the committee did a pretty good job as far as getting teams in there, the only one I didn't like was Creighton being left out over Arizona (which let's be honest, was a BCS like decision of putting the team who will sell more tickets in over the better team) But I think Arizona is better on the court but Creighton is better by the bracketology stuff, but Arizona is better on court so the money and the better play won that. I also think teams like St. Mary's and Penn State got screwed by teams like Cleveland State, USC, and Mississippi State who snuck in because of there conference tournament.
Upset Picks
Here are my upset picks:
Midwest Region
12 Arizona over 5 Utah - The fact that Utah is a 5 seed is just insane to me and I already said that Arizona is a good on court team who underachieved in the second half of the year. I saw this stat last night that Mountain West at-larges are terrible in round 1. So Arizona will win take this game in Miami because they are just a better team than Utah. So I like Arizona.
13 Cleveland State over 4 Wake Forrest - Wake Forest got off to their hot start where they were the number 1 team in the nation but ever since they upset Duke and then got knocked off by Virginia Tech and it's been all down hill since then. Wake kind of lives and dies by it's guard play, Cleveland State shut down Butler who is the king of just being a perimeter team, I think Cleveland State is very dangerous and will take this game and could be a threat to Arizona in the next round.
West Region
11 Utah State over 6 Marquette - Marquette got bitten by the injury bug and it poisoned them and kill them when Dominic James got put out for the year, otherwise I thought they could've made a run but now nope they are just mid range Big East team, that combined with Utah State who is terribly underseeded, they and Siena were my Cinderella picks who I thought would be wrecked because they got overrated at 9s Siena was but Utah State isn't and I think they will cruise past Marquette who has to travel cross country to Portland that is like a two hour drive for Utah State, so Utah State will win this one
East Region
11 VCU over 6 UCLA - UCLA has gone cold as of late, they have two guys with tourney experience, Darren Collison and Josh Shipp, but that won't be enough, UCLA doesn't score a lot, VCU does. UCLA usually got by on there defense, they don't even play that good of defense this year, VCU will score on them. Just make matters worse for UCLA they are traveling cross country to Philly, VCU just has to climb up north a little bit. VCU will take this one, book it!
South Region
12 Western Kentucky over 5 Illinois - Being around the Big Ten and watching it as much as I have, I know Illinois isn't good enough to be a 5 seed, they are ok, but they can' win on the road and they can't beat elite teams. Portland is far from home for Illinois and though I don't think Western Kentucky is an elite team but with Chester Frazier Western Kentucky's guards can just go off on the Illinois and Western Kentucky will win.
I also like Arizona and Utah State to advance on to the the Sweet after they win their first round game.
Arizona
Not much to say about this because as I already said they will draw Cleveland State who they are just better than them. It's like last year when Western Kentucky got to the Sweet 16 because they were lined up with San Diego who upset UConn, so Arizona will get in there because they are playing a team who they are just better than, plain and simple.
Utah State
Now Utah State is really a Cinderella type team, everyone thinks they are going to beat Marquette but if (and when they knock off Missouri it will be an upset and a major upset, but I think they can beat Missouri I heard about how good Utah State was when they snuck into the back end of the Top 25, Missouri was number 10 before I noticed them, so I figured they were killing bad teams then they started to lose and was like who's right. I tell you who's right: ME! I think Utah State knocks them off I really do.
Both teams will lose in the Sweet 16 according to my genius bracket.
5 Games you can't Miss (All games on CBS)
5. West Region: 4 Washington vs. 13 Mississippi State (Thursday 4:55 Eastern)
4. Midwest Region: 4 Wake Forrest vs. 13 Cleveland State (Friday 9:40 PM Eastern)
3. West Region: 5 Purdue vs. 12 Northern Iowa (Thursday 2:30 PM Eastern)
2. South Region: 8 LSU vs. 9 Butler (Thursday 12:20 PM Eastern)
1. Midwest Region: 8 Ohio State vs. 9 Siena (Friday 9:40 PM Eastern)
No real reason for all those games, just I think they are the best too bad I will miss a few of them because I have classes them ugh! But my friend will be texting me scores so I life, but if nothing comes after this you'll know why.
Other Tourney Ramblings
The Ty Lawson Injury
This maybe why Carolina doesn't win, Greg Anthony of CBS said this is like a four month injury that Lawson is coming back from in three weeks, that's not good. He's probably out the first weekend but they won't need him against Radford Thursday and odds are they won't need against Butler or LSU in round 2, so they are probably safe. But then come next weekend will he hurt them when he's going at 60% against Gonzaga and Oklahoma (according to the awesome Bears' bracket) I think it catches up to them when they face a solid point guard like Lavance Fields in the Final Four. So it won't hurt right away, but then it could be costly.
The Tyreke Evans coming out party?
It's won't be as big as the Derrick Rose coming out party last year, that was a Playboy Mansion Party, this will be more of a Celebrity Birthday at a Night Club Party. Evans has been beasting threw Conference USA ever since they moved to point guard. He's been really the only star Freshman this year even though DeMar DeRozan came on for USC in the Pac-10 tourney but this will be Tyreke Evans' run until Memphis gets booted in the Elite 8 at the hands of Purdue
Jerome Dyson will finally be missed by UConn
UConn hasn't really lost any games because of not having their star guard Jerome Dyson but they have played worse, much worse A.J. Pryce is good but he looked helpless against teams like Marquette and Pitt late in the year. UConn can get past Chattanooga and probably BYU (according to me) without him, pretty easily. But once they get to the Sweet 16 against Purdue or Washington who both have very physical guards and that is where UConn goes down on my Bracket.
My Picks: The Sweet 16 and on
Midwest Region
1. Louisville over 12 Arizona
6. West Virginia over 2 Michigan State
West Region
5. Purdue over 1 UConn
2. Memphis over 11 Utah State
East Region
1. Pitt over 4. Xavier
3. Villanova over 2 Duke
South Region
1. North Carolina over 4 Gonzaga
2. Oklahoma over 6. Arizona State
Elite 8
Midwest Final: 1. Louisville over 6 West Virginia
West Final: 5. Purdue over 2 Memphis
East Final: 1 Pittsburgh over 3 Villanova
South Final: 1 North Carolina over 2 Oklahoma
Before I go on to my Final Four, I bet your all thinking wow that was totally chalk, well it wasn't I had lower seeds in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 then most people. I just picked the best teams, Cinderellas don't win titles (or Bracket Pools) so I picked who I felt was the best team out of every region or the ones with the best match ups (I'm talking about you Purdue) So here's my Final Four
Final Four
Louisville over Purdue
Pittsburgh over North Carolina
National Championship: Pittsburgh over Louisville
I picked Pittsburgh because simply I think they're the best team with Lawson's injury, If Lawson was healthy I would probably have picked Carolina over Pitt but he's not so Pitt is going to beat them and then they are going to take apart Louisville and get their revenge to become National Champs, hopefully Petino will wear the White Suit in that game so I can laugh, that is all I got enjoy the tourney!
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