NCAA Tournament - Round 2 Day 1

All of the 3 Big 10 teams remaining play today.

First up is the Kansas State - Wisconsin game at 3:20pm CT.  Both games that I have seen of Kansas State involved Beasley getting into early foul trouble.  For some reason, I expect him to stay out of foul trouble today score a billion points and help his team beat Wisconsin.  It’s a long shot, but I picked it before this tournament began and I can’t change it now.   But if he gets in foul trouble Wisconsin will kill them.

At the same basic time, Purdue plays Xavier at 3:40pm CT.  Purdue looked as good as I hoped in the first round.  I picked them to win this round (against Georgia).  They will still beat Xavier.  I kind of wish that I had picked Purdue to beat Duke in the next round.

The final Big 10 game is Michigan State against Pittsburgh at 9:10.  MSU looked fine against Temple which means it is about time for them to play like crap.  Pittsburgh will cause all kinds of trouble and win by 10 or more.

Which will leave Purdue as the only Big 10 team left in the tournament after today.  Go Boilermakers.

I couldn’t care less about any of the other games except for wanting Duke to win today so that a Big 10 team (Purdue) can beat them on Saturday.  It would also be nice if Marquette beat Stanford since I originally picked Kentucky to beat Stanford today.

No proofreading today.  I have to go install hardwood floors in the dining room and living room today.

NCAA Tournament - Round 1 Day 2

My best prediction from yesterday that turned out wrong was picking Kentucky to upset Marquette.  The game was close right until the end when Marquette drilled free throw after free throw to clinch the win.  Kentucky still should have won that game.  They only managed to have 3 people make a basket and a 4th guy made 2 free throws.  If ANYBODY else had decided to man up and make a couple baskets, like literally two baskets, the intentional fouling would not have happened at the end and Kentucky probably would have won the game.  But they didn’t so they get to go home.  Enjoy the ride.

The Big 10 managed to win all 3 games yesterday.  Good job.

Today, the only Big 10 game is the Indiana - Arkansas game which starts at 8:40pm CT tonight.  Arkansas will regain the lead and pull away in the second half after the each Indiana player is distracted by Kelvin Sampson sending them text messages and calling them throughout halftime.

Also on the schedule today is the Butler - South Alabama.  Butler got hosed by how lowly they were seeded.  They can either let that bug them and lose or just show up and beat up South Alabama.  I’m expecting the latter.

Drake opens the tournament today against Western Kentucky.  Go Drake, go.

So far in my Yahoo Pick ‘Em Tournament, I still have 15 of the Sweet 16 (and that’s only because Kentucky only has 3 players).  I think based on my safe picks, that I shouldn’t lose any other Sweet 16′ers today.

Let’s take a second out of our busy days to remember the Duke - Belmont HS game last night.  It’s always good to take a few minutes to laugh each day.

Today’s Big 10 Games in the NCAA Tournament

So far the Big 10 is undefeated in this year’s tournament having not played in the play in game.  We’re off to a good start.

Today, the Big 10 has 3 games.  Considering the Big 10 only had 4 teams make the NCAA tournament this year, today is a pretty big day.

The first Big 10 game today is the Michigan State - Temple game which starts at 11:30am CT.  I know nothing at all about Temple but plenty about Michigan State.  It is completely irrelevant who MSU is playing.  They have about a 50-50 chance of winning the game.  I cannot remember seeing such in inconsistent team that is capable of swinging from such highs to such lows in the history of basketball.  I flipped a coin to determine that MSU will win by 1 point because Nietzel happens to hit a 25 foot 3 pointer as the clock expires.

Next up for the Big 10 is the Purdue - Baylor game at 1:50pm CT.  I really want Purdue to do well since they seemed to come out of nowhere and stand toe to toe against anybody on the schedule.  Both teams flubbed horribly in their conference tournament losing to really bad teams.  Purdue was definitely hotter up until that point as long as you are impressed with regularly beating Big 10 opponents this year.  I like Purdue’s defense and the few times I have watched their games I thought their offense was pretty efficient.  I’ll pick Purdue to win by 8.

The final Big 10 game today is Wisconsin - CSU Fullerton at 8:40pm CT.  CSU Fullerton likes to shoot 3s and their tallest player is 6′ 6″.  Unless they hit about 20 of 25 3 pointers, Wisconsin will crush them.  And Wisconsin’s defense is good enough that CSU will have to make those 3 pointers under extreme duress.  Wisconsin will easily walk away with a 15 point win.

The other big hyped game from today is the Kansas State - USC matchup at 6:10pm CT.  The game features two big name freshman who will be playing in the NBA next year.  One of them will be playing their last game today.  It would be a lot more interesting of a game later in the tournament but who really cares about the outcome of a couple of one year wonders outside the fans of the respective teams.  My prediction is that the game will end with one of the teams scoring more than the other but other than that, I don’t care.

I’ll also be keeping my eye on the Duke - Belmont game to make sure that Duke wins so that they can eventually get crushed by Kansas in the Final Four like I predicted yesterday.

The NCAA Tournament

I have always had a love/hate relationship with the NCAA Tournament. Iowa made the tournament almost every year but then there was the stretch where Iowa played Duke during the first weekend (and Duke always seemed to go on and win the whole thing) for several years.

Iowa took care of making sure I don’t have to feel bad when they get knocked out of the tournament by deciding to only beat Northwestern over the last month or so.

That just leaves the beloved tournament.

I signed up for the Yahoo! Tourney Pick ‘Em ‘08 this year by joining the Black Heart Gold Pants group (Group #5862, password gornstar) mostly just because I wanted a chance to use gornstar correctly in a sentence for once.

Normally, I am eliminated from any hope of winning these things after picking the Hawkeyes to win the championship. This year however, I have a slightly more sanely filled out bracket.

I have Tennessee, Kansas, Memphis, and Duke in the Final Four. Then Tyler Smith will score 56 as Tennessee beats Kansas and Memphis will beat Duke 204 to 27. Tyler Smith will be the only person to score in the championship game which Tennessee will win, 32-0.

I really wanted to pick Drake to beat Duke but after several years of watching what Duke does to Davis lead teams, I expect that Duke will win by 1 on some last second bullshit free throw.

Okay, maybe the Hawkeyes still end up influencing my decisions after all.

Big 10 Tournament - First Round

Today the lower half of the Big 10 teams start their 4 day journey to try to force their way into NCAA Tournament.

Let’s take a look at the matchups and what might happen.

Minnesota - Northwestern

Northwestern is really, really bad.  Minnesota is the best team playing in the Big 10 on Thursday and the only Thursday team that could possibly maybe go to the NCAA Tournament without winning the Big 10 one (assuming they make it to the finals - and even that would be a stretch).  Tubby Smith will keep Minnesota composed and easily get past Northwestern and maybe even save up a little bit of energy for their game tomorrow.

Illinois - Penn State

Illinois has massively underperformed this year and Penn State has managed to keep playing pretty well despite losing their best player for the season earlier this year.  Pruitt and I went to the same high school and played basketball for the same coach (Coach Kerkman had been around forever long before I started playing) so I always hope he does well but am still happy when Illinois loses.  Penn State beat Illinois twice already this year.  Beating any team 3 times in a year is tough and Penn State might still be emotionally drained from their huge win against Indiana to end the regular season.  Illinois will play a little bit like the team people were expecting this year and win by 10+.

Iowa - Michigan

Common sense tells me that Iowa played so poorly down the stretch that they cannot possibly win this game.  Or maybe that’s just my heart’s way of keeping me from expecting anything.  Did you know that other than beating Northwestern twice, Iowa hasn’t beaten anybody else since beating Ohio State on Feb. 2?  Ouch.

Iowa also hasn’t played a game since March 4th.  I think the extra rest will help Iowa catch a second wind and spark a better shooting percentage and maybe even give them the legs they need to play some defense against Michigan in the second half.  Iowa beat Michigan the first game and lost the second.  But Iowa had a pretty good lead in the second game before they just completely fell apart in the second half.  If they have the strength to play the whole game, they should be able to get past Michigan.  Hopefully not playing this weekend was enough rest.

This should be a close game that either team will be able to win at the end.  I’ll pick Iowa with a final score of something like 65-60.

And the winners of these games have virtually zero chance of winning tomorrow - unless Iowa wins today, of course.