Monday, March 12, 2007

West Region

This bracket is pretty solid. Kansas is going to be really hard to beat, they are loaded with talent everywhere and are starting to peak. The only hang up, their past two years in the tourney have been short visits. Coach Bill Self and Junior guard Russell Robinson are the only two pivotal players who have the wounds from those two loses. Every other player logging more than 20 minutes a game is a freshman or a sophomore. They beat Florida early in the year and also beat Oklahoma St. when they were ranked #10. Teams that can beat Kansas:

1) UCLA – I love this team, I have watched them on and off all year. They are so much fun to watch Ben Howland is one of the best coaches of this decade. Look what he did in Pitt and now at UCLA. Aaron Afflalo is one of my favorite college players, he is so athletic and can make shots from anywhere on the court. Darren Collison is the real deal too, he can step and hit shots if he has to, but he would rather defer to Shipp and Afflalo. His vision is awesome. Another strong point of this team, their top seven scorers were all on the team that made the final last year. Experience and talent can go a long long way…
2) Southern Illinois- As a Holy Cross grad this sucks to write, but this team is pretty solid. They are experienced with Falker and Tatum scoring 27 points between them. They allow 56 ppg as a team but only score 63 themselves. Not a ton of size and don’t get a ton of production off the bench.

Kentucky v. Villanova- I like the Wildcats in this one…get it? Anyways, This game pits two teams from power conferences who got in because they are in power conferences. Kentucky doesn’t impress me much, they don’t stand out at all, they have lost ALL six games against ranked opponents this year. They were also 5-9 versus RPI top 50 teams This team sputtered down the stretch and might surprise people in a bad way, by exiting early. Villanova has a killer freshman scorer at point guard named Scottie Reynolds. They also have Curtis Sumpter back on track scoring 17+ ppg. Mike Nardi is a big time ace in the hole. If he shoots the ball well watch out.

Southern Illinois Vs. Holy Cross- The last game played in the first round is the one I cant wait for. Holy Cross played a great regular season, they played Duke and Syracuse well on the road and beat Bucknell twice. They have a few big men, namely Tim Clifford and Alex Van Der Baan who complement Keith Simmons and Torey Thomas. Van der Baan could be the key to this game, he always brings energy and is second to Simmons on the team in boards. The team defense and offense are nearly identical to Southern Illinois’. That means that the game will be won in two places, the free throw and the bench. Both teams need their big men to stay out of foul trouble. Pat Doherty can make a huge impact with his shooting and ball control off the bench.

Duke vs. VCU- hmmm, Duke in the tourney. 9 straight trips to the sweet sixteen. I don’t know if they will make it that far, but I cant see this team losing to VCU. Pride and talent are just too high even though they had a rough year. Duke can play really good defense, and they will slow down VCU’s attack. Paulus is key to handling the VCU press, and in turn that will stop the VCU scoring attack.

Pittsburgh vs. Wright State – I don’t like this Pitt team, some people do. They are tired. Their star Aaron Grey openly said he gets tired having to play a lot of games, well they have played a lot of games in the past week and it might catch up with them against Duke or VCU.

Indiana vs. Gonzaga – Gonzaga is back where they are comfortable and will be playing on the west coast. They want that shot at UCLA in the second round and they will get it…

Sleepers:
Gonzaga and maaaaaayyybbbbeeeee Illinois…

Ok so now let’s go to George’s picks…here is the way this will work. I am going to do it round by round. Heads will mean George picks the higher seeded team and tails picks the lower seeded team (6 is a higher seed than an 11 seed). He automatically gets the one and two seeds into the second round, other than that it is all George…

Midwest Region first round winners according to George…

#1 Florida vs. #16 Jackson State: Floriduh

# 8 Arizona vs #9 Purdue: Purdue

#5 Butler vs. #12 Old Dominion: Butler

#4 Maryland vs. #13 Davidson: Davidson

#6 Notre Dame vs. #11 Winthrop: Notre Dame

#3 Oregon vs. #14 Miami, OH: Miami

#7 UNLV vs. #10 Georgia Tech: Tech

#2 Wisconsin vs. #15 Texas A&M CC: Wisc.

West Region:

#1 Kansas vs. #16 Florida A&M/ Niagara: Kansas

#8 Kentucky vs. #9 Villanova: Nova

#5 Virginia Tech vs. #12 Illinois: Illini

#4 So. Ill vs. #13 Holy Cross: HC

# 6 Duke vs. #11 VCU: Duke

#3 Pitt vs. #14 Wright State: Pitt

#7 Indian vs. #10 Gonzaga: Zags

#2 UCLA vs. #15 Weber State: UCLA

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