Sunday, March 16, 2008

At First Glance....


The Brackets are out....Let the dissecting begin. At first glance, I wrote down some quick notes:

The East

-North Carolina gets the overall #1. No beef there. If they cannot get out of a Raleigh/Charlotte draw, four home games, than i'll be very surprised.

-Indiana ends up an #8 seed, showing the committee had no respect for the Big Ten conference. This is where IU belonged after they played like a bunch of sulking babies once Kelvin Sampson was let go.

-Butler got screwed in their seeding. At 29-3 with wins over Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Florida State, and Texas Tech, they deserved better than a #7. Not to mention they must play South Alabama in Birmingham.

-According to the committee, UNC was the overall #1. Tennessee, which looked like a #1 seed until they lost in the semis of the SEC Tournament, ended up the lowest #2 seed, despite winning the SEC regular season and giving Memphis there only loss of the season.

The Midwest

-Kansas earns there way to a #1 seed by winning the Big 12 Tournament. They are the last #1 seed according to the S-curve.

-Once again, the Big Ten gets no respect. Wisconsin, the Big Ten regular season and tournament champion with a 29-4 record, ends up a #3 seed.

-Check out the committee with their witty sense of humor. #6 USC vs. #11 Kansas State, the two best Freshman in the country will face off with O.J. Mayo and Michael Beasley. Watch out for USC going deep in the bottom half of the draw. They will beat Wisconsin in round two.

-#10 Davidson will be playing two games right in their backyard in Raleigh. They come in on fire and have played teams like UCLA, Duke, and North Carolina tight. Could they jump up and beat Georgetown in round two?

The South

-The Committee did Memphis no favors. For the Tigers to get to the Final Four, they will have to go through the Big East's toughest team in #4 Pittsburgh, and either #2 Texas or #3 Stanford.

-#2 Texas is the pick for us here. If they get to the Sweet 16, they get their next two games in Houston, the city with the biggest UT alumni base in the state.

-Looks like the Pac-10 got props as a bubble team, Oregon, got a #9 seed.

-Michigan State as a #5 seed? What did they do to warrant that? They finished a distant 4th in a bad Big Ten.

-Speaking of getting no love, Kentucky won 12 games in the SEC and ended up an 11 seed and were one of the last four at large teams in.

-Miami gets a #7 seed? They were .500 in the ACC in a down year. The league was so poor, it got only four teams in the Tournament. It won't matter when they lose in round one to St. Mary's.

-Stanford is the best #3 seed in our opinion. The Texas/Stanford Sweet 16 matchup should be great.

The West

-If anyone has an "easy route" to San Antonio, its #1 UCLA. We don't buy #2 Duke one bit. The one worry spot could be #4 Connecticut. They have the post men to stop Kevin Love.

-Drake gets a #5 seed, but Butler is a #7? How does that work? These are two evenly matched teams. Don't be shocked if they go down to #12 Western Kentucky.

-Back to Duke. They probably feel as though they were screwed in the home pod system, being shipped to D.C. rather than staying eight miles from home in Raleigh. Losing to Clemson in the ACC semis could not have helped them.

-The Big East got mad love, with West Virginia going from bubble team to a #7 seed with their two win performance in the Big East Tournament. Their "reward" is #10 Arizona, a team who underachieved all year long, but has great talent. This should be an indicator of who is the real Power Conference, The Big East or the Pac-10.

-Lock this in: #3 Xavier beats #2 Duke in the Sweet 16.

-One last bash of the Big Ten - Purdue was great all year, but since they were upset by Illinois, they ended up as a #6 and must face a good #11 Baylor cub whose four guard offense could give the Boilers fits.

Overall Stats

-The last four at large teams in were #12 Villanova, #11 Kansas State, #11 Kentucky, and #11 St. Joseph's.

-The Big East tied a record with eight at large teams. The Pac-10, Big 12, and SEC each got six, thanks to Georgia's unbelievable SEC Tournament win. They were rewarded with a #13 seed and a date with Xavier.

-28 at large bids came from the Power Conferences, six from the Non-Power Conferences. Western Kentucky and South Alabama received two of them and rightfully so.

-Do we think anyone got screwed? Other than Arizona State, nobody has a legitimate beef. Their bid was stolen by Georgia.

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