March Madness!!!

[Reaver]

Now I know a lot of you have seen the U-Conn And Syracuse game, but before I begin,

Here is a quick recap for those of you who didn't:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=290710041

Now personally myself, For all of you who have busted my chops in the past, I'm a pure Die-Hard for everything Chicago. Bears, Cubs, Sox, Blackhawks, and Bulls.

But I also love to watch college B-Ball. I'm mainly an Illini fan, but for many years As much as I hate to say it but it's true, I have rooted for Syracuse as much as I can. Because I love to see them play ball.

Now after seeing the 6 over time game with U-Conn, I look forward to the 65 team bracket of MM.

Anybody who has some sort of discussion they want to put in here, Because I know Jeter sure will.

[TheRealHanSolo]

All I have to say is Ty Lawson is back and Psycho T will NOT and mean will NOT go home his senior year without a National Title, GO HEELS!!!!

[DutchRudd3r]

Time for the Terps to upset a few teams, get back to old form again.

[Capthemfoos]

Hell yea Dutch. Solo, NC = overrated.:p

[TheRealHanSolo]

Cap=STUPID! lol But Maryland did beat us so good job on making the tourney, I have you guys winning in the first round. We need to get a bracket going up on the DSA site so we can all fill one out.

[captnjeter]

I still need to take a look at everything, my Final 4 is not all together yet. A couple of quick points/upset alerts. The early rounds I have set, but I need to review my Elite 8 and onward picks.

1: Mississippi State over Washington. A 13 almost ALWAYS beats a 4 seed. Washington is the weakest of the 4 seeds, Mississippi St is the best (and most battle-tested) of the 13s.

2: Big East teams have a huge advantage in the tournament because they played a much tougher schedule than anyone else. Six of the Big East teams are in my Elite Eight. That conference is so beyond any other conference, it's mind-numbing. Even though the Big 10 and ACC got as many teams it, it took miracles for Michigan and Maryland to get in and they probably shouldn't be in.

3: Cornell over Mizzou in the first round AND over Marquette. Cornell has tournament experience from last year, and that carries them past Missouri. Marquette has a big injury to their guard, that gives Cornell a chance to win that game and reach the Sweet 16.

4: Huge Upset Alert! Maybe it's because of a bias to the school and location, but watch out for Binghamton and Duke in the first round. For Duke standards, this is a bad Duke team. I watched the American East Championship game on Saturday, and Bing has a lot of controlled emotion, and if they can get the great post play from their forward Fuller again, Duke will need magic to advance.

5: Upset? VCU over UCLA is NOT an upset even though it's a 6-11 match-up. VCU upset Duke in the 6-11 match-up in 2007, and consider this. UCLA failed to win their conference tourney in a weak PAC 10. They've lost four starters from last year and only Darren Collisson remains from the back-to-back-to-back Final Four teams. Aside from Gonzaga, VCU has been the most consistent mid-major team the past few years. They will get the upset.

Syracuse is my dark horse pick to reach the Final Four. Now they may need some help from teams on the top half of that bracket and have UNC be battered down by the time the Elite 8 comes, but Syracuse has the versatility on offense to really make a big run. They can score from anywhere. Routins and Devendorf can sink 3s, Flynn can drive to the lane and is one of the best points in the country, and they have two very good men with Jackson and Onuaku down low. Oh yeah, and some guy named Paul Harris who is incredibly versatile.

[TheRealHanSolo]

No Arizona and Wisconsin should not be in. They each have 19 wins. I think if you can't even win 20 games you shouldn't even be in the bubble talk. And adding one more team did nothing that the NCAA said it was going to do. It didn't add more mid-majors or help them out. All it does is put 2 16 seeds together who won conference titles who should get automatic bids anyways and makes them play to get in. That is disrespectful to those teams. And that extra spot? All it does is move to another big name conference school like Arizona or Wisconsin. This 65 team BS is nothing more than a slap in the face of teams who play their hardest to win their conference and then have to play another game just to make the tournament.

Jeter I agree with VCU. Binghamton though? Look as much as I hate Duke and believe me I hate everything Duke (which is why I didn't even pull for team USA in the Olympics because of Coach K, fuck that piece of shit) I do not see them losing in the tourney in the first round. Mizzu will make it to the elite 8. Washington will not lose that first game but it will be a very close game. I can see Wisconsin beating FSU in the first round but I can FSU as the surprise team of the tournament, Georgia Tech did it a few years ago and why? The ACC is the better conference. Refer back to my previous thread of why the ACC is better. If you go by stats the ACC is the better conference. Which is why UNC will be winning it all this year. But I think we will have to beat at least 3 Big East schools to get there, then we can put this Big East/ACC talk to rest until next season.

[captnjeter]

Wisconsin should not be in...

I can see Wisconsin beating FSU in the first round

Huh? I don't think Wisconsin (that was the other Big 10 team I was trying to think of) should be in either. Florida St. has too much talent to get get beat in that game.

I don't think a lot of people will be with me on that Binghamton pick though, but to me Duke has lost their magic recently. No bench, no role-players and they live and die by perimeter shooting. That's not what wins games in March. Duke probably will win, but I expect the Bearcats to play them close.

The ACC is not the better conference though. You look at the Big East and there were ten teams alive when the tourney began with Cinci and Providence. Notre Dame had a terrible end to their season but they had some quality wins before starting the conference schedule. You can't just go by record. The Big East teams have dreadful records because everyone beats each other up.

And the Big East has toughened up a lot since January. I thought that in January if you took the top 4 Big East teams and put them up against the top 4 ACC teams, the ACC would win most of those games. However, if you look at Pitt, so dynamic offensively and still plays tough D, UCONN inside can beat anyone, Louisville with the press D and Syracuse when they're focused is incredibly tough to beat. Those teams right now are playing a LOT better than UNC, Duke, Wake Forest and FSU. Big East teams will be more ready to play because they have been playing against quality competition for the longest time.

[DutchRudd3r]

Im not a huge fan of the big east, but id like to see a team like pitt win the championship, change of pace ya know. i loathe duke and i think NC has had its turn. so pitt, maybe louisville. those are the 2 im rootin for.