Well it looks like I am going to be spending the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament in lovely Providence, R.I. While I am super excited to be covering the San Diego State men’s basketball trip to the NCAA Tournament, I am not excited to be doing it in Peter Griffin’s backyard. Really? New Mexico gets to play in San Jose, but we get sent almost 3,000 miles away? BYU gets to play in Salt Lake City if it makes it to the Western Regionals? Yeah, that seems totally fair. Oh well, now we just have to beat a team that knocked off two No. 1 seeds and if we win that one we get a reprieve by playing one of the top Big East schools … Awesome.
FINALFOURPREDICTIONS
FINAL FOUR: Kansas, Syracuse, West Virginia, Duke
CHAMPION: Kansas
QUOTABLE: “As much as I want to see SDSU win, I really do love Bruce Pearl. He better wear his orange suit.”
EARLY UPSET:
The easy pick here is No. 12 Cornell against No. 5 Temple. Cornell got hosed in seeding; in reality Cornell should be a 6 seed but for some reason the committee burned them.
BRACKET BUSTER:
I am going to stick with my early upset. In all reality, the Big Red may have lucked out with its seeding, facing a beatable Temple team and an inconsistent Wisconsin team in the second round. Do not be surprised if Cornell is in the Sweet 16.
PLAYER TO WATCH:
This one is pretty obvious: John Wall. The kid can just flat-out play ball. I do not know how Kentucky head coach John Calipari has been able to get all these amazing point guards, but he is about to have his third one-and-done lottery pick in as many years (Derrick Rose “08, Tyreke Evans “09). Look for Wall to step it up in crunch time.
MATCHUP TO WATCH:
This bracket should not have too many upsets in my opinion. I think the best game we are going to see is No. 2 West Virginia vs. No. 3 New Mexico in the Sweet 16. I cannot wait to see Darington Hobson face off against Da’Sean Butler. These teams match up well against each other; the winner will give stiff competition to Kentucky when it plays for a chance at the Final Four.
