NCAA Tourney Bracket Revealed Early!!
Why wait for the tournament selection committee? I’ve got your 65 teams right here. Joe Lunardi may be ESPN’s Bracketologist
but he’s not the best in the biz. I now present the 65 teams headed to the Big Dance courtesy my Dad. Here is his email to me in its entirety (I’ve updated with MSU’s win): “This may be my worst projection in the last 10 years. Why? Mediocrity! My process involves looking at data that allows me to almost compare blind resumes. So when I finish
I’m sometimes surprised at the outcome. This year I am devastated. Of the “bigs
” the Big East is the class while the Big 10 is common. My dance card – 7 Big East teams and 8 Big Ten teams. I refuse to put San Diego St in my bracket when their signature win out of conference is CSU-Northridge. So
here we go…” AMERICAN EAST – Binghamton (14) ACC – UNC (1)
Duke (2)
Wake (3)
FSU (4)
Clemson (6)
Maryland (10)
BC (11) ATL. SUN – E Tenn St (15) ATL 10 – Xavier (5)
Dayton (8)
Temple (12) BIG EAST – Pitt (1)
L-Ville (1)
UConn (2)
Nova (4)
Syracuse (4)
WVU (6)
Marq (7) BIG SKY – Portland St (14) BIG South – Radford (15) BIG 10 – Mich St (2)
Purdue (5)
Illinois (7)
Ohio St (8)
Michigan (9)
Wisc (10)
Minn (11) BIG 12 – Okla (2)
Missouri (3)
Kansas (3)
Okla St (5)
Texas (7)
Texas AM (9) BIG WEST – CS Northridge/Pacific (16) COLONIAL – VCU (12) CONF USA – Memphis (1) HORIZON – Butler (9)
Cleve St (13) IVY – Cornell (15) MAAC – Sienna (12) MAC – Buffalo/Akron (13) MEAC – Morgan St/Norfolk St (16) MVC – Creighton (10)
N. Iowa (12) MWC – Utah (4)
BYU (9) NORTHEAST – Bob Morris (15) OVC – Morehead St (16) PAC 10 – Wash (3)
UCLA (6)
Ariz St (6)
Cal (8)
USC (11) PATRIOT – American U (14) SEC – Tenn (5)
LSU (8)
Miss. St. (11) SOUTHERN – UT Chat (17) SOUTHLAND – St F Austin/UTSA (13) SWAC – Ala St/Jackson St (17) SUMMIT – N Dakota St (14) SUN BELT – W. Kentucky (13) WCC – Gonzaga (7) WAC – Utah St/Nevada (10) Luckbox’s thoughts: UConn is a better #1 seed than Memphis. Who has Memphis beat this year? Coasting through Conference USA just doesn’t compare to what the Huskies did in the Big East. Should Duke beat FSU
they could get the 4th #1 seed (along with UNC
Pitt and Louisville). Mich. St. and Oklahoma both played their way out of a #1 seed. I also think Florida played its way out of the tourney by failing to make even the semis of the SEC tourney. The SEC gets juts two teams unless Miss. St. upsets Tennessee. That said
I haven’t done enough checking myself to see who might be a better candidate. UPDATE: Miss. St. did
in fact
upset Tennessee so they’re in and Florida is out.
Five Rules for Picking Your Bracket
If you’re like 99% of the adult population in America
you’re working on your NCAA bracket this week (due by Noon ET on Thursday). And if you get it just right
there might even be some money in it for you. Here are five rules for picking your bracket that will give you an advantage over anyone who hasn’t read this: Number 1: Don’t trust the SEC. Only three SEC teams made the Big Dance this year and only two of them were even worthy (Miss. St. won the SEC tourney to “earn” an automatic bid). Expect all three SEC teams to go out in the first round. MSU is terrible and lost to just about every out of conference opponent they faced. Tennessee has a nice out of conference win against Marquette
but that’s it. They lost to Gonzaga twice
Temple
Kansas and Memphis. In conference
UT struggled against the “better” teams like Kentucky
LSU and Auburn. And LSU’s out of conference schedule was a joke. The “big” win was against a mediocre Wash. St. team. They lost to Texas A&M
Utah and Xavier. Pathetic. The SEC is terrible. I wish there was a stronger way to state this. Number 2: Trust the Big East They’ve been the strongest conference in college basketball all year long
. There’s a reason 9 Big East teams were ranked going into the conference schedule. It’s because the Big East generally beat up on other conferences. Georgetown and Notre Dame were top 10 teams before they started facing other Big East teams. Here’s a look at some Big East out of conference wins: Pittsburgh: Florida St.
Siena UCONN: Wisconsin
Gonzaga
Michigan Syracuse: Memphis
Kansas
Florida The Big East team I actually worry about is Louisville. Perhaps they figured out how to flip a switch because they were pretty bad early in the season with losses to Western Kentucky
Minnesota and UNLV. They’re hot now
though
so it’s hard to bet against them. Number 3: The Hilltoppers are ready for an upset They’ve already gotten a signature win over Louisville this year and have also tested themselves against teams like Georgia
Florida St. and Mississippi St. They won’t be intimidated by Illinois. And the Illini will likely be without their best perimeter defender which is good news for guard-heavy Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers three guards all average more than 12 ppg and hit more than 36% of their 3-point shots. Illinois’ only chance is to slow down the game and use their 7-footer. It won’t work. Number 4: Utah will not be upset by Arizona Listen to the oddsmakers and a Wildcats win in this game wouldn’t actually be an upset. For the life of me
I can’t figure out why anyone would expect the Wildcats to win. They are far and away the worst at large team in the Big Dance. It took a win over a terrible Stanford team to close the regular season just to get to .500 in a relatively weak Pac 10. They were 11-8 on Jan. 21st and closed the season losing 5 out of 6. A seven game winning streak over mostly mediocre teams saved their season. The Utes’ Luke Nevill will neutralize the Wildcats’ best weapon
Jordan Hill. And Arizona will go home. Number 5: The four #1 seeds won’t make the Final Four
but they’ll all be close It’s a lock. All four #1 seeds will make the Elite Eight. The bumps they’ll encounter aren’t nearly big enough to stop them. The only possible upset is Wake over Louisville. Other than that
it’s a cakewalk. The Final Four is a different story
however. Louisville faces a tough matchup with Michigan St. (the only legitimate Big 10 threat in the tourney). Pitt faces a tough matchup with Duke or even Nova
who beat Pitt by 10 in the regular season. UConn will be the most popular pick to fail because they have a run-in with Memphis planned. And I wouldn’t want to be UNC looking at a matchup with Player of the Year Blake Griffin and Oklahoma or maybe even a strong Syracuse squad. If you’re looking for a repeat of last year’s chalk
you’ll be disappointed. I can’t tell you which #1 (or #1s) will fail to get there (after all
I’m facing some of you in bracket challenges)
but I can tell you the chalk ain’t happening!
BREAKING: Betonsports CEO pleads guilty to federal charges
Today
former Betonsports.com CEO and Director David Carruthers pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the Betonsports organization’s conspiracy included: “Creating and disseminating advertising throughout the United States which represented that its Internet and telephone gambling operations were legal and licensed. They failed to disclose known material facts
namely that the U.S. government and most state governments viewed such operations as illegal
and that they did not have a license to operate legally anywhere in the United States.” “Representing to potential customers that money transferred by them to BetonSports on account was safe and readily available to be withdrawn at anytime. BetonSports was actually using the funds to support and expand its operations
including the purchase of Easybets. When BetonSports ceased operations in July 2006
it could not repay its customers over $16 million held on account.” Carruthers now faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $250
000
in fines. He will be sentenced on October 2nd. The man who hired Carruthers also faces charges along with four other individuals. Those charges range from RICO conspiracy to mail fraud to the interstate transportation of gambling paraphernalia. That trial is scheduled for September.
