ZoomSlowik

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 14, 2006 -> 02:15 AM) I like the way UCLA plays defense, and if anybody from the west is going to make a run it's UCLA....but I just am not sure if they have the offensive weapons yet. I think within the next few years Howland will lead them back to the Final 4, but not yet....they don't have the mix of offensive weapons to go with the defense yet. I really like Farmar though, and any team with a really good point guard that plays defense has a shot. You and I have the same opinion of them. If Josh Shipp were healthy, I might have them going far, but without him they've only got 2 guys averaging in double figures and 5 guys averaging over 6 points. If Farmar and Afflalo come back, they should be solid next year with Shipp healthy and a decent PF recruit coming in.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 14, 2006 -> 12:07 AM) Xavier. Xavier is starting to get things back together after losing Thornton and Finn for the year. Also, everyone knows how I feel about Gonzaga, so I like the Musketeers in that one. I got SDSU taking down the Zags. I don't think Xavier has enough weapons without those two guys.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 13, 2006 -> 11:42 PM) Watching them play. I've seen them play a good amount and Slaughter and Heath are absolute studs. SDSU is a real, real good team and in my sweet 16. Damn, I thought I was the only one. Do you have them beating Gonzaga or Xavier?

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Mar 13, 2006 -> 11:33 PM) I'm willing to be educated here, but why is San Diego St. considered a good team? What have they done or who have they beaten? Hell, I can't even find good teams they lost to. --Best team they played was Cal and they lost by 18 -- Split with Air Force, the team nobody thinks should be there -- Their non-conference schedule consisted of: Alaska Fairbanks UIC (loss) Southern Miss (10-21) Albany (woo hoo a #16 seed, but a tourney team anyway) San Diego Point Loma?? California Washington State (last in the PAC 10) UCSB (15-14) Maryland - Baltimore Co Providence (loss - doesn't make Big East Tourney) Loyola Marymount (12-18) South Dakota State I'll try to keep an open mind, but what about that schedule or the conference they play in makes anyone think they should be able to stay on the floor with Indiana, provided IU doesn't sleep through the game?? It's not their schedule that is impressive. A lot of teams haven't really done anything, and they're one of them. It's their roster that I like. They have two legit big men in Slaughter and Abukar, something a lot of major conference teams don't have. Heath was the conference player of the year and is a solid shooter and scorer. Sharper is another really solid shooter that hits for a really high percentage. Williams is a passable PG, and Spain is a pretty good all-around player. Their roster is pretty impressive, and half of their losses came before Abukar is eligible. They're dangerous, especially considering they're in a weak bracket.

The US looks pretty solid whenever Willis isn't on the mound. Outside of that the DR, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico are the only teams that impress me. Cuba is okay, but they don't seem to have any pitching depth.

Man, and Willis will probably end up pitching in a one and done game that matters. How the hell do you walk 4 guys against Korea? That's just weak.

Anyone with Willis in their fantasy league might be well served to trade him now. He was already on a pitiful team, now his performance seems to be going down the tubes. I know, it's early and he might just be a bit rusty, but he's always struck me as a bit of a fluke. He kind of reminds me of Hideo Nomo. Once people figured out his delivery, he started getting rocked.

I personally like San Diego State. Slaughter and Heath are both really solid players, and Abukar, Spain, and Sharper make solid contributions. They're a pretty tough team.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Mar 13, 2006 -> 06:04 PM) With an S curve, if Memphis is the worst 1, then they should have the best 2 and the worst of the threes, no? I'm not sure. I don't profess to know how they come up with the seedings in each region. Since Gonzaga was widely considered a 2, I would think that they would be the strongest 3 on the ratings, although most of us say that they are the weakest.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 13, 2006 -> 05:42 PM) They're just bad. EDIT: Also considering the Memphis the weakest number 1 like zoom has nothing to do with considering Gonzaga the strongest number 3. Just cause they were in the discussion for a top seed means absolutely nothing. Seriously, they have like 3 players that are any good. Granted one of them is pretty tough inside and another is averaging 28 a game, but they don't have a lot of talent for a team that is supposed to be good. They just barely squeeked by several weak WCC teams, so I don't see how they are going to do anything against real competition. The only teams they beat that were any good this year are two drastic underacheivers in Maryland and MSU, and they needed triple-overtime to beat the latter. As for the second part, theoretically Memphis is the lowest rated of the #1 seeds, since they ended up on Duke's side of the bracket. That should also theoretically mean the get stronger teams for the seeds below them, but I really don't think that was the case. I think Nova got the deepest bracket and Duke got the two biggest threats in theirs, while UConn got a virtual cake-walk comparatively.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 13, 2006 -> 05:30 PM) I really don't think they could have got a harder draw for the first weekend, they got a tough 13 and then a real tough 5/12. I also disagree about Memphis being the weakest 1, I believe that's Duke to be honest. Gonzaga blows so I agree there. I also believe UCLA is the strongest 2 but we've had this convo before. That's what makes March so awesome though. I just added my thoughts about Bradley on my previous post. Pitt is tough, but Kansas should be able to hold their scoring down and get enough to win. I've seen much tougher 5 seeds. I don't like Duke, but I think they're a tougher out than Memphis or Nova. Redick and Williams give them two solid senior leaders, and they have some decent role players. I don't really like Memphis' chances because of poor shot selection and a heavy reliance on the 3. As for Nova, I think their lack of size finally catches up with them. Either that or fatigue from those guards playing so much. Either way, I've soured on them. I said my piece on UCLA. They only have two real scorers, are only passable inside, turn it over a lot, and aren't the greatest shooting team. Plus they play in a weak conference and lost twice to the only other even remotely dangerous team in it. Honestly, I think Tennessee would beat them head to head, but they haven't been playing well down the stretch. Anyways, I guess the only thing that matters is what happens on the court.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 13, 2006 -> 04:18 PM) I really couldn't disagree with you more. Any particular reasoning? I know it isn't a gimme, but I think that's about as good as they could have expected. Yeah, it would have been nice if they played Washington or Cuse instead of Pitt, but as I said, I'd rather have them then any of the 4 seeds except maybe Illinois. Plus IMO they got the weakest of the 3's and the second weakest 2 in their bracket to go with the weakest #1 (I think Memphis versus Nova is debatable, especially if Ray is off). I guess you like Bradley, but I'm not a huge fan of them. Bryant is impressive, but Sommerville seems to drift outside too much, resulting in a low shooting percentage, and nothing really wows me about their guards. They aren't exactly a good outside shooting team either, something that is usually crucial in major upsets.

QUOTE(watchtower41 @ Mar 13, 2006 -> 03:33 PM) I havent heard anyone say that it would be an "easy" road for Kansas, for them to make it to the Final Four out of that region would be considered an upset. That being said, I think Kansas will absolutely own Pitt. Memphis/Kansas has potenital to be one of the most entertaining games of the tournament with youth and athleticism. They key for Kansas will be their backcourt, and right now, there arent too many teams that are playing up to their level, both offensively and defensively I don't know, Kansas definitely could have had a tougher draw than this. I definitely think that they can beat Pitt because they can actually score, and Memphis is just as young as Kansas is. While it will be an entertaining game, I think Kansas has a little better depth, especially if Douglas-Roberts isn't quite on top of his game with the injury. I definitely think they can take whoever comes out of the other side of the bracket too. Things could have been a lot tougher. They could have faced UConn or Duke as the #1 seed. Both have a lot more experience than Kansas and probably would be a tougher team for them to beat than Memphis. They also got a beatable second round opponent in Pitt. Granted Pitt is by far the best of the 5 seeds in my book, but they could have easily had to face someone like Florida, LSU, or BC that is a bit more balanced and athletic. Plus UCLA and Gonzaga are fairly weak high seeds on the other side of the bracket considering that Memphis was the bottom #1 seed. They did pretty well here, and I'm not sure they could have been much better off.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 13, 2006 -> 03:18 PM) Another fun fact, Lunardi actually got 2 teams wrong this year for the first time ever? I always here he gets all but 1 teams right every year, but this year Air Force and Utah State got into spots he had Cincinnati and Florida State getting. Pwned, although I feel kinda bad for him. This is the most poorly done bracket of all time, so for him to only miss 2 teams isn't that bad. He was way off on the seeding, although really he had the seeding right and the committee did it wrong. Maybe we should just have Lunardi do the brackets every year from now on. Honestly, it's really hard to not get about 58 of the 65 right. I don't bother looking at all the numbers and don't have any inside information and only like 3 teams surprised me. Plus he's typically pretty bad at getting the seeding right.

My memory clearly sucks, I forgot a lot of easy ones, like NC State and Georgetown. I got 7 for Atlanta. Duke 3, Cuse 1, Cal 1, NC State 2. Cuse has a pre-tourney title also. For Minneapolis I got 5. One each for Nova, Zona, Wisconsin, Georgetown, and OSU. Wisconsin has 3 more in the pre-tournament era. Illinois also has a pre-tourney title that I don't think they're counting, and so do Kansas with 2, Pitt with one, Kentucky with one, and UNC one

I don't think the other brackets even come close to those two. They're probably in single digits, since most of the powerhouses are in those two brackets. The only ones I know have won it all in Atlanta are Duke and Cuse (I think Cal won one in the early days of the tourney, and maybe Iowa), and I think it's just Nova, OSU, and Zona in Minny (maybe Wisconsin). I seriously doubt either of those brackets has more than about 5.

I just added a new wrinkle to my bracket: Marquette in the Elite 8. One of those 7 through 10 seeds seems to make a ridiculous run almost every year, and I think that's the best spot to have it in. They matchup up pretty well with UCLA, and I already had San Diego State as the other Sweet 16 team. That's actually a worse matchup for them than Indiana or Gonzaga because of Slaughter and Abukar inside, but their guard play is a lot stronger, and Novak is a bit of a mismatch.

After taking a look at my bracket, I had to change my entry name from "Upset City" to "Too Much Chalk."

I personally just can't pick A&M. They had one good game all year against Texas and that's pretty much it. Hell, their 2 wins against Baylor were by a combined 6 points. Jones and Law have some talent, but no one else impresses me. I'll have to go back and look at Kent State. I thought they looked decent, but I like Pitt. I thought about Utah State, but I just don't think they can score enough to get by Washington.

That Kansas team last year just wasn't very good looking back on it. They had talent, but they couldn't put anything together. Simien was their only player who was doing well. Giddens had loads of talent but apparently thought that he was a sharpshooter and wouldn't go to the basket most of the year. Lee (or whatever the other guard's name was, slipping my mind) wasn't playing well at the end of the year because of an ankle injury. Miles was pretty solid, but he was a pass-first PG without a whole lot of options. Seriously, Christian Moody was a starter on last year's team. This team is clearly playing a lot better. They're a lot more athletic and they have a lot more scoring options. Their only real problem is youth, but they are really on a roll right now.

What do you guys think of the 5-12 games? I know that a 12 wins virtually every year, but I don't see any that I like this year. The closest one I see is the Nevada game, but that's not really a good matchup for Montana. I'm really not a fan of Texas A&M, I don't see Pitt going down, and I don't think Utah State can keep up with Washington. Is it just me, or are these games not quite as ripe for upset picks this year? For some reason I could see all of the 11's winning, but I don't really like the 12's.

There are some weird ones in here, so I don't feel so bad anymore. I like a lot of the 11 seeds. I got SIU, San Diego State, and UW-Milwaukee in the second round, with San Diego State also taking down Gonzaga (yeah, I know, that's a bit of a stretch). I'm also sorely tempted to pick them to beat UCLA, but that is seriously pushing it. I've got Kansas taking down Memphis and UCLA. I also have Florida in the Final Four. I guess those are only mild upsets. I've got Wichita State over Tennessee. I've got Georgetown over OSU. I'm seriously considering taking GW over Duke. If I can get any indication that Mensah-Bonsu is even close to healty, I think I'm going to do it. If I don't I'll almost certainly have LSU taking them down.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 12, 2006 -> 09:56 PM) Boo, I wanted to be the only one. Steve Lavin had it too, but he's just a bit biased.

So far I have UConn winning it all with Florida and Kansas in the Final Four. I haven't decided on who I want in the Atlanta region yet. It'll probably be Texas or LSU.

It seems to me that there are two injury issues that can have a big effect on this bracket. The first is the health of Tyrus Thomas. It seems like they simply chose to rest him and that he should be fine. However, he could be a little rusty. The bigger one to me is Nana Mensah-Bonsu. My theory is that the committee penalized them a few spots because of his uncertain health status. If he doesn't play, they'll almost certainly go down to Duke. However, if he can play, GW can definitely give them a tough game, and in my opinion might beat them.