that's how i used to roll. a one-line open and than into the soup...i've been inspired lately by the performance of my alma mater's crew the St. John's Redmen and given that today is the true beginning of NCAA Men's basketball, i figured i'd pull a little PRIMETIME out of my rear and do a quick breakdown of the tourney...
i filled out three brackets, purists say this is a cop-out and they may be right, but i have three. i'm special. the following, then, is an overview and best guess scenarios of the four regions rather then definitive picks game by game...
East:
Ohio State is chock full of seniors, can shoot and play defense and are one of three legitimate number one ranked teams in the country. The Big Ten as a conference was a whole lot weaker than most pundits predicted but the Buckeyes are fairly real. i like West Virginia in this top half as well. They are well coached and their zone is not atypical, making them a difficult look. I would stay away from Villanova, (who probably shouldn't be in the tourney at all) and Kentucky. The wildcats are still awfully young and i'm never crazy about an SEC conference team...
in the lower half it gets a little more complex. Washington, Syracuse and North Carolina could all come out of this half. Washington has the kind of player in Isiah Thomas that carries teams to the Elite 8, Syracuse has an experienced tournament coach and a killer match-up zone, and Carolina is Carolina, except they aren't. UNC might be a year away so i'm going to pass on them getting past Washington, its the Syracuse/Washington match up that i teeter on...
West:
this one will go according to hoyle for a while. Duke is another legimate number ranked teams from this year and had a chance of going undefeated if not for Kyrie Irving hurting his foot. i mapped this out on Sunday night figuring UConn in the west=Final Four. Kemba Walker is a beast and i hate him with the white hot heat of the sun, but the boy can play—although, once i found out Irving was practicing i switched my pick and have Duke getting out of this region...
San Diego State will make a nice run, and Texas will fall in the first round. i could go either way with the U of A (Arizona) based in my new home town. Its a pretty simple bracket for Duke and UConn to have their way with...
Southwest:
Kansas...
I have this bracket going completely to seed except for Richmond topping Vanderbilt (SEC) and VCU (they beat USC last night) beating Georgetown (at some point JT the Third Jr. will realize that he is recruiting more talented players than his Princeton system can handle)...
Southeast:
St. John's could lose to Gonzaga tonight. the Redmen could also end up in the Final Four. they are a tournament nightmare for most teams. the Redmen shut down Nolan Smith and Kemba Walker, and they would do the same to Jimmer Fredette if they can get past Gonzaga...
this is the most wide open bracket and your choices are plenty. you can be safe with Florida or Pittsburgh here, but Utah State/Kansas State, UCLA and Gonzaga/St. John's could make some noise here, beware, be-very-ware...
check Belmont in the first round...
Final Four:
you could choose all four number 1 seeds and do pretty well. i have two locks and one 99 percent lock in Duke, Kansas and Ohio State. Kansas was given a cakewalk to the Final 8 and even then i don't think Notre Dame can handle the NBA bodies the Jayhawks have...
i had Connecticut in the Final game until Kyrie Irving started practicing, so as much of a lock as i think Duke might be, this is the NCAA's and weirder things have happened...
Ohio State is a strong representative out of the East, but they haven't had to play a team like Syracuse and Washington is really intriguing. if North Carolina can keep up the team's body of work from the last month they could be in the conversation. on my three brackets i have Ohio State coming out of one, Syracuse another and Washington in a third. if i had done a fourth would have seen Carolina...
last but certainly the most interesting, you can pick 'em. Pittsburgh? sure. Florida? yeah, they can put something together. Utah State, Kansas State, Gonzaga, St. John's, UCLA, even last year's runner up Butler can all make a run. nothing is for certain. i have one for Pitt, one for Utah State, and one for St. John's (my wishful thinking bracket)...
Championship Final:
each bracket ends the same, Duke beating Kansas, but if this doesn't look a lot like when UConn beat Duke on the way to face George Mason in the final a few years back. i believe UConn has just as much of a shot of winning a title as Duke and Kansas do. the rest fall in line behind...
i used to capitalize when i wrote for The TORCH, (The Official Student Newspaper of St. John's), now i find it too constricting...don't sleep on the Celtics now that they have Jeff Green, the Heat can't check them, the Magic are a one trick pony most nights and for all the height the Bulls have, they will live and die with Derrick Rose, and i don't trust teams that depend on point guards to win unless that point guard is Magic Johnson...although, give the Knicks three straight days of practice and morning shoot-around and they could be right in the thick of things...if a liberal democrat is a treehugger, does that make a conservative republican a treefucker (reprinted a comment from a friends facebook post)...i move out to Tucson home of several early round and quarterfinal NCAA match ups over the years, and they send St. John's to Denver. oh well, at least we have Casey holding it down for the Redmen there...
