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<p>I don’t think it’s really all that fair to base a game on A blew out B. C beat A. C will beat B, but I agree with you that I think this game won’t really be all that close. Generally I’d say the 8/9 games are coinflips, but I think this year there are some clear cut winners in these games to pick.</p>
<p>Upsets (I will not define upsets b/c we are all big kids now): G Tech, Wake Forest, Mizzou, Louisville, Utah st., Siena. </p>
<p>Final 4 All number 1 seeds = /. No way it happens right?</p>
<p>Kansas Beats Kentuky</p>
<p>All tenative lol.</p>
<p>I haven’t really looked at the bracket yet or filled one out, but I do know this much: Baylor will make the Final Four. Duke is overrated. Villanova is just some trash. Oh, and Kentucky will not make the Final Four, either.</p>
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<p>I don’t care about rankings. They’re silly. Again, Louisville finished 6th in their conference. You can’t give them abstract credit for winning against Big East teams because when you throw out the dregs of the conference they lost two thirds of their games inclusive of their glorious pair against Syracuse).</p>
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<p>Oh boy, here comes the transitive property. Louisville lost by 8 to Western Carolina, who lost by 32 to Texas, who lost by 16 to TAMU, who lost by 9 to UW, who lost by 26 to USC, who lost by 9 to Cal. Obviously Cal will beat Louisville by 100, give or take :rolleyes:. For the umpteenth time, you can’t just take a few games in isolation. This is particularly true when you have a team like Cal going 3000 miles across the country to play against a NY team in NY AND without one of their star players. And then a night later they almost pulled off a comeback, narrowly losing to the Ohio State.</p>
<p>Look, I’m not guaranteeing a Cal victory. I’m just saying that from all rational perspectives they are the better team.</p>
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You can’t just dismiss rankings because they don’t work in your favor.
Rankings aside, the Pac-10 is a much weaker conference than the Big East.
I guess we’ll just have to see who wins on Friday.</p>
<p>Heaven- i don’t mean to sound like an ass and i have Cal beating Louisville, but do you know anything about college basketball? There is a reason why teams who win their conference get blown out by teams who come in 4th in their conference. Strength of schedule means a hell of a lot in college, which is one of the reasons why georgetown pulled a 3 seed with 10 losses and Northern Iowa got a 9 seed with 4 losses. Also, look at the Pac 10; they have 2 teams in the tourney including Cal. I actually have Washington as a sleeper to the sweet 16, but that’s besides the point. </p>
<p>Also, you guys can’t look at it like Louisville beat Syracuse 2 times, but Cal got blown out by Syracuse. Louisville played Syracuse at home in the last game of the season in the last game EVER at their stadium; that’s the difference between college and the pros.</p>
<p>I think Wisconsin will shock everyone with their sound half court game and depth if they get past the first two rounds vs Wofford and Temple/Cornell (both a tough matchup vs the 3).</p>
<p>I’m not dismissing the rankings because they don’t work in my favor, I’m dismissing them because they’re merely the product of hype. There’s no substance to them.</p>
<p>Obviously the Big East is better than the Pac-10, but again again again again Louisville finished 6th, not first. There’s no equivalence there. Throw in the fact that they only played two decent nonconference games and managed to lose 4 of them and you’ve got yourself a rather unimpressive resume. Bring up the Syracuse games all you want, but those games are the only reason they’re even in the tournament.</p>
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<p>Ok, but there isn’t a huge difference in their schedule strength.</p>
<p>^ Pretty sure this is incorperated into their rankings by AP</p>
<p>Who do you guys have making it out of the South? I think Duke will get to the sweet 16 and maybe have somewhat of a tough time vs A&M, but on the bottom half i am stuck completely. At the moment i have Baylor making the final 4, but i think that ND has a shot at beating them and you can’t discount Nova; they’re more than Scotty Reynolds or they wouldn’t have been this good. Duke’s my pick for the final 4 just to be somewhat safe, but if i had to stick with my gut it would be Baylor or ND.</p>
<p>Duke vs. Baylor with Duke winning. Duke has its act together this year.</p>
<p>HA! ND??? They are losing after the first round buddy.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why everyone is on Duke’s nuts this year. I will admit that I am a Maryland fan, so I do have some bias. But I really don’t think Duke has enough to win it all, or even make it to the Final Four. Duke will have serious trouble with teams that have size, such as (my Final Four pick) Baylor.</p>
<p>When it all comes down to it - Cal can’t beat the teams they need to in order to advance in this tournament. They can beat the cake walks, but there ain’t no cakewalks when you are the #8 seed. I’m not saying Louisville can either, but they have shown they have the capability at least.</p>
<p>^Baylor has size, but the only Semi-big guy that’s a real threat is Lacedarius Dunn. Tweety and him will carry the load, but Duke has the Triple-S package that can get them to the final four. Their big men in Zoubek and the Plumlees can do some work too. If they control the pace and make their shots, they will make the final four. The key to success for me is a combination of sound guard play, sound big men play and senior leadership, which is why I believe Kansas will win it all. They have all 3 components including a guard and a big man who are seniors and 2 top players in this year’s class. If you want my picks just ask. 
Louisville WILL beat Cal, there’s no Ifs here, Louisville is going to beat Cal.</p>
<p>I think ND hit in stride at the right time. To end the year, they beat #3 PIT by 15, @ #3 GTown by 15, Uconn by 8, @#6 Marquette by 3, and in the big east tourney beat Seton Hall by 12, #3 PIT (again) by 5, and lost to WVU by 2 points. That’s pretty dam impressive if you ask me- especially a georgetown team at full health and beating a very well coached PIT team twice. With gody back i think these guys can really surprise people, but their road to the final 4 is too rigorous which is why i don’t have them there. </p>
<p>Also, Duke’s back court is arguably the best in the league. They have more than enough leadership, the necessary coaching, and zoubeck is strong. If Duke is on and plays with the passion i think they’ll play with, watch out. Maryland got ripped off in such a hard region. I think MSU will tear them limb from limb, but i do love vaz and think you guys have a shot of beating them. However, MSU has a much better shot @ beating Kansas.</p>
<p>@ Matt- Kansas has everything. The question is whether or not they’ll get outplayed by a really good team after the first 2 rounds in MSU/UMaryland, followed by GTown/OhioSt/GT/Ok St. If they make the final 4, i think they’d dominate cuse, but i think KState would beat them (how i have it). It’s not always likely for a team like KState to fall to ANY team twice in a season, and since they lost to Kansas in the conference tourney, i think they’ll be playing with too much passion for Kansas and make it to the finals and win.</p>
<p>Yeah Baylor won’t beat Notre Dame now that ND has Luke Harongody back and they are playing the best basketball of the season for them. The only strong teams in the Big 12 are Kansas and KState.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity - I want to hear your plans for getting scores during school on Th/Fr (the 12:30 games). Will you watch in class? Do you have an iPhone to watch the games live under your desk?</p>
<p>Last year we had one kid with an iPhone checking scores every couple of minutes, writing down the scores on paper, and passing it around w/ the amount of time left 
. It was lots of fun during Math :D</p>
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Come on now. Louisville has a much tougher schedule than Cal. They play in the Big East, and they’ve played twice as many ranked opponents as Cal has. The RPI has Louisville’s schedule ranked seventh while Cal’s is fifteenth.</p>
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Definitely Duke. They got lucky and got placed into the easiest region. The only team that can challenge them in the South is 'Nova, and they’ve been really inconsistent lately - I have them losing to ND.</p>
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I live in a college town which revolves around basketball. Some of our teachers let us watch games as long as we’re quiet.</p>
<p>Here are my upsets per bracket and winner of each bracket:
Midwest: MSU > Maryland (not really an upset) in Round of 32, Ga Tech > OK ST, Georgetown > OSU
Kansas Wins Midwest</p>
<p>West: Xavier > Pitt Round of 32, KSU > Syracuse in Elite 8
KSU Wins West</p>
<p>East: Cornell > Temple, Washington > Marquette, Mizzou > Clemson, WVU > Kentucky in Elite 8
WVU Wins East</p>
<p>South: Louisville > Cal (isn’t really an upset), USU > TX A&M, Siena > Purdue, St. Mary’s > Richmond
Duke Wins South</p>
<p>Final 4: Kansas > KSU, Duke > WVU
Kansas > Duke </p>
<p>If you guys need any explanations for my upset picks, I shall explain.</p>
<p>^I have mostly the same picks as you. Can you explain why you have Washington over Marquette and Siena over Purdue?</p>
<p>Purdue doesn’t have Robbie Hummel who is their best player, and they were on a cold streak coming out. Siena has also upset the last 2 years and has a NBA worthy player in Edwin Ubiles who can carry them past the first round. They have good play all-around and are still an underrated bunch. </p>
<p>Washington has more talent out of their star players I believe and Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter are two amazing players. The only sizable player on Marquette is some African Freshman named Mbao or something. I don’t think Acker, Hayward and Butler will provide enough firepower for the win. Hayward has to have a REALLY good game for them to win. He’s their #1 go-to guy.</p>
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<p>Ever heard of this thing called non-conference play? It’s really fascinating. Anyway, Cal lost 4 times, all against top 10 teams, often back east. Louisville also lost 4 times, against Sisters of Mercy, the Brothers of Mercy, and their only two road games at UNLV and Kentucky.</p>
<p>The Pac-10 also plays what is often referred to as a [Round</a> Robin](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Robin"]Round”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Robin) where you play everyone in your conference twice and it’s impossible to, for example, play the best 7 teams a mere 8 times.</p>
<p>And you really think 7th and 15th are big differences in SOS? How bout the 17 spot gap between them in the actual ranking.</p>