Why, oh why, do the sports gods dislike me so much? It apparently is not enough that I have to suffer through IU's current struggles -- now, only hours after my official pronouncement that I have adopted West Virginia as my second team, I have to suffer through watching the Moutaineers shoot 6-27 from behind the arc in a 57-53 loss to Pittsburgh. Baby Kwynsie must have kept Papa Pittsnogle up all night, as Kevin failed to make a single shot in 12 attempts and fouled out with 0 points and 4 turnovers. Who in the heck does he think he is? Will Perdue?
Now that I have single-handedly ruined the Mountaineers' season by electing to cheer for them, I can only hope that the state of West Virginia does not hunt me down. There has got to be nothing worse than getting beaten over the head with a bottle of Old Harper by a bunch of men in coonskin caps. Such an activity actually rates #42,388 on my list of things to do this weekend, just after watching the Pro Bowl, and just before cleaning the bathrooms of all DuPage County McDonalds with my tongue. Pure agony.
Well, I promised you that I would step out on a limb and try and project the 65 teams that will make the NCAA Tournament and I shall live up to my word. So, here goes. This ought to be good for a laugh...
Conference Champs (from one-bid conferences)
1. Albany
2. Florida Atlantic
3. Northern Arizona (I so want to pick Montana)
4. Winthrop
5. Pacific
6. Wisconsin- Milwaukee
7. Penn
8. Manhattan (in a close battle with I-O-N-A)
9. Akron
10. Oral Roberts (sorry, Ooey-pooey)
11. Delaware St
12. Farleigh Dickinson
13. Samford
14. Bucknell
15. Davidson
16. Northwestern State
17. Western Kentucky
18. Southern
19. Gonzaga
BTW, out of the above list, Gonzaga will make it regardless of whether they win their conference tournament, Bucknell has an excellent shot, and Grimace has a decent shot should the Toppers win the remainder of their games and lose in the Sun Belt tournament final.
Teams that will have to have the majority of their players come down with Asian Bird Flu to be left home:
20. Duke
21. North Carolina State
22. George Washington
23. Texas
24. Connecticut
25. Villanova
26. Pittsburgh (maybe they can get a first and second round game in Detroit...Jerome Bettis is..oh, never mind)
27. West Virginia
28. Illinois
29. Michigan State
30. Ohio State
31. Iowa
32. Memphis
33. Northern Iowa
34. UCLA
35. Tennessee
36. LSU
37. Florida
Teams that are in real good shape and could probably survive one key player coming down with bird flu
38. North Carolina
39. Boston College
40. Kansas
41. Oklahoma
42. Georgetown
43. Michigan
Teams that will want to stay out of all aviaries until mid-March, but should be in when all is said and done (aka: Bubble teams that get lucky because everyone else stinks)
44. Seton Hall
45. Xavier (I predict that they get hot down the stretch)
46. Iowa State
47. Missouri State
48. Marquette
49. Wisconsin
50. George Mason (should win CAA tournament)
51. Creighton
52. Arkansas
53. Wichita State
54. Air Force (winner of Mountain West)
55. Washington
56. Arizona
57. California
58. Nevada (WCC winner)
The bottom of the barrel:
59. A team from the ACC...Miami (Fla), Maryland, Miami (Fla), Maryland, Miami (Fla), Maryland...they play on March 1...the game is in College Park...everyone knows how I feel about teams playing at home and the refs...Maryland it is
60. Syracuse (ugh...)
Oh boy, I am down to five spots for 11 teams. Time to start picking out of a hat...
61. Alabama
62. Kentucky (hey, its a pro-SEC hat!)
63. UAB
64. Southern Illinois (although, they will NOT deserve it!)
And that leaves us with one spot left....
65. The Indiana University Hoosiers. Why not?
By the way, the disappointed teams will include: Colorado, Jailbird University, Miami (Fla), San Diego State (who may actually win the Mountain West relegating Air Force to the NIT), Stanford, and Utah State (see San Diego State, fill WAC and Nevada in the blanks).
In putting together this list, it is quite clear that anything can happen during the last four weeks of the season. The conference tournaments are going to have a huge impact on the selections (they always do). Quite frankly, I'll be suprised if I get more than 35 correct.
Am I nuts? Let me know...
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3 comments:
If some of the teams you listed in the aviary-averse group will be eliminated if they lose their conference tournament, shouldn't they be listed in the one-team conference group instead? (e.g. Air Force, Nevada, George Mason) This would not necessarily add an at-large team, but at least we know how many at-large spots are left.
Don't sweat WVU loss to Pitt, they bounced back nicely & waxed GTOWN in their own gym (coming back in the 2nd half to show their mettle)!
ok, now I'm with you about not knowing much.... wvu lost to SETON HALL -- all i can say, get ready for march (it will be chaos as usual, actually even more this year I think)!
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