Rams vs Cardinals MidWest Region Spread/Handicapping
Louisville was Russdiculous in their tournament opener beating overmatched North Carolina A&T by 31 points.
Louisville was Russdiculous in their tournament opener beating overmatched North Carolina A&T by 31 points.
Despite Belmont being a perennial Cinderella pick, the Arizona Wildcats had little trouble dispatching them in their opening round game.
The Orange barely broke a sweat in beating Montana on Thursday. They may be a number 4 seed but they played like a one.
I was a little surprised that Kansas received the #1 seed but their resume passes the test. Another season, another regular season title (shared) and conference tournament title.
At one point Florida was in the conversation about the best teams in the nation. They sputtered for a while though which is why they have only a #3 next to their name. There were clearly the best team in the SEC but that might not be saying all that much, especially after they lost in the SEC tourney final to Ole Miss.
There has never been hoops expectations like there are in Miami this year. A team that was considered middle of the pack went on to win regular season and tournament ACC titles to earn a #2 seed.
The Blue Devils made an early exit from the ACC tournament but it didn’t damage their profile too much as they are still a #2 seed.
The Iona Gaels are in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year. They are hoping to get rid of the bad taste in their mouths left from last year’s loss to BYU (they led by more than 20 points).
The North Carolina A&T Aggies picked up a nice 73-72 win over Liberty in the Opening Round Game Tuesday in Dayton, but things will get a whole lot tougher for the Aggies on Thursday evening.
The #12 seed upset over the fifth seed is one of those things you can count on every year. There will almost definitely be one again this year, but could it be the Mississippi Rebels against the Wisconsin Badgers?
The Rams are riding the Mountain West Conference wave this year. They had another very good season losing just 8 games all season long and finishing second in the MWC.
All of the advanced metrics say that this Pittsburgh team is really good. They aren’t horrible but I just don’t see it. What I do see is a team that is better than average in the deepest conference in America. They have a few nice wins but this is probably one of the least impressive Pitt teams of the past decade.
While the Madness technically gets started Tuesday night now with the Opening Round (Play-In) games, the true start of the tournament is Thursday afternoon. The first game everyone will tune in to is Valparaiso and Michigan State in the Midwest Region.
They are not as good as the football team but the basketball Broncos are better than you think. They were a very good 12-2 in the nonconference part of their schedule including an impressive win at Creighton that wasn’t even close.
No season builds to the “playoffs” quite like college hoops. There is a reason they call it March Madness.
While prognosticators may like predictability its what we can’t predict that leaves us wanting more this time of year.
A few years ago this would have been a battle of two division leaders, but the Twins have fallen on hard times the last couple years.