NCAA Tournament Predictions

The Bleeding Sports Brain Trust is ready to share their "expert" opinions on who will be crowned the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball National Champion. On to the brackets...

Click on the brackets for optimal viewing.

J. Daniels - The Pickmeister
The self proclaimed "winning bracket"...

G. Francis - BS CEO

Mid Major Madness?

Could this be another big year for the mid-majors come NCAA tournament time? Discounting Gonzaga, who has shed their mid-major status, there has been very little conversation this season about any mid-major squads not named Davidson. The problem now is that Stephen Curry and company will be watching the big dance at home this year. While most prognosticators believe that the field is very top heavy, this year’s tournament feels like one that will have upsets aplenty.

The bottom line is that there just are not very many elite teams this year in college basketball. Sure, there is North Carolina, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Memphis, Duke, and Oklahoma at the very top of brackets. But compared to past years, even the elite teams this year are not up to par with the top seeds in past tournaments. The #1 overall seed in the tournament, Louisville, has losses to Western Kentucky, UNLV, and was blown out at Notre Dame. Every team is this tournament is vulnerable to an upset.

Once you start to look past the top seeds the field is even more wide open. How does someone differentiate between all those teams that were muddled together in the Big Ten, ACC, and SEC from some of teams from the mid-major conferences? The tournament selection committee filled most of the at-large bids with teams from the power conferences, but the mid-majors that are in tournament have a chance to make some noise this season. Here are three mid-majors that could cause the biggest stir on the road to the Final Four:

Siena

The Saints were one of the few mid-majors that received a lot of love from the selection committee. Thanks to tough out of conference schedule and a top 20 RPI, Siena was awarded a #9 seed in the Midwest region. Awaiting the Saints is a match-up with Ohio State in Dayton. Despite playing what is essentially a road game against a Big Ten squad, the Saints have the ability to pull the upset. Last year, as a #13 seed, the Saints spanked Vanderbilt in the first round and return all five starters from last year’s team. That experience combined with explosive perimeter players in Kenny Hasbrouck, Ronald Moore, and Edwin Ubiles will make the Saints a tough out. A potential second round match-up with Louisville would make for an exciting up and down the court affair Sunday night.

Cleveland State

The Vikings won at Syracuse earlier in the year on a last second heave and defeated a very good Butler team in their conference championship game to make the tournament. The squad is led by seniors guard Cedric Jackson, a former transfer from St. John’s, and forward J’Nathan Bullock. Their first round opponent, Wake Forest, have the potential to play at a very high level, but the Demon Deacons has been very inconsistent the second half of the season. If Cleveland State can keep the game at their tempo and slow down Wake, the Vikings have a good chance to pull of the upset in Miami. The winner of this game plays either Utah or Arizona in the second round. If the Vikings can get by Wake they have an excellent chance to make a surprise run into the Sweet 16.

Virginia Commonwealth

The VCU Rams are no strangers to making noise in the NCAA tournament. College basketball fans remember their upset of Duke in the first round of the 2007 tourney. The star guard who hit the jumper to win the game was a sophomore named Eric Maynor. Maynor is now a senior and one the best point guards in the country as he leads the Rams back into the NCAA tournament after VCU missed out last season. The Rams were upset in the CAA conference tournament after a dominant regular season and snubbed an at-large bid in 2008. This year, the Rams won both the regular season and conference tournament championship and Maynor brings some interior help with him to the tourney this time in sophomore sensation Larry Sanders. VCU looks poised to make a big run in the tournament this season before their rising star head coach, Anthony Grant, likely heads off to take the Virginia job. The Rams road won’t be easy with a first round match-up with UCLA and potential second round date with Villanova. Watching two of the nation’s best at the point, Maynor and UCLA’s Darren Collison, go at it will be one of the highlights of the first round.

Puerto Rico Shows USA Mercy (by Rule)

For the record, the World Baseball classis is a joke. The entire event is a glorified exhibition that most sports fans are not paying any attention to. Some the attention the WBC garnered and comparisons made this past week after the Netherlands eliminated the Dominican Republic was highly comical and not even worth debating. However, just to be clear, a competition where participants are allowed to choose what team they would like to play for, there are limitations put on how pitches a player can throw, puts runners on base if the game goes a certain amount of innings, and features a mercy rule cannot be cannot be taken seriously.

Getting back to the mercy rule for a second, apparently the big, bad, humungous United State of America played itty, bitty Puerto Rico sometime today, somewhere. This is like all the other states in the U.S. ganging up against and challenging Delaware to a game of baseball. Only, all the good baseball players would have had to reside in Delaware because Puerto Rico got the best of the U.S. today. In fact, Puerto Rico dismantled Team USA 11 - 1...in seven innings even though games in the WBC are in fact supposed to last nine innings.

That is correct, a country that is not even a real country, but a U.S. territory, beat down the entire United States so badly the game had to be stopped after seven innings. Team USA was mercy-ruled by a country that doesn't even have their own currency because they use the U.S. dollar. The game of baseball has forever been known as America's "National Pastime", a game invented, played, and beloved across the country for ages. In the present day, however, there aren't even enough quality players in the entire United States to compete with a country the size of Connecticut.

If whoever is responsible for the WBC is insistent on continuing with this nonsense in the future it would be in the best interest of the U.S. to upgrade the talent on their roster. In the interest of preserving United State's reputation as the home of baseball and avoid future embarrassment, it may be about time to officially make Puerto Rico the 51st state.

Conference Tourney Rundown

There is just too much great college basketball action taking place all at once. Here is a rundown of some of the biggest stories of the last 24 hours.


1. Florida State slays #1 North Carolina

The Seminoles are headed to their first ACC tournament championship game after downing the Tar Heels 73-70. Toney Douglas led the way for the Florida St. with 27 points as UNC again played without star point guard Ty Lawson. Trailing by one, Tyler Hansbrough turned the ball over while being tripled teamed leading to two FSU free throws. North Carolina got off two contested three pointers that didn’t fall and became the eighth #1 to be knocked off this season.

North Carolina will need a healthy Ty Lawson come next week in the NCAA tournament or they could be in trouble the first weekend. Meanwhile, Florida State’s Douglas is star who can take over a game on both ends. The rest of the Florida State team is huge and will create match up problems against opponents in the big dance. If FSU can find another scorer to complement Douglas they will find themselves playing into the second week of the NCAA.

2. Baylor surges into the Big 12 Final

Where has this Baylor team been all year? The Bears are in the Big 12 championship game after knocking off Texas last night. Baylor won its 20th game of the season in the process, but will need to win tonight in order to make a repeat trip to the big dance thanks to only winning five conference games during the regular season. It is hard to believe this Bears team lost seven straight conference games at one point after non-conference victories against the likes of tournament hopefuls Arizona State and Providence. Even Nebraska finished 8-8 in the Big 12 this season. The Bears can make up for it tonight and punch themselves a ticket to the tourney with a win against Missouri.

3. Syracuse wins in overtime…again

In yet another great Big East tournament game last night, the Orange upended West Virginia in overtime 74 – 69. West Virginia was able to make a late spurt to force the game into overtime after two free throws by freshmen Devin Ebanks. Syracuse, however, scored the first six points of overtime and their 2-3 zone defense stifled the Mountaineers offense in the extra period. The Cuse play Louisville, who blitzed Villanova in the second half of its semifinal game, for the Big East championship with a chance to cap one of the most unbelievable runs in conference tournament history.

Mad(ness) Links

There has been a flurry of action today from conference tournaments all across the country.

Here are some of the highlights from earlier...

1.North Carolina escaped against Virginia Tech thanks to a little help from the officials. Apparently Tyler Hansbrough isn't capable of committing a foul.

2. Kentucky's tournament hopes took a big hit as the Wildcats fell to LSU in the SEC tournament. Look out for the Tigers come tourney time.

3. In the Big Ten, both Michigan St and Ohio St were winners today and will meet tomorrow in the semis. Based on the history of the NCAA tournament selection committee there is no telling how many mediocre Big Ten squads will make the dance this year.

4. Back in the weak SEC, South Carolina was dropped by Mississippi St. Sounded like another bubble just burst.

5. Among the mid-majors, American wins the Patriot league and earns a tourney bid by defeating Holy Cross by 16.

Bleeding Sports' Inaugural Poll

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Be Nasty Update

By GM Be Nasty
Special to Bleeding Sports

I would also like to report that Be Nasty made it home safe and sound last night after walking home from the bar where he witnessed the UConn debacle. His 40-minute journey on the mean streets of Boston involved various expletive laden phone calls and probably woke up every person on Beacon Street. Be Nasty says Fenway Park is lucky that it didn't experience his wrath of destruction or that cesspool would have seen a very similar fate as this stadium.