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.

Garden Epic

Connecticut and Syracuse have squared off in some classic Big East battles, but nothing like what was just witnessed in New York City. On the Madison Square Garden stage at the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament, the Orange outlasted the Huskies in six, count them, six overtimes. The basketball game took nearly five hours to play spanning over two different days. There was a near game winner at the end of regulation that was a tenth of a second too late. Two Hall of Fame coaches were attempting to get the better of the other for the billionth time. The 'Cuse never led in any of the first five overtimes yet managed to keep the game tied at the end of all of them. Eight players fouled out and when it was all said and done UConn ran out of gas first.

There were great performances all around and some gut-wrenching moments. Syracuse's Johnny Flynn and UConn's A.J. Price were both outstanding. Stanley Robinson played at another level and Ben Routins made clutch shots at the most crucial moments. Meanwhile, the Huskies couldn't make that one last free throw to put the game away. Paul Harris couldn't make a wide open lay up if his life depended on it, but made his free throws at the end.

Price carried the Huskies on his back through the overtime periods. He took all the big shots and made all the key plays while playing with four fouls since the final minutes of regulation. UConn couldn't get anywhere near the basket against the Syracuse 2-3 zone except on offensive rebounds. Once big man Hasheem Thabeet fouled out of the game Syracuse had a distinct average offensively.

UConn's one man show couldn't keep up in the sixth and final overtime period. Syracuse was able to score inside against the Huskies depleted front line. On the other end, UConn continued to live on the outside shot and when the jumpers stopped going down the final moments of a classic contest became anti-climatic. Everything else about the game was an unforgettable, unbelievable reminder of why we love sports.

Thank Kerr for the Sun-set

As the NBA regular season winds down, the once proud Phoenix Suns are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs. Fans in the desert can place the blame squarely on general manager Steve Kerr. Phoenix currently sits ninth in the top heavy Western Conference. After the top nine, there isn't a team out West sniffing any hope of making the playoffs. The problem for the Suns, however, is that only eight teams per conference make it into the league's second season. Phoenix will be hard pressed to sneak into the eighth spot with power forward Amare Stoudamire out the rest of the season with an eye injury. Even with a healthy Stoudamire, the Suns would of had an uphill battle because the franchise's problems began much earlier.

The Suns problems began when Robert Sarver took over ownership of the team in 2004. The saving grace at this point in time was that chairman Jerry Colangelo remained in charge of the franchise. This allowed Phoenix to sign Steve Nash and to ascend to one of the elite teams in the NBA under head coach Mike D'Antoni. D'Antoni's system and ':07 Seconds or Less' philosophy allowed players like Nash, Joe Johnson, Quinton Richardson, and Shawn Marion to flourish and turned Amare Stoudmire into an unstoppable force. In his four full seasons at the helm, D'Antoni churned out 232 regular season victories. This despite losing Stoudamire for the '05-'06 season and still guiding the Suns to the Western Conference Finals.

The Suns success during those years overshadowed the questionable moves being made behind the scenes. Despite still overseeing the franchise, Jerry Colangelo's hands were tied in improving the roster due to Robert Sarver's reluctance to add payroll. The Suns under Sarver have been notorious for essentially selling off first round draft picks for cash in order for Sarver to save a few bucks. Those discarded draft picks resulted in talented players like Luol Deng and Nate Robinson playing elsewhere in the league. In addition, Phoenix had to trade away both Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson due to financial considerations. The bottom line is that the Suns were always paper thin and missing one last piece that could get have put them over the top.

The downfall in Phoenix began when Jerry Colangelo left the franchise and Steve Kerr was hired as GM in 2007. Kerr and Sarver were longtime friends going back to college at Arizona, however, Kerr had no prior management experience. Kerr believed that the D'Antoni's style wasn't condusive to winning a championship and decided to turn the Suns into a more conventional team. The first step in this process was to trade for Shawn Marion for Shaquille O'Neal last season. The move immediately made Amare Stoudamire less effective inside with Shaq clogging up the paint and stifled the Suns' run and gun offense. The end result was a first round exit to the Spurs in the playoffs.

After the season, D'Antoni and the Suns parted ways as Kerr's actions made it clear than D'Antoni's style of play was no longer welcome under the new regime's watch. Kerr wanted to implement a more defensive oriented approach and hired Terry Porter as head coach. Suns fans know how that decision played out as the team never looked comfortable playing in Porter's system. Kerr's experiment lasted all of half a season before having to fire Porter and put the one assistant coach remaining from D'Antoni's staff, Alvin Gentry, at the helm of the team. Kerr and Porter couldn't produce the results on the court that D'Antoni did year after year and both the players and fans were frustrated. To say that Kerr's moves so far have been an utter failure is a huge understatement.

Kerr has felt compelled to allow the Suns to revert back to their old tricks for time being. Too little, too late. He comes out of this looking bad regardless of what the Suns do going forward. Kerr tried to force a culture onto a team that just didn't fit the personnel. The Suns had become highly successful and popular around the league playing their uptempo style. Kerr was convinced the Suns couldn't win the championship playing that way. By playing his way, Kerr has the Suns out of championship contention all together and back in the lottery. Maybe this time Mr. Sarver will feel compelled to actually keep that draft pick.

Bang for the Buck in NFL Free Agency

As the NFL off-season continues to roll along, free agency has generated vast buzz and fanfare. While Major League Baseball franchises - not named the Yankees - have pulled in the spending reins due to these trying economic conditions, NFL teams have been more than willing to spend in record amounts. Just another reason why baseball needs a salary cap. There have been some surprises like Terrell Owens being exiled from Dallas and winding in Buffalo of all places. There have also been some head scratching behavior like Arizona allowing franchise savior Kurt Warner to hit free agency before coming to their senses.

Then there are some things that never change or surprise like the Washington Redskins' drunken spending. The Redskins and owner Daniel Snyder have become notorious with overspending on veteran players. Does anyone remember Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, or the purging of the New York Jets roster a few years ago? Well, looks like the 'Skins have somehow worked their way back under the cap, but certainly did not learn from their mistakes.

The Redskins wasted no time breaking the bank by shelling out $100 million to former Titans' defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. Haynesworth has proved to be a dominate force on defense, but tossing that much money at a interior linemen is a risky proposition. The only position franchises should be throwing that type of money at is quarterback. Albert Haynesworth isn't carrying his team to victory week in and week out like Peyton Manning.

If Washington's spending had stopped there then maybe the decision to acquire one of the most dominant defensive players in the NFL could have been rationalized. Not surprisingly, however, the Redskins were only getting started following up the Haynesworth signing by handing CB DeAngelo Hall $55 million over six years. The Redskins obviously saw something in Hall during his short stint in Washington last season that the rest of the NFL had missed because no other NFL team was going to pay Hall that kind of money. Over the past two seasons, Hall has looked like a player on the decline rather than one worthy of another huge contract after proving to be a bust last season in Oakland.

So for those keeping track, Washington has committed $155 million to two defensive players. For good measure, Mr. Snyder and company decided to pay Bills castoff G Derrick Dockery $26.5 million over 5 years. The grand total for the three free agent signings - roughly a cool $182 million. Meanwhile, division rival and NFC East champions, the New York Giants were able to find value in free agency to help boost the team's defensive front seven. The Giants bolster their already strong defensive line with the signing of former Dallas DE Chris Canty and Seattle DT Rock Bernard. Canty received $42 million and Bernard $16 million while Atlanta free agent OLB Michael Boley signed for $25 million.

In total, the Giants committed $83 million to three key defensive additions, which is $20 million less than Washington gave Haynesworth alone and about half of what the Redskins spent on Haynesworth and Hall combined. This is just an example of how these division rivals couldn't be any different in how they build their respective teams. The Redskins tendency to spend has consistently made headlines, but hasn't translated to victories on the field. The Giants, on the other hand, have been able to find value in free agency and develop talent through the draft that helped them win the Super Bowl last year. The way things stand right now, the money is on the New York, not Washington, to be in Miami at the end of next season.