Last year’s bracket did fine considering it was a crazy year. Picking Mercer to beat Duke was enough credibility for me to roll my bracket on the internet again.
I have Kentucky winning it all and that sounds boring I know. The Wildcats are just that good. Sure, Kentucky will be tested (I have them playing Wisconsin in the semifinals and Virginia in the title game), but they should pass those tests. This Kentucky team is obviously superior to the team that scrapped past Wisconsin a year ago and came up short in the title game with UConn.
Virginia was the team I struggled with the most as I don’t know how healthy it will be. I just think the Cavaliers have gone too far to have another season end before the Final Four, though Michigan State and even Belmont could give them problems.
To the picks.
My Midwest is crazy outside of Kentucky rolling through. Valpo is a solid team as I have it moving on to the Sweet 16. The Crusaders can defend and shoot 3s and that is a lethal combo. Texas is another surprise team here as the Longhorns are among the leaders in blocks in rebounds. When you look at their losses you see that most came to good Big 12 teams on the road and at Kentucky. Wichita State is the next hidden gem in the region as the Shockers have been waiting for a shot at Kansas for a long time. No way they let this slip.
In contrast the West is more predictable.
The East is about Virginia staying healthy. I added some upsets from the winner of Boise State/Dayton and Louisville having another deep run.
The South can be anyone but I like Utah as it is one of the few squads who can defend and score. This is also Gonzaga’s best chance at a deep tournament run. For a good upset, I’m going with Eastern Washington to shoot the 3 over a bigger Georgetown team.
Happy Halloween everyone! Just so you know, with Halloween being on a Friday night don’t expect much in the college sports world tonight and tomorrow at noon. Teams know students and fans will have a hard time attending an early game after a late night. This means that college football doesn’t get juicy until Saturday evening with Auburn and Ole Miss, but TCU at West Virginia is a sneaky good game at 3:30.
The big story will be the PAC-12 with three night games that will have a major impact on the conference race. If you can stay up for it I’m sure you will be glad you did. Here is my navigation solution for the weekend.
The past two weeks of college football have been incredible but this Saturday it appears things will be coming back down to Earth. Just two games involved top 25 teams and three of those four schools are outside the top 15. Still, the games are important as someone is probably going down. Ohio State is one such candidate as it could falter at Penn State. In terms of conference races, watch USC at Utah as it will make an impact on the PAC-12 South.
A couple of volleyball games to watch includes UC-Davis at Cal State-Northridge Friday night in Big West play. The big one though is Nebraska at Wisconsin on ESPN2 Sunday. The Badgers are currently on top in the Big Ten and it’s rare for ESPN2 to air a regular season game in volleyball.
It was a great weekend of college sports and there is plenty to talk about. Auburn’s made for television win over Alabama was the star, but this blog plans to illuminate the cloaked gems the sports media was unable to display with its finite resources.
One story was a women’s basketball game between Marquette and Utah. Identical twin sisters played against each other as Marqutte’s Katherine Plouffe took on Michelle Plouffe of Utah. Both women play forward and are senior leaders of their teams. Strangely, Utah says Michelle is 6’4” while Marquette lists Katherine as 6’3”. Doubt one is taller than the other as Marquette says they are almost identical.
That leads me to believe Utah is exaggerating a bit with Michelle’s height. A classic move by athletic departments to make everyone seem taller.
It would still be an interesting game if both Plouffes were bench warmers, but the fact they are the best players on two division teams makes it highly compelling. Michelle has made the All-PAC-12 team twice. Katherine made second team All-Big East last year and we all know that’s a tougher basketball conference. See UConn as exhibit A.
Need more storylines? They are both from Canada! Hello Olympics!
If that’s not enough for you they also have an older sister, Andrea, who played basketball at the University of Washington. So when these two teams met it was expected that both sisters would bring their best and they did. Katherine led the Golden Eagles in points with 21. Michelle led the Utes in points (18) and rebounds (13). Problem is Michelle didn’t get as much help and shot 4-14 from the field. Marquette’s defense was able to zero in on her.
The result was a 72-65 win for Marquette (6-1) as the Golden Eagles are off to a strong start. Utah (2-4) may have a hard time following up its NIT runner-up season. Not that finishing as runner-up in the NIT for two consecutive years is a desirable goal. That’s like playing Halo with your friends and saying “I hope I only die no more than a few times.”
Still it was an interesting box score to a women’s basketball game in November. How many times does that happen on the same day Auburn plays Alabama?
Good luck to the Plouffes as I’m sure both will be playing professionally and representing Canada in the coming years.
New Mexico Loves Turquoise
It might be a regression year for the Lobos men’s basketball team as it’s coming off a first round loss to Harvard in the NCAA. HARVARD! I was so upset in March as I had New Mexico as a final four team in most of my brackets.
Since then its coach, Steve Alford, went to UCLA. Its best player, Tony Snell, was drafted by the Chicago Bulls and is now a proud member of my fantasy basketball team.
So what’s left for the Lobos? Turquoise uniforms is what’s left and it’s for a good cause too. New Mexico shed their traditional gray and red threads for the turquoise Saturday in its win over San Diego. Turquoise, a color associated with Native Americans (yes, I had to do some internet research to figure that out) was used to raise awareness on obesity and diabetes in Native American youth.
So instead of awkward looking turquoise uniforms, the Lobos were supporting the Native American population in its state. The jerseys were auctioned off to raise money for Native American non-profit organizations. Nice work Lobos.
Happy to go 1-11.
Back to football, we had two programs that won their first game of the season. Congratulations to Southern Mississippi on getting its first win in… well… years.
Also congratulations to Hawaii. It was a somber day as a PLAYER DROWNED IN THE OCEAN ON GAMEDAY. Hawaii ran its first play in honor of Jack Willis Wilson.
The Warriors played hard, breaking out to a 28-7 halftime lead hosting Army. The third quarter was shaky as Army rattled off three straight touchdowns to tie the game midway through the third quarter. Next, Hawaii did something it hadn’t done all year, fight through the pressure. The Warriors scored twice to take a 42-28 lead going into the fourth and held on for the 49-42 victory. I can’t imagine playing a game on the day a teammate died but forfeiting would not honor anyone. Winning the game sure did.
We are saddened to announce the passing of #HawaiiFB RB Willis Wilson. Our thoughts & prayers are with his family. pic.twitter.com/wsGCZLTLWd
Here’s Hawaii’s coach Norm Chow on what the win meant to the team. He even used the word “bitchin.”
Enjoy it Hawaii and Southern Miss. A 1-11 season is a thousand times better than 0-12. Just ask Georgia State and Miami University. Where a nice punt is worth tweeting about.
summing up 2013 in one tweet RT @MiamiOHFootball: Great punt by Zac Murphy. Downed at the BSU 5.
NC2A Nerd 