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NCAA Tourney Thread

Marquette in five -- book it.

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Surprise picks, anyone?  Sleepers?  Overrated teams?

Big Ten appears to rule the day when NCAA is discussed, so I'll share my brief thoughts on each team (keeping in mind that I probably haven't seen these guys as much as some of you guys have).

- Wisconsin - Oh boy...  I might as well get it off my chest.  I think they're terribly overrated.  They deserve the seed they got, don't get me wrong -- they beat who was on their schedule and that win at Texas is great.  They seem to play fantastic defense, too, but I dunno...  freaking Marquette handled them at the Kohl Center, and we didn't beat anybody else on the road worth a damn in the Big East.  I know Pomeroy loves them, but they love Marquette too (relatively speaking) -- I think it has Marquette at something like 12, and I can't say with a straight face that Marquette is the 12th best team in the country.  The Big Ten just isn't very good, so I'm not sure how to judge them.  A USC/Wisconsin second round match-up would certainly be an interesting game of two contrasting styles.

(And with that I await whatever comes my way -- much love, fellas!)

  • Indiana - I'm glad the committee gave them an eight.  The committee seems to love how teams play down the stretch (as opposed to body of work) and they certainly applied that to Indiana -- they lost three of their last four and barely squeaked by Northwestern and Ohio State.
  • Purdue - Purdue is intriguing to me -- I'd say they have a good path ahead of them.  They have IMO the weakest of the #3 seeds (probably debatable) as well as the weakest #2 seed in their bracket.  I'm interested in seeing who will come out of that bottom half of the West bracket.
  • Michigan State - I don't have a whole lot to say about them.  If they manage to win their first round game, I think Pitt will absolutely pummel them in round two.
  • As far as my Golden Eagles...  I like the first round match-up. Kentucky turns the ball over approximately once every four possessions so that should play into Marquette's hands very nicely.  Kentucky is without its best player, so it's really not a terrible draw.  

    The potential second round game -- if Marquette is lucky enough to get there -- versus Stanford sucks, but it's the NCAA tourney, so you're going to have to play (and beat) quality opponents.  Stanford's guards seem rather weak, so Marquette's plan would have to be to pressure the hell out of them and hope to run-run-run the whole game.  The Lopez brothers would almost assuredly combine for at least 40, though...

    I don't care to speculate beyond that.  I'm not kidding myself into thinking Marquette is any great shakes in this field of 65, but they should win against Kentucky.  Crean hasn't done squat without Wade...  it's time for Crean as well as 'The Big Three' to -- at the very least -- play more than one game in the tourney.  If we play past the first weekend I will be satisfied.

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