Some very quick food for thought after the big reveal…

• At least in the #1-#4 seed positions, the Midwest (Louisville, Michigan St, Kansas, Wake Forest) appears to be the toughest region.  It gets weaker at the lower seeds, but among the top teams, this is a beast (3 BCS regular season champs + a second-place team).   That said, Louisville having to play Ohio St. in Dayton in the second round is an interesting game.
• The weakest appears to be the South after #1 UNC.  Oklahoma is falling off, Syracuse is up-and-down, and Gonzaga is softer than toilet paper.  Arizona St. and Clemson are darkhorses in this region.
• Cannot believe that #3 Villanova in the East will get to play essentially at home for the first two rounds.  That’s even more egregious than the annual UNC/Duke games in Greensboro/Raleigh/W-S/Charlotte.
• How about a Cinderella #13 Portland St. playing in Boise vs. #4 Xavier (slumping) and then the #5 FSU/#12 Wisconsin winner?  Or a WAC team, #11 Utah St. playing #6 Marquette in the same location?
• We have a feeling #11 VCU over #6 UCLA is going to be a very popular upset choice.  The Bruins don’t travel that far east very well in recent years.  Or #4 Wake, a team that has proven they only get up for “name” teams, losing to #13 Cleveland St. in the first round in Miami?
• Most vulnerable teams in the first round by seed:
  • #1 – none
  • #2 – Oklahoma (Morgan St.)
  • #3 – Kansas (North Dakota St.)
  • #4 – Xavier (Portland St.)
  • #5 – all of them?  But probably Illinois (W. Kentucky)
  • #6 – UCLA (VCU)
  • #7 – Boston College (USC)
  • #8 – LSU (Butler)
• Best Games by region (first round):
  • East – #8 Oklahoma St. vs. #9 Tennessee – very up-and-down high-scoring game.
  • South – #7 Clemson vs. #10 Michigan – will the Beilein style frustrate the Tigers?
  • Midwest – #7 BC vs. #10 USC – can the athletic Trojans keep it going?
  • West – #8 BYU vs. #9 Texas A&M – Let’s do this again…
• Best potential games by region (second round):
  • East – #3 Villanova vs. #6 UCLA – if the Bruins survive, this would be a fun guard-oriented game.
  • South – #3 Syracuse vs. #6 Arizona St. -two teams coming on at the right time.
  • Midwest – #1 Louisville vs. #8 Ohio St. – in Dayton.
  • West – #2 Memphis vs. #10 Maryland – the Terps have proven they can beat top-level teams.
• QnD Final Four (subject to change):
  • Pittsburgh (East) vs. Syracuse (South)
  • Memphis (West) vs. Kansas (Midwest)

Much more later as we get ourselves steady for the rest of the week…

rtmsf (3998 Posts)

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 6:47 pm by rtmsf and is filed under 2009 ncaa tournament. Tagged: florida st, gonzaga, kansas, louisville, marquette, michigan st, ncaa tournament, ohio st, oklahoma, portland st, syracuse, ucla, unc, utah st, vcu, villanova, wake forest, wisconsin, xavier. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.