QnD West Region Analysis

Posted by rtmsf on March 16th, 2009

WEST REGION PREVIEW (by Ryan ZumMallen)

Favorite
UConn, #1, 27-4

Should They Falter
Memphis
, #2, 31-3

Grossly Overseeded
Washington, #4, 25-8

Grossly Underseeded

Mississippi State, #13, 23-12

Sweet Sixteen Sleeper (#12 seed or lower)
Mississippi State, #13, 23-12

Final Four Sleeper (#4 seed or lower)

Purdue, #5, 25-9

Carmelo Anthony Award
Tyreke Evans
, 16.6 pts, 5.5 assts, 3.8 rebs

Stephen Curry Award
Northern Iowa’s Adam Koch, 12.3 ppg, 5.2 rebs – relatively unknown player who can take his team a long way

Home Cooking
#4 Washington – 148 miles, #11 Utah State – 293 miles, #1 UConn – 238 miles

Can’t Miss First Round Game
#4 Washington vs. #13 Mississippi State, 3/19

Don’t Miss This One Either
#6 Marquette vs. #11 Utah State, 3/20

Lock of the Year
#6 Marquette upsetting #3 Mizzou and heading to the Sweet Sixteen

Juiciest Potential Matchup – purists
#2 Memphis vs. #7 Cal, Second Round – this matchup would be for those who want to see great basketball

Juiciest Potential Matchup – media

Mike Montgomery
(#7 Cal) vs. Gary Williams (#10 Maryland)

We Got Screwed
Purdue, #5 – How are the Boilermakers rewarded for winning one of the nation’s toughest conference tournaments?  With a five-seed matchup against a dangerous Northern Illinois team… in Oregon.  If they move on, they’ll likely draw Washington just a short jaunt from the Huskies’ hometown.

Strongest Pod

Portland
– #4 Washington, #5 Purdue, #12 Northern Illinois, #13 Mississippi State.  Three conference tourney champions and one regular season conference champ.

Wildcard, Bitches
Texas A&M had a difficult time in the rough Big XII (9-7), but has shown they can beat good teams and beat UConn if they play above themselves and catch the Huskies napping.

So-Called Experts

MemphisThe Tigers showed last season that you can dominate a weak conference and still make it to the title game.  Now they carry the nation’s longest winning streak into the tournament and their toughest competition is a talented but flawed UConn team (struggling with the injury to Jerome Dyson).

Vegas Odds to Win Region

2009-west-odds

rtmsf (3998 Posts)


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One response to “QnD West Region Analysis”

  1. SSReporters says:

    How is Washington overseeded?

    Pac-10 regular season champs, beats everyone except Cal in the conference, beat Oklahoma State and Portland State, have a pretty good RPI and rallied from a 2-3 start to the season.

    Don’t tell me they’re a #6 or #7 seed even as a conference champion.

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