March Madness Preview: Who Will Come Out on Top?

The NCAA tournament this year features teams like USC, Cleveland State, Mississippi State, and Temple that won their conference tournaments and got the auto bid for their conference. The tournament committee also did a great job of picking teams and in great matchups like VCU-UCLA, Boston College-USC, Cal-Maryland, Oklahoma State-Tennessee, Utah-Arizona, and more.

Although I think Pitt will make the Final Four, I think they will have trouble with 16 seed East Tennessee State, with three career 1,000-point scorers in Courtney Pigram, Kevin Tiggs, and Mike Smith, who can lead a very talented and well trained Bucs squad. I think those three will make it hard on the Panthers, but Pitt will come out on top, 80-68.

I like the Cinderella to be Arizona advancing to the Sweet 16, and the bust will be UCLA. Great games are Boston College-USC, Cal-Maryland, VCU-UCLA, Arizona State-Temple, Clemson-Michigan, BYU-Texas A&M, and Utah-Arizona. I think upsets this year will be Temple over ASU, VCU over UCLA, and Cleveland State over Wake Forest.

I think Pitt, Louisville, UNC, and UConn will make the Final Four, and Louisville and UNC win close games to face off in the championship, and Louisville's Earl Clark wins MVP as Louisville wins it all. I think UNI vs. Purdue and Washington vs. Mississippi State will be exciting games, where the Boilermakers and Huskies win.

I think coming off a conference title, Cleveland State, led by Cedric Jackson, will beat Wake Forest, and a buzzer-beater by Jordan Hill has Arizona going to the Round of 32, where Arizona's big three with Nic Wise, Chase Budinger, and Hill outlasts Cleveland State in a 74-65 win.

Louisville will have a close first half vs. Ohio State and Arizona but will dominate the Midwest and beat Kansas 85-75 in the Elite Eight to advance to the Final Four.

Morehead State won a tourney game, on a very happy day for the Eagles where defense, taking charge of the game at times, and good shooting at times propelled Morehead to a 58-43 win over Alabama State, out of the worst conference in Division I, the SWAC.

USC is coming off a Pac-10 title and is coming off wins over three tourney teams in the NCAA tournament, Cal, UCLA, and Arizona State, and should be able to handle Boston College. The Trojans have talent at every position with DeMar DeRozan, Dwight Lewis, Keith Wilkinson, Taj Gibson, and Daniel Hackett.

Marquette is entering the tournament with five straight losses as a six seed facing 11 Utah State, which should be a neck-and-neck game the whole time. I like Marquette coming out on top in basically a road game because they are used to tougher competition, like playing three No. 1 seeds and two No. 3 seeds in a season at least once, while even though they won their conference title, Utah State isn't used to the schedule Marquette is. That is why I like the Golden Eagles advancing, even without PG Dominic James.

Oklahoma is cold going into the tournament, losing by one in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals to Oklahoma State, and I like them beating Morgan State and Michigan, but getting blown out by Syracuse, who will cruise by Stephen F. Austin and beat Temple by 10-15 points and handle Dionte Christmas there and keep Griffin cold in the OU game.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?