NCAA Tourney: Predicting the Second Weekend

I can excuse the initial hot-headed reaction; it happens in sports. But it really reflects negatively on Johnson’s coaching abilities that he needed to argue his point, rather than think about the repercussions of his actions.

Texas survived its game against Miami, making this game a matchup of two teams who held on to get where they are.

Neither team dominated their opponents, but again, the name of the game is “survive and advance.” It would take a lot for me to change my initial pick, so I’ll stick with the Longhorns.

This region is going to make or break my bracket. If the Longhorns can really make the Final Four, I think I’ll be set up to have a successful tournament.

West Region 

Game: UCLA-Western Kentucky

I thought it’d be: UCLA-Drake

Original pick: UCLA

My pick now: UCLA

Game: Xavier-West Virginia

I thought it’d be: Baylor-Duke

Original pick: Duke

My pick now: West Virginia

Thoughts on last weekend

So maybe I bought into Drake a little too much, but I feel similarly to the way I feel about Gonzaga.

If I got to pick the WKU-Drake game again, I would still pick Drake. I think the better team lost this game, and that Drake really blew it. Had the Bulldogs gotten their act together earlier, they would probably be getting ready to play UCLA.

By the time they made their furious comeback against WKU, one of their best players had fouled out. Even so, they still controlled overtime, and it took a lucky shot for the Hilltoppers to advance. I don’t feel bad about this pick.

In picking Duke, I messed up. Everyone on the East coast got to watch enough of its games to see that it was a shaky team which had managed to squeak out a lot of wins without really crafting an identity for itself.

The Blue Devils never had one guy step out to be the marquee player who could go win them a game. And against WVU, no one stepped up to take over the game. The Mountaineers are a better team than the Blue Devils, and they played like it.

I’ve been blasted for picking Baylor to win two games, and I’ll admit it’s the biggest blemish on my bracket. Purdue controlled that game. I was right to say that Baylor and Vanderbilt were similar teams—they both basically no-showed the tournament. I really thought Baylor would come out and play better, and I still have no faith in Xavier.

Thoughts on this weekend

OK, so we’ve all seen the picture: There was contact on Texas A&M’s last shot, and they deserved to go to the line for a chance to take UCLA into OT. But the bottom line is the Bruins got the win. They’ve had to squeak out a couple of wins like that lately, but they keep winning the games.

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