And so it begins...

Preseason Bracktology

Here we are folks; completed brackets will be posted by End of the Week:

Official Stats
Conference Tourney Winners = 31
Locks = 24
Great Bets = 9
Last 4 in = 4
Last 4 Out = 4
Next Four Out = 4
Also Considered = 29
Total Bids in 2011 = 68 Teams

Automatic Bids (31)
1 American East Stony Brook
2 ACC Duke
3 Atlantic Sun Lipscomb
4 Atlantic 10 Temple
5 Big East Pittsburgh
6 Big Sky Weber State
7 Big South Coastal Carolina
8 Big 10 Michigan State
9 Big 12 Kansas State
10 Big West UC-Santa Barbara
11 Colonial Old Dominion
12 C-USA Memphis
13 Horizon Butler
14 Ivy League Princeton
15 MAAC Fairfield
16 MAC Ohio
17 MEAC Morgan State
18 Missouri Valley Wichita State
19 Mountain West San Diego State
20 NorthEast Long Island
21 Ohio Valley Morehead State
22 Pac 10 Washington
23 Patriot Lafayette
24 SEC Kentucky
25 Southern Wofford
26 Summit Oakland
27 Southland Texas State
28 Sun Belt North Texas
29 SWAC Jackson State
30 WAC Utah State
31 West Coast Gonzaga

Locks (24)
1 North Carolina
2 Virginia Tech
3 Florida State
4 Xavier
5 Dayton
6 Syracuse
7 Villanova
8 Georgetown
9 West Virginia
10 Marquette
11 Purdue
12 Wisconsin
13 Ohio State
14 Illinois
15 Kansas
16 Baylor
17 Texas
18 Missouri
19 BYU
20 Arizona
21 UCLA
22 Florida
23 Georgia
24 Mississippi State

Great Bets (9)
1 North Carolina State
2 Richmond
3 Notre Dame
4 Seton Hall
5 Louisville
6 Southern Miss
7 Missouri State
8 Tennessee
9 Miami

Last Four In (4)
1 St. Louis
2 Northwestern
3 Detroit
4 Minnesota

Last Four Out (4)
1 Clemson
2 Connecticut
3 St. John's
4 Colorado

Next Four Out (4)
1 Oklahoma State
2 Penn State
3 VCU
4 New Mexico

Also Considered (29)
1 Maryland
2 Rhode Island
3 Duquesne
4 Texas A&M
5 George Mason
6 UTEP
7 Central Michigan
8 Bradley
9 Creighton
10 Akron
11 Northern Iowa
12 Murray State
13 Washington State
14 Vanderbilt
15 New Mexico State
16 College of Charleston
17 Arkansas
18 Loyola Marymount
19 Davidson
20 Alabama
21 IUPUI
22 Western Kentucky
23 St. Mary's
24 Oral Roberts
25 Mississippi
26 Arizona State
27 Texas Tech
28 Tulsa
29 UNLV

Last Year's Predictions Revisited

Last Year:

1. The ACC will be down this year but still get the most teams into the NCAA tournament. Respect and youth will do that for a conference
2. Memphis not only doesn't win C-USA but they don't even make the NCAA Tournament
3. Either Kansas or Kentucky, the two top teams, will implode due to character issues. Kansas seems like the obvious choice due to the off season issues but I bet it's Kentucky
4. The Big Ten won't be the worst major conference
5. The Pac-10 will. Thus giving us no reason to stay up late and watch USC-Washington State on FSN
6. A mid-major will make the Elite Eight (Butler of course)
7. There will be 10+ schools ranked #1 over the course of the season
8. The parity mentioned in #7 should make for a great tournament at the end of the season
9. Wisconsin and Marquette will struggle and struggle mightily. The state might not get a team in the tournament.
10. Due to #9 I expect all of you to be wearing Duke clothes by the end of the year
11. Duke probably won't win it all this year but they'll be the preseason #1 next year. (yes, I'm rationalizing a loss already)

And how did I do?

1. The ACC was down but they did not have the most teams in the tournament
2. Bingo!
3. Neither imploded but neither made the Final Four
4. Bingo!
5. Bingo!
6. Bingo!
7. Kansas had it most of the year; no where near 10 teams
8. I thought the tournament was great.
9. Neither really struggled and both made the tournament; off on this one
10. No Duke attire, but a bunch of mustaches
11. Well, they did win it all and they are the preseason #1.

In Case You Forgot

Go back to last November 1's post and check out my preseason bracket.

Final Four:
Kansas - eh
Notre Dame - oops
Duke - Bingo
Butler - yes, I had Butler in the final four before the season began.

Who's the lucky team this year?

Season Preview

Coming soon. Stay tuned in. I'm not saying who I'm picking to win it all; I'll just hint that it's not any team with Loyola in it's name so you can eliminate 3 of 326 teams.

Louisville: Winning above all else

Rick Pitino brings in Tony Woods to the Louisville family.

Sport Hating Gods Hit Boilermakers Again

Bad enough the average football team watched its season go up in smoke due to injuries, the basketball team will now be without Senior Robbie Hummel for the season who re-tore his ACL.

The season must be near!

Considering the issues at Baylor less than a decade ago, will this LaceDarious Dunn news end his college career?

More great news for Rick Pitino as he loses another incoming top recruit to academics.

And Bruce Pearl is a greaseball.