My 2012 Projections

In the spirit of the new year here are my predictions for 2012.

1. This year’s tournament will be even more unpredictable than last year. Kurly claims chalk, I claim otherwise
2. The Big 10 breaks a record for highest percentage of teams in a conference to make the dance. None make the Final 4
3. 4 Mid Major’s make the Sweet 16 and 2 in the Elite Eight
4. 2 of the Final Four are not in the top 15 as of this Monday’s ranking
5. A #1 seed won’t make it past opening weekend. I’m looking at you Ohio State
6. We break a record and clear out 9 quarter barrels
7. Marquette gets a 4 or 5 seed and bows out to a more disciplined 12 seed
8. Bo Ryan refuses to change his offense in the tournament and they lose 61-48 to a Big East school
9. Gonzaga peaks in March and makes a run
10. 9 of these predictions fall apart and I look foolish

2012's Twelve Fearless predictions

1. Bo Ryan's Badgers will score less than 40 in a March game and say "deal with it" afterwards.
2. Buzz Williams will be able to tell the exact amount of hours his team has practiced since October at any time you'd like.
3. Northwestern will make the dance.
4. Illinois won't.
5. Dick Vitale's head will explode during the ACC tournament
6. The Big East will have the most compelling tournament and then bow out with a whimper in the Big Dance
7. Seth Davis will be relegated to the little kids table again in March
8. Chalk will rule the day by time we get to the Final Four
9. The B1G will be the most successful conference in the dance but won't have a national champion again
10. Baylor will make it a double-double with Perry Jones being named player of the year
11. Duke won't make it to the second weekend
12. I won't pay to use KenPom's site or jsonline. I'll miss one

Good Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt turned Marquette into a Bo Ryan team in March last night. Down 31-6 at one point and putting up bricks like me and I do that alone in my driveway.

I do like Marquette fan needling Seth Davis on twitter about him not ranking them early this season. Remember, this isn't college football. Rankings in AP or coaches poll do not matter. Respect is earned. I just made that up.

Better watch out!

Big Sis is Watching!

I hope every one had a Merry Christmas. I had a strain of the recent virus outbreak that goes around every year. After counting down the days I made a complete recovery. You know the drill.

While I was sick I watched some USC Trojan Basketball. They lost to Georgia after a late collapse.

Illegal immigrant.

Merry Christmas!

Now if we could just get through these crappy bowl games and on to Conference play and NFL playoffs it would be wonderful!

And some snow wouldn't hurt.

The 'Cuse & Saturday musings

Syracuse gets a nice victory at N.C. State tonight. The eye test to me shows a well-balanced team that plays solid on both ends. Jardine and Joseph had nice moments down the stretch attacking the defense and getting to the basket. If they play unselfish like they did in the final ten minutes tonight, they'll be a tough out in March. Duh.

Give Tom Crean an awful lot of credit for bringing Indiana back to the forefront. Lots of people in Milwaukee are sort of torn on him but he did such a good job embracing the past and building for the future here (upgrading the facilities and making Marquette capable of contending in the Big East) I have a hard time rooting against HIM. Indiana, on the other hand...but having villains in sports make it more enjoyable at times. If I were Indiana fan though, I'd be weary in March...

Am I wrong in thinking Illinois won't even make the dance again?

Despite some bad luck on the injury front coming into the season, Louisville has the look of that Pitino team that puts it together for a deep March run. Memphis made a nice run at them in the second half and played them tough but Louisville showed an ability to make the big shot and big stop on defense. I'll be watching them. I sort of like this team this year.

Finally, if Perry Jones stays healthy, he's my early POY. Imagine that. RG3 and Jones both in Waco. 2012, indeed.

Thing that made me say hmmmm....

Pitino has been at Louisville for 11 years now. That's three years longer than his Kentucky tenure

The Season's First Bracketology

It's a little rough right now. With only 8-9 games of non-conference played there are a lot of gaudy records without much behind it. Here's my first attempt.

1 seed vs 16 seed
Syracuse (Beast) vs Lamar(Sland)/AlabamaA&M (SWAC)
Kentucky vs Albany (Aeast)/NorfolkSt (MEAC)
North Carolina vs CS-Fullerton (Bwest)
Ohio State vs Campbell (Bsouth)
2 seed vs 15 seed
Duke (ACC) vs South Dakota State (Summit)
Louisville vs Charleston (SoCon)
Baylor (Big12) vs Weber St (BigSky)
Marquette vs Loyola MD (MAAC)
3 seed vs 14 seed
Missouri (Big12) vs Robert Morris (NEC)
Stanford (Pac12) vs MidTennState (Sbelt)
Florida vs LeHigh (Patriot)
Wisconsin vs Nevada (WAC)
4 seed vs 13 seed
Indiana vs Tulane (CUSA)
Connecticut vs Wyoming (Wmest)
Pittsburgh vs George Mason (CAA)
Georgetown vs Cleveland State (Horizon)
5 seed vs 12 seed
Xavier (A10) vs Murray State (OVC)
Califonia vs Kent State (MAC)
Kansas vs Wichita State/Minnesota
Michigan State vs Northern Iowa/Kansas State
6 seed vs 11 seed
UNLV vs Memphis (Cusa)
Alabama vs Temple
Gonzaga vs Harvard (Ivy)
Michigan vs New Mexico
7 seed vs 10 seed
Texas A&M vs Belmont (Asun)
Purdue vs Northern Iowa
Mississippi State (SEC) vs St. Mary's (WCC)
Illinois (B1G) vs Florida State
8 seed vs 9 seed
Virginia vs Creighton (MVC)
Arizona vs Texas
St. Louis vs Vanderbilt
BYU vs West Virginia

First Four Out
Virginia Tech
Oklahoma State
Washington
Northwestern
Next Four Out
Seton Hall
VCU
San Diego State
Marshall
Also Considered
Washington
Iona
Long Beach St
NC State
Oklahoma
Villanova
Cincinnati
Miami
Georgia Tech
Clemson
Missouri State
Washington State
Ohio
Georgia State
Iowa State
Notre Dame
Oregon
Oral Roberts
Indiana State
Georgia
Old Domionion
Central Florida

Cronin comments

Cronin Post Game

Kentucky-Indiana

We had a couple people over for Carson's birthday...watched the second half of that game and the atmostphere was like March Madness. Every possesion was awesome. Ending was great.

Can it get better than that? Maybe if it was on steroids, like a certain 100 million dollar hypocrite.

PS. I love Mick Cronin

KY-IU

95 days until March Madness. Hopefully we see a lot of this.

Holy fuuuuuuuu......

Indiana beats Kentucky at the buzzer.

I'm not sure what was more impressive, Indiana's win or Kentucky having a chance with Davis in foul trouble all game and Terence Jones riding pine at the end.

Whatever the case, college basketball was the winner. It's a better sport when Indiana is relevant.

Marquette

Geez, you would have thought Demski would have been all up in here tooting his Marquette Gold Horn after that Wisconsin win.

Either way it's another big win for the Warriors as they squeak one out over Washington. If they keep playing like this they'll have a top 50 RPI by the end of the year!

I prefer the "Al" over the Tebow

Even in the 70's Bagder fans were a-holes. 61-54 without Cadougan

Even I Can Tebow!

ACC Woes continue

Tulane over Georgia Tech

Richmond over Wake Forest

Boston over Boston College

UNC-Kentucky

Won't see many better than that this year.

Big Ten

Well, the Big Ten wins third third challenge in a row 8 to 4. My picks also went 8-4 missing on Duke over Ohio State and Michigan over Virginia on Tuesday and NC State over Indiana and Nebraska over Wake on Wednesday. So, what does the mean for the overall prospects of each conference come March? As it pertains to number of teams from the conference I think we'll definately see more B1G teams make it, even if they are all in the 8-11 seed range. However, this is only teams that could possibly make the tournament. If we are pairing down to potential Final Four teams I think both conferences bottom out at two. Duke and North Carolina in the ACC and Wisconsin and Ohio State in the B1G. At this point Duke and Wisconsin are still far away from being National Title contenders but with the season still early they have time to make up ground.

A good article about the "decline of the ACC" by Kurly is below. The real question is how do the mid-level ACC teams bounce back? It wasn't that far ago that Georgia Tech and Maryland were in the championship game!