March Madness 2007 edition IIa

Well, we are settled in on the couch and watching day 1 of the greatest 2 days in sports. Am so glad I took the afternoon and tomorrow off from the day job. So far it looks like the games are off to a rousing start with BC leading Texas Tech at the half and Maryland up by one over Davidson at the half (Davidson had a 8 point lead once). Two nail biters and one blow out with Louisville absoutely hammering Stanford (who I thought should have been excluded from the dance).

Promised some thoughts about my picks so here we go:

1) Toughest bracket from an RPI standpoint is the West - if you look at the RPI picking the lowest ones to win their game in the first round all eight total 110 points with the highest being a 29 rating. (Midwest - 130, South - 168, and the East - 195). Tell me again how Florida is the number one seed in the tournament?

2) Personally I thought Syracuse got jobbed - Stanford should not be in with an RPI of 63 (remember there are only 34 at large seeds with 25 going to non power conferences). In my opinion (humble), you have to have an RPI below 50 to be even considered for an at large berth.

3) Xavier got an at large are you kidding me???

4) I think there are at least 10 teams with final four chops and it could easily be one of the best tournaments ever.

5) Arkansas is my number one pick to be the 12 over 5. Lunardi had Arkansas as a solid 11 seed and USC as an 8 seed.

6) I picked Texas Tech over BC becuase I really think BC is a one man team and because I like Bob Knight over Skinner.

7) Georgia Tech may be a sexy pick, but their coach is like 6 and 5 in the tournament with 5 of those wins being in one tournament (the 2004 when UCONN won the title by beating Tech). Sorry, just don't think they have the chops to be a furious UNLV team who has a 10 RPI. Lunardi had UNLV as a solid 4 seed with Tech being a 9 seed.

8) ORU is a good pick in the first round due to having two very good players and personally (here comes the east coast bias) I think the PAC 10 is way overrated.

9) I hope you didn't pick all of the #1's to make the final four because it has never happened.

10) My final 4 is Kansas (by far the shakiest), Florida, Texas and Ohio St. with Kansas cutting down the nets by beating Texas.

Good luck with the brackets and we will see you later.