March Madness: Games to watch, bracket advice
By JJ Ossola
IV Leader Staff, Mar 15, 2007
Pop quiz, hotshot. What do Marquette, Oral Roberts, Boston
College, Niagara and Winthrop college’s have in common with IVCC? The answer
will be at the end.
Like anyone who has picked teams they know very little about,
you like to root for the underdog. Yeah, but you still know that first seeds
never lose in the first round.
Oh, how I wish I could justify printing the whole bracket
here!
Like many other students, I have looked over the NCAA
Division I Men’s Basketball tournament bracket so that I can’t remember half of
the seeds.
While gathering the campus question for this issue, I heard a
variety of opinions about the tournament and how to fill out a bracket. One
student commented that the more time you spend poring over the possible match
ups, the worse your picks will be.
Gut instinct? What fun is that? Besides how do you get beyond
this game ... it’s for the birds (had to.)
Stanford Cardinals vs. the Cardinals (Louisville). I am going
with the upset, and picking Stanford. Louisville has its well known ups and
downs this season.
No one can say that Rick Pitino has more than a fair shot at
getting his team deep into the tournament.
I still like Pac-10 teams more in one and done situations.
Plus, Stanford has a lot of heart and a lot of height (7 ft.) in Brook and Robin
Lopez.
Combined they score 20.1 points and 11.6 rebounds. Add in the
other forward, Lawrence Hill’s 15.9 points and 6 rebounds a game.
Oh, did I mention that the Lopezes are freshmen and Hill is a
sophomore!
So, go ahead and root against them if you want. I know
they’ll be my pick next year too.
This year, I have a dream. That dream is in the form of two
Illinois teams facing off and giving beat writers all over the state a chance
voice their allegiance!
Defense wins games will be the Saluki chant while the
Fighting Illini will claim the emotional edge.
Who to root for in this? Both are seasoned teams.
I could go either way, but seeing as the battered winner of
the contest will have to face one of the most explosive teams in the tournament,
I choose Southern to take it.
If V. Tech doesn’t wake me from the dream early that is.
OK, all joking aside, V. Tech is going to go to town on the
Illini. Sorry.
You can always take heart in this matchup though,
Those Spartans drive me nuts! And then there is the
movie that's out (300,) which means that someone is going to have to connect the
two either in a commercial or a promo. The only thing that could get me to sway
toward liking the very potent Michigan State team is if their fans bring back a
toga revolution.
Marquette has been through some tough teams before getting to
this point. Dominic James is a great player. He is leading the team in points
and assists ,and Wes Matthews on his side makes for a dynamic duo.
Now neither one of them are close to same caliber of a Drew
Neitzel. Neitzel dropped 20 or more points in about half of the games played
this year. He dropped big numbers against quality teams like Ohio State (29 and
24) and Wisconsin (28 and 22.) In the last three games of the season, Neitzel is
playing more controlled.
His stat line (18.1 ppg, shot 41.7 percent for 3’s, and
dished 4.3) goes hand in hand with the emergence of 6’10 center Goran Suton’s
improved play. Suton has averaged over the last three games (2 against the
Badgers and Northwestern) 12.3 ppg, 8.3 rbds, and (What!?) 3.3 assists!
Needless to say, I may not care for them, but they are a
scrappy bunch.
Their matchup against the Tar Heels will be one that I’ll be
glued to.
Which brings me to my list of teams that I wish the best of
luck to. I love watching them.
The NCAA has quite a few quality teams this year and you owe
it to yourself to actually tape any one of these games (potential games.)
2nd round:
Florida vs Arizona
Tennessee vs Virginia
Nevada vs Memphis
Texas Tech vs Georgetown
Vandy vs Washington St.
UNLV vs Wisconsin
3rd round
Oregon vs Wisconsin
Pittsburgh vs UCLA
Florida vs Maryland
Final Four
Wisconsin vs UCLA
Texas vs Ohio St.
National Champion
Wisconsin over Texas
The answer to the question in the opening paragraph: they all have some form of an Eagle mascot. You thought it was something else?