2006 NCAA Tournament: Round 2, Day 1

Ok, time to catch your breath. If anyone was expecting a Manhattan-Maryland preview today, you’ve come to the wrong place. I don’t follow the NIT. I couldn’t tell you most of the teams in it. Apparently Maryland and Manhattan are. I guess Notre Dame, Florida State and Colorado are in it as well. After that, it’s anyone’s guess. I don’t even know how many team are invited. I just never cared. I'll offer my solution on how to clean up this program shortly. Or it will wait til next year. We'll see.

Anyway, I’d like to apologize for the site being down the last couple of days. It wasn’t my fault at all. The clowns here at Blogger.com continue to have problems maintaining their servers. It seems every time I go to post something, there is some technical error. This time, I could post, edit and publish normally. But for some reason, the site was un-viewable. And since I know very little on computers or the internet, I’m just going to assume that this is par for the course. But I’ll probably move the webpage to another host (is that the right term?) shortly. You know, a host that doesn’t let it’s website crash for days at a time.

Back to the tournament. As I said on Thursday, this is where you are going to see my predictions differ from my locked bracket. For example, I had Marquette beating UCLA in the second round. Obviously that isn’t going to happen. So while my locked bracket is punished for that, my picks will not be. Overall, I’m in pretty good shape. All of my Elite 8 teams are still alive and I’ve only lost two of Sweet 16 teams (In the words of Bill Raftery: "ONIONS!"). My bracket is in better shape than most years (although UConn gave me, and everyone, quite a scare). I went 10-6 yesterday and I’m now 22-10 overall in the tournament. If you want to see my locked bracket, go look at the posts for the last two days and you can find the link. Here we go.

Washington DC Region

#7 Wichita State (25-8) vs. #2 Tennessee (22-7)
How they got here:
WSU beat #10 Seton Hall in first round, 86-66
UT beat #15 Winthrop in first round, 63-61
Oh Tennessee, c’mon on. Despite what Bruce Pearl says, Winthrop is not that good of a team. The Vols certainly played the part of an overseeded team from an overrated conference. Still, they had no business needing a desperation shot from Chris Lofton to win a game against the 15th seeded Eagles. Now they face a talented Shockers team that just came off an absolute beat down of overmatched Seton Hall. And what have I been telling you for the past three weeks? I said if SHU snuck into the tournament, they were going to be blasted in the first round. The Shockers played very well, but most of it was the atrociousness of Seton Hall. They’ve shouldn’t have been in this tournament over Cincinnati, Florida State, Missouri State or anyone else. I’m glad that WSU dispatched them ever so quickly. Take that garbage back to the garbage state! Anyway, this is the matchup I had in my locked brackets and I took WSU to pull the upset. I see no reason to change that pick here.
Pick: Wichita State 77, Tennessee 68

#5 Washington (25-6) vs. #4 Illinois (26-6)
How they got here:
UW beat #12 Utah State in first round, 75-61
Illinois beat #13 Air Force in first round, 78-69
In what should be the day’s most intriguing matchup, the Huskies are coming off an impressive win over Utah State that those on the East Coast saw absolutely none of. I’d like to talk about, because it seemed that U-dub completely owned a good mid-major team in USU, but the morons at CBS didn’t show one second of the game in this area. Instead, CBS decided to show Southern-Duke for a while (boy did Ratface’s gang look strictly average), before having the good sense to take that crap off the air and show Texas A&M-Syracuse. And ESPN didn’t show any highlights of the UW game on SportsCenter. So other than the box score and the game recounts, I’m in the dark on that one. I did see some of the Illinois game. They shot real well, but Air Force’s Princeton offense took them apart defensively for a good 30 minutes before the Falcons faded. I think the Illini will squeak by with a win here, but if they let the Huskies shoot as well as the Falcons did, Bruce Weber will be donning the orange blazer for the last time this season. And note to CBS: I want to see this game. I would love to be able to watch the country’s most complete player (Brandon Roy) compete against a good Illinois team.
Pick: Illinois 82, Washington 77

Minneapolis Region

#11 Wisconsin-Milwaukee (22-8) vs. #3 Florida (28-6)
How they got here:
UWM beat #6 Oklahoma in first round, 84-72
UF beat #14 South Alabama in first round, 76-50
Well, I had the Sooners pegged entirely wrong. Talk about underachieving. Maybe I’ll have to rethink my opinion on Kelvin Sampson. His team looked entirely uninterested in the NCAA tournament. Never a sign of good coaching. Anyway, I had Oklahoma going to the Sweet 16 mainly because I didn’t think Florida would go more than one weekend without tanking. I still believe that. The Panthers will be this year’s double-digit Sweet 16 team.
Pick: Wisconsin-Milwaukee 80, Florida 75

#12 Montana (24-6) vs. #4 Boston College (27-7)
How they got here:
UM beat #5 Nevada in first round, 87-79
BC beat #13 Pacific in first round, 88-76 (2OT)
While I didn’t lose any of my Elite 8 teams yet, two of them gave me near heart attacks in the first round. Connecticut should have blown out Albany. But Boston College had a predicable tough game against underrated Pacific. Even though I have BC in the Final Four, I said here on Thursday that BC would struggle through their first game. They matchup well against Montana, Villanova and Ohio State. Look for easier victories from here on out. Montana is a great story, but I don’t see them beating BC.
Pick: Boston College 78, Montana 64

Atlanta Region

#8 George Washington (27-2) vs. #1 Duke (31-3)
How they got here:
GW beat #9 UNC-Wilmington in first round, 88-85 (OT)
Duke beat #16 Southern in first round, 70-54
Well, Duke looked average against Southern the other night. This team isn’t going to win anything. They also aren’t going to get bounced here. GW got by the Seahawks on a wing and prayer. Man, you think UNC-Wilmington wants to face a DC area team anytime soon? First it was Drew Nicholas for Maryland, then the wrong end of a 19-0 run against the Colonials. If UNCW makes it again and sees Georgetown in the first round, they may want to pass on showing up.
Pick: Duke 77, George Washington 69

#12 Texas A&M (22-8) vs. #4 Louisiana State (24-8)
How they got here:
A&M beat #5 Syracuse in first round, 66-58
LSU beat #13 Iona in first round, 80-64
There are plenty of times I go out on a limb and I end up being completely wrong (come back tomorrow when I try to explain how Bradley beat Kansas). But there are other times where I look great. Big thank you to Billy Gillespie and Texas A&M. I’m sure that some had them beating Syracuse. Picking that upset wasn’t spectacular. But, if you go back and read some of posts of the past month, I said that A&M would get hot, go on a winning streak, beat Texas at home, make the NCAA tournament and win at least one game. How many had that happening? That my friends, is an amazing prognostication. Hopefully Gillespie can get his players to College Station and build this program. This is where their run ends in 2006.
Pick: LSU 68, Texas A&M 61

Oakland Region

#10 Alabama (18-12) vs. #2 UCLA (28-6)
How they got here:
Alabama beat #7 Marquette in first round, 90-85
UCLA beat #15 Belmont in first round, 78-44
Alabama validated their selection to the tournament. I thought that Marquette had a real shot at shocking the Oakland region and making the Final Four. I didn’t pick it, but I considered it a real possibility. They won’t even get a chance to play UCLA in the second round. Of all the 1 and 2 seeds, UCLA looked the best in the first round. I’m beginning to regret not picking them to make it out of Oakland. The Bruins could be the team that ruins my bracket if they keep moving on. They will here.
Pick: UCLA 82, Alabama 66

#6 Indiana (19-11) vs. #3 Gonzaga (28-3)
How they got here:
IU beat #11 San Diego St. in first round, 87-83
‘Zaga beat #14 Xavier in first round, 79-75
So Gonzaga tried to do their best - well, their best Gonzaga impression – and almost choked away a three seed in the first round. This is why Gonzaga doesn’t get 1 and 2 seed placements. The committee doesn’t want a 1 or 2 exiting in the first round, and with Gonzaga, you never know what’s going to happen. Despite becoming a powerhouse in the Northwest, Gonzaga is still a mid-major. A really, really good mid-major, but a mid-major nonetheless.
Pick: Gonzaga 80, Indiana 71