2006 NCAA Tournament: Round 2, Day 2

Through three days, I’m in still in great shape bracket wise. My Elite 8 (UConn, UNC, BC, Ohio State, Duke, Texas, Memphis and Gonzaga) are all still alive. I’ve only lost Oklahoma, Marquette and Illinois from my Sweet 16. The Wichita State pick is looking pretty good now. My boy Gillespie and his band of upstarts almost pulled the upset over LSU. Even though I was rooting for him, LSU needed to win that game. Not only to help my brackets, but to eliminate Duke in Atlanta. As much as I loved Texas A&M, there was no way they were going to stop the Ultimate Nerds.

Today’s games offer us two killer 1 vs. 8 contests. Connecticut-Kentucky and Villanova-Arizona is a pretty good Final Four most seasons. I’ll preview those two matchups. And if you’re interested, and I highly doubt it, I’ll even admit fault in one of my picks. It doesn’t happen often. So after a 6-2 Saturday, I pull into Sunday with a 28-12 tournament mark.

Washington DC Region

#8 Kentucky (22-12) vs. #1 Connecticut (28-3)
So Calhoun, buddy…what the hell was that performance on Friday all about? Does he not know that I’ve correctly picked the tournament winner six years in a row? It would have been pretty embarrassing for that streak to end on the second night of the tournament, to a 16th seed no less. Because I live in the DC area, CBS showed the George Mason-Michigan State game, even when UConn went down by 10 in the second half. I’m sorry, unless George Mason himself came back to play point guard for the Patriots, CBS should have switched over to that game. By the time the Mason game ended, UConn had gone up by a few possessions with five minutes or so left in the game. That was almost history in the making, and we almost missed it to watch Tom Izzo and uber-white stiff Paul Davis make an early exit. Again, bad programming. Also, I think CBS should look into have Bill Raftery call every game. Let’s figure out how to do that. Anyway, a great matchup here. Suffice to say, if UConn plays like they did on Friday, they’ll be done for the season. This game is kinda like a mini 2002 Syracuse regional reunion. The Predictor went to his first live tournament action when Maryland ran through one of the toughest fields in NCAA history. In Syracuse, the Terps ran into Tayshaun Prince’s Kentucky team in the Sweet 16, followed by a Caron Butler and a young Emeka Okafor’s UConn team in the regional final. Of course, one team is conspicuously absent from this reunion (But since they have some free time after embarrassing themselves in the NIT, maybe they could drive up to Philly and watch this one). Kentucky’s smaller backcourt should have problems with the taller Huskies guards. The problems are contingent on UConn shooting better than the 30% or so it shot on Friday. Still, this is the best game of the tournament so far. I’m going to assume that Connecticut’s poor performance was due to Albany playing their best game possible while at the same time, UConn overlooked the Danes because of the tough outs they face the next few rounds. UConn potentially has to go through UK, Washington, UNC and then two more top teams in Indianapolis. That would be the toughest run since Maryland’s 2002 trip. Hopefully UConn can sustain their success a little bit longer than the Terps did. And hopefully they shoot well today.
Pick: Connecticut 84, Kentucky 72


Sigh, remember when Maryland had this guy and made the NCAA tournament. You can probably see The Predictor in the background.

#11 George Mason (24-7) vs. #3 North Carolina (23-7)
Memo to Roy Williams: make sure your players are wearing their cups tonight. Tony Skinn is back in action after his suspension, and hopefully he has not improved on his recent ball-handling skills. Skinn’s recent attempt to grab some skin wasn’t quite a Chris Paul situation. If anyone remembers back to last season, Paul punched Julius Hodge right in the groin during the last week of ACC contests. If it were anyone other than Hodge, I would have felt for the guy. As I was watching the Mason-MSU game at my friends’ apartment, CBS replayed the inappropriate incident. And as my friend Beasley noticed, Skinn’s low blow wasn’t as much a punch as it was a grab. Which is even more disturbing than I first thought. So here’s hoping that UNC protects the rock much better than they did against Murray State, and protects their rocks from Tony Skinn and ousts this punk post haste.
Pick: North Carolina 76, George Mason 63

Minneapolis Region

#8 Arizona (20-12) vs. #1 Villanova (25-3)
Team Gimmick meets Team Dysfunction (at least the Western version…the eastern version just lost Manhattan) in a game that should mean relatively little by the end of the tournament. The winner gets a Boston College team that mailed it in for 20 minutes and still managed to beat a good Montana team by 13 points. If there is one team that is quick enough on the perimeter to hang with ‘Nova’s four guard lineup, it is Lute Olsen’s crew. Look for Zona center Kirk Walters to see less playing time and guard Chris Rodgers to see more off the bench. When the 6-4 Rodgers is on the court, he joins Mustafa Shakur, Hassan Adams and the other Marcus Williams as one of the tallest, and fastest guard lineups in the country. If Arizona comes out strong, and that is a big if with this inconsistent and moody team, they have the ability to shut down Villanova’s premier backcourt. Williams is an outstanding player, and surprisingly, a kid you can root for on this otherwise disgusting team of criminals and misfits (unlike the similarly named player on Connecticut, who is the reason you can’t spell UConn with C-O-N). I think Nova nips Arizona here, but it’s going to be close all the way through if the real Arizona shows up. I guarantee the Wildcats will win (think about it).
Pick: Villanova 83, Arizona 81


The name's the same, the game's the same, but the criminal files are different.

#7 Georgetown (22-8) vs. #2 Ohio State (26-5)
One of the two “dud” games tomorrow. Expect a lot of missed shots. Expect a lot of turnovers. Expect a lot of ugly basketball. In many ways than one, this game will resemble a football game more than anything else. And I think Ohio State had the better football team most seasons. Unfortunately, since Georgetown is the “local” team, guess which game I’ll be stuck watching tomorrow afternoon. The sooner the Hoyas are knocked off, the better.
Pick: Ohio State 65, Georgetown 59

Atlanta Region

#10 NC State (22-9) vs. #2 Texas (28-6)
How does a team get blown out by Wake Forest, then beat California in the NCAA tournament? Two reasons. First, the Pac-10 really is as bad as everyone says it is. Two, this team is coached by Herb Sendek. It seems every season, Ol’ Herb has his balls on the hot seat (but at least away from Tony Skinn). He somehow manages to win just enough tournament games so the small minority of Pack fans can make a case for him to return next season. And then he promptly goes out and recruits a sub par class and underachieves, leaving the majority of Pack fans wondering how he has coached in Raleigh for over a decade. The question is, will one NCAA win over Cal be enough to keep Herby in the Triangle for another season?
Pick: Texas 74, NC State 61

#14 Northwestern State (26-7) vs. #6 West Virginia (21-10)
Not much to say here. WVU should blowout Northwestern State. Iowa was a prototypical upset team. The Hawkeyes relied completely on their defense to win because they couldn’t shoot worth a Canadian penny on most nights. Those are the teams that get knocked off in the first round because they can never get a 15-20 point lead on inferior competition. They just don’t have the offense to do it. And the old saying that the longer you let a lesser team hang around, the better chance they have of knocking you off at the end is so true in the case (By the way, I'm left wondering if all those fickle Hoosiers fans still want Steve Alford. What, exactly, has he ever won?). Unfortunately for the NSU Demons, the Fightin’ Hicks can score in bunches. To stay within striking distance like they did against Iowa, NSU is going to have to put up somewhere in the vicinity of 75 points. As much as I would love to see it, I don’t think the Demons can play in that type of game and have a chance to win.
Pick: West Virginia 80, Northwestern State 64


This is what happens when you use a Big 10 offense.

Oakland Region

#9 Bucknell (27-4) vs. #1 Memphis (31-3)
Like NSU, Bucknell has the fate of going up against the wrong team. Bucknell is a defense first team. Against the terrible Arkansas defense, the Bison only managed to put up 59. Now Memphis’ defense is worse, but their offense is much, much better than anything Bucknell saw in the first round. The advantage that the Bison have over a team in the situation of NSU is the experience factor. Memphis plays mostly underclassmen. The Bison play three seniors and a pair of juniors. That will make this game interesting. But in terms of “athleticism”, Memphis runs circles over anything that Pat Flannery can throw out on the court. If the Bison can slow this game down, and I mean way down, and get another off shooting night from the Tigers, they actually have a shot here. My guess is that either Shawne Williams or Joey Dorsey will go off against the slower Bison and end up being the difference maker.
Pick: Memphis 79, Bucknell 67

#13 Bradley (21-11) vs. #5 Pittsburgh (25-7)
Ok, so I was completely wrong about the Braves. I’m not perfect. And it’s not like I’m Billy Packer. Packer insulted teams that he had never seen play. I at least saw two Bradley games this season, and they looked awful both times. And despite looking just as bad as I remembered, Kansas looked much worse and handed Bradley a win. Personally, I have nothing against Bradley. Why would I? So now I’m faced picking a game between a team I don’t respect and a team I don’t like or respect. Pitt will probably go into one of their trademarked 15-minute offensive comas and still come out ahead here. Some of these games, like the UConn-Kentucky or Tennessee-Wichita State matches, are the reasons that this tournament is so entertaining and so popular. Then there are games like this that make me wonder why I watch the college game at all. I’m guessing first one to 55 wins. Exciting!
Pick: Pittsburgh 58, Bradley 53