Bracket Madness: East
College Basketball, Gambling March 19th. 2008, 5:09pm
Pretty much your last chance to join our bracket. Are you sufficiently amped for the tourney? Tomorrow’s going to be fantastic. Tonight we learn how to watch games online. The plan is to have one game online, one game on the TV, and work off the laptop. Should be fun. The East is … eh. We like Tennessee, but don’t love the Vols; Louisville is bound to disappoint, and we can’t get interested in UNC, although it has to be the clear favorite in the region. We’ll be actively rooting for Indiana, though. Before reading the rest of this: Whatever happened to Scotty Thurman? Miles “Simon says Championship?”
1 North Carolina -25 vs. 16. Mt. St. Mary’s – Who wants to parlay all the 16 seeds to cover?
8 Indiana -1.5 vs 9 Arkansas – We’ve liked Indiana all season, and remember what Michigan did in ‘89? There are parallels.
5 Notre Dame -7 vs 12 George Mason – Would avoid this one, but only because we think Notre Dame’s really good, but always up for a letdown.
4 Washington State -8.5 vs 13 Winthrop – Eagles beat Notre Dame last year, and a win here wouldn’t shock us. The Cougars have disappointed this season.
3 Louisville -13.5 vs 14 Boise St. – How can everyone be in love with a team that has no discipline or point guard play?
6 Oklahoma -3 vs 11 St. Joe’s – Haven’t liked the Sooners all year, and nothing’s changed.
7 Butler -4.5 vs 10 South Alabama – Everyone’s talking up Butler, but South Alabama took Vandy to 2 OTs in Nashville, and lose by three at Mississippi. We’d go Jaguars here.
2 Tennessee -19.5 vs 15 American – We know two AU grads, and this is for them – of all the first-round games, gamblers have tabbed Tennessee as the 2nd most-likely lock to cover (1st is Georgetown).
Most likely double-digit seed to win two games: 1) George Mason, 2) St. Joe’s, 3) Winthrop.
Highest seed most likely to lose in the first round: Notre Dame
Most likely regional final: UNC vs. Louisville
Sexy Sleeper regional final: George Mason vs. Butler
29 Responses to “Bracket Madness: East”
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March 19th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Butler knocks off Tennessee.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I can’t help but think that Kelvin ‘Verizon’ Sampson has screwed this Indiana team up. Two months ago people were calling them Final Four material. For the last month, they’ve been imploding.
I still wouldn’t want to play them, though.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I’m actually a little surprised I haven’t heard a little more IU fan outrage over being an 8 seed. Arkansas is pretty legit and then they have to go play UNC if they win. That’s a really tough 8/9 seed for UNC to beat I think.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Indiana is an 8 seed going against the tourney’s overall #1 when Purdue is a 6 seed is quite an injustice.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
What is not to like about Indiana?
-Cheater coach
-Players who didn’t show up to Dakich’s first practice and threatened to quit
-Mouthy, lazy players like DeAndre Thomas, Jordan Crawford, and JaMarcus Ellis
-Haven’t been the same since Sampson left with losses to Penn State, Minnesota, and a particularly embarrassing blowout to Michigan State
-Eric Gordon handled his recruitment honorably and honestly
-Eric Gordon is an incredible ball hog
March 19th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
as an AU alum, i like them to cover….i am kidding, seriously- they have no shot of getting within 25
March 19th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
TBL,
Purdue finished 2nd in the Big Ten, Indiana finished 3rd. Purdue swept Big Ten champion Wisconsin, Wisconsin swept IU. Purdue has a quality non-conference win over Louisville, IU has none. Also, IU has looked really bad of late.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
All very true, but keep these two numbers in mind, as well:
Indiana
RPI: 23
SOS: 59
Purdue
RPI: 45
SOS: 114
March 19th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
TBL,
The IU beat writer for the Indy Star thought Purdue was deserving of a 4 seed and IU of a 6 seed. This coming from someone that is extremely biased towards IU. It is NOT an injustice that IU was 2 seeds lower.
http://blogs.indystar.com/hoosiersinsider/archives/2008/03/its_time_to_pic.html
March 19th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
ESPN’s Bottom Line says I have have 17:56:25 to complete my bracket
17:56:24
17:56:23
17:56:22
March 19th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Pomeroy tends to agree with you, TBL. According to his log5 analysis, 3-seed Louisville has a better chance to reach the Final Four than Tennessee, and is not that far behind UNC:
UNC: 29.45%
Louisville: 23.21%
Tennessee: 16.29%
Wazzu: 15.35%
No one else in the region has more than a 5% chance at the getting to San Antonio.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
is anyone in the baseball league around?
if so…in the draft thing yet?
March 19th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I’m about 30 minutes from home. I might make it before the draft starts. What can you do now, spence?
March 19th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
yo, nothin yet.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Yo.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
nothing yet on the baseball front. They are supposed to pick the draft order at 730pm. although I dont know when they post it.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
dude, im gonna get smoked. i have a bad feeling.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Your draft is loading now. A link to enter your draft will appear shortly.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Your draft is loading now. A link to enter your draft will appear shortly.
That’s what it says on Yahoo.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
its up for those with invested interest.
cavs pistons…fantasy draft…whoohoo.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Butler to the Elite 8 baby…calling it right now!!
March 19th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Am I mistaken, or did IU beat Purdue head to head? That aside, I thought they both deserved to be in the 5-7 range somewhere.
As I’ve said before, the 8 seed was based off the Dakich era which is somewhat fair. Though to go along with the RPI & SOS that TBL posted, Pomeroy has IU at 19 and Purdue at 25.
No Big 10 team is going to do much in this tournament, Wisconsin has the only decent chance to get to the Sweet 16.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Indiana is going to be exposed BIG TIME in the coming days. It the ball is in Eric Gordon’s hands at crunch time…game over, the other team wins. I like the other pieces, especially DJ White, but nothing that I have seen out of Gordon makes me think he will do well in this tournament or in the NBA.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
TBL, one suggestion – can you tell the person who set up our tourney challenge to use Yahoo or CBSSportsline next year? ESPN’s bracket didn’t even work on my computer, I had to have someone on a different computer enter my bracket’s for me.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Good read about IU’s seeding. Basically what I’ve been saying all along.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
If he takes it to the hoop instead of jacking a three then I definitely want the ball in his hands, but lately they have not been feeding DJ enough inside. There’s no reason he should ever have less than 15 FG attempts.
I’m also bearish on Gordon’s NBA future. I think he will still be drafted high based on potential and shooting ability, but he really needs to improve his handles and mid-range game to become a “better Ben Gordon”.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:40 am
hmm, I remember the last time UNC was a #1 seed with Indiana as a potential second round opponent. Indiana played basically the way it’s been playing the past 6 games and got its ass kicked by Colorado. Remember that.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:45 am
I’m 90 percent sure what Tallguy said will happen.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Wow tallguy, great insight there