Great story from The Hoya (Georgetown’s student newspaper) about the halftime shoes switch the Hoyas made against Vanderbilt (when they were down 32-24).
The new shoes (Jordan XX2’s in Gtown blue and grey) look tight but superstition is superstition and the Hoyas went back to what had brought them that far.
Just the winners here:
Memphis
Nevada
Arizona
Florida
Notre Dame
Oregon
Texas
USC
Georgia Tech
Wisconsin
Kansas
Villanova
Virginia
Tennessee
Virginia Tech
Southern Illinois
Never have I been more happy to be wrong about a prediction then about VCU’s upset of Duke. I was an early fan of VCU head coach Anthony Grant in the offseason and he is proving to be the real deal. He’s got an old school sensibility with new school tactics and it works marvelously.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a good story about the game and talks about how star guard Eric Maynor, who hit all the shots that counted down the stretch, would be watching Sports Center all morning long for his own highlights.
Random Scattershots:
- ESPN had an unfortunate typo in the headline of Doug Gottlieb’s analysis about the game
(hint: someone put a “G” where there should have been an “M”). Did someone let Dickie V loose in the web editing room? Here’s the screenshot (as of 8 am Central time on 3/16) in case the story gets corrected. - Greg Paulus flops. Need proof? Look here
Short on time so these won’t be too wordy…
No. 1 Ohio State (30-3) vs. No. 16 Central Connecticut State (22-11)
Ohio State, no question.
No. 6 Duke (22-10) vs. No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth (27-6)
Close game, but Duke will persevere.
No. 2 UCLA (26-5) vs. No. 15 Weber State (20-11)
Weber State is a tough 15 Seed, but UCLA is too good.
No. 8 Marquette (24-9) vs. No. 9 Michigan State (22-11)
Potential game of the night. I think the Big East is the better conference which leads me to pick Marquette. Virtual tossup here.
No. 3 Pittsburgh (27-7) vs. No. 14 Wright State (23-9)
Pitt will be itching to get back to winning after getting blown out by Georgetown in the Big East tourney. Wright State is overmatched and Pitt will win by double digits.
No. 8 Brigham Young (25-8) vs. No. 9 Xavier (24-8)
Another tight 8-9 game between two squads that aren’t really all that good. I like the lower seeded Xavier.
No. 7 Indiana (20-10) vs. No. 10 Gonzaga (23-10)
This one of the trickier matchups to predict. Gonzaga’s had some solid wins this season but the lineup shifts and late season struggles have me concerned. I’m going the conservative route and sticking with the higher seeded Indiana here.
No. 1 North Carolina (28-6) vs. No. 16 Eastern Kentucky (21-11)
No mysteries here. Pick the facemask-wearing Tarheels.
Here’s my stab at the morning and afternoon NCAA tournament games taking place later today:
No. 4 Maryland (24-8) vs. No. 13 Davidson (29-4)
Davidson is a hot team and Maryland has been down the last few years so a lot of people are going with the upset here. I think Maryland is better than you think and while Stephen Curry is for real, Davidson just doesn’t have enough. Maryland in this one
No. 7 Boston College (20-11) vs. No. 10 Texas Tech (21-12)
Texas Tech has some nice wins going for it in the season, but are way too inconsistent to bank on. Stick with the higher seed and BC here.
No. 6 Louisville (23-9) vs. No. 11 Stanford (18-12)
Another popular pick for an upset. Stanford has big bodies and the Pac-10 is a very underrated conference while Louisville was surprisingly good in their second year of Big East play. Louisville is the better team and they are playing in Kentucky (even if it’s UK’s Rupp Arena) so I’m picking the Cardinals.
No. 3 Washington State (25-7) vs. No. 14 Oral Roberts (23-10)
Don’t front on the Cougars here. ORU has a tradition of playing teams tough so they might make it close early, but WSU is just plain better.
No. 5 Butler (27-6) vs. No. 12 Old Dominion (24-8)
I’m not feeling Butler at all this year. ODU will represent for the CAA and take this upset.
No. 2 Georgetown (26-6) vs. No. 15 Belmont (23-9)
This will be over by halftime. Georgetown is playing like a team possessed right now and will open this game up decisively early. Hoyas by a bunch.
No. 3 Texas A&M (25-6) vs. No. 14 Pennsylvania (22-8)
The Ivy teams always will play you tough. A&M should have been at least a 2 seed and will win this matchup going away. Acie Law #4 will not let this team lose. Aggies over the Quakers.
No. 6 Vanderbilt (20-11) vs. No. 11 George Washington (23-8)
This is a hard one to pick but I think Vandy has played a higher level of competition this year and has showed it can win against good teams (Florida). GW got really hot late and have some momentum whereas Vanderbilt was blown out by Arkansas. In a tight one, the Commodores will come out ahead over the Colonials.
Be sure to check out Profantasysports.com for a complete 65 team preview I worked on. I covered the Midwest (St. Louis) bracket while three other experienced college basketball guys took care of the others.
Altogether a great read and look for more of my contributions on that site as the tournament goes along. Big shout out to Perry Missner who is the lead college basketball writer on PFS.
Win or lose in today’s Big East Championship game against Pitt, regular season conference champion and 9th ranked Georgetown proved that they have all the pieces necessary to be a viable contender for the NCAA title this season in a thrilling 84-82 victory over a very good Notre Dame squad.
The key to the Hoyas’ success is balance and their relentless execution of the “Princeton” offense that John Thompson III installed when he became Georgetown’s head coach in 2004. The core of the offensive system is constant movement, lots of passes, and a deluge of screens and cuts that lead to many open shots. Even when taken out of their flow, the skills and teamwork the offense engenders usually allows them to compensate.
“I’ve said all year that we can play any style,” Thompson said after Friday night’s victory. “I think that we — I think that we have the understanding as well as the personnel so that we can adjust what we’re doing.”
It’s this flexibility that will make the Hoyas incredibly dangerous come tourney time. Big East Player of the Year Jeff Green can score and pass as well as any forward in the country and Jonathan Wallace is one of the smartest, most underrated guards in the country.
Georgetown hasn’t been in the same sentence with the Ohio State and UCLA’s of the world so far this season but once the NCAA tourney starts Georgetown has the type of team that has a chance to go on a real roll.
Random Georgetown Fact: Georgetown was all over the viral, user-produced video trend this season and regularly featured student created videos on the jumbotrons during games. Here’s a great story on it from Georgetown’s student newspaper, the Hoya.
Every season there seems to be one team that despite all of its accomplishments in the regular season seems fated by circumstance to possible NCAA tournament exclusion. One team that looks like it may be in that unfortunate situation is Appalachian State, who 
finished the season with a 25-7 (15-3) record which was good for first place in North Division of the Southern Conference.
Led by competent senior point guard D.J. Thompson and UVa transfer Donte Minter, App St. sports some major victories against surefire NCAA teams like regular season ACC Champion Virginia and CAA Champs VCU. They also dealt conference rival Davidson (who won the SoCo tourney and the conference’s automatic bid) their only conference loss of the season. To be fair, they also had some three ugly early losses, but these occurred in the absence of Minter who was not eligible to play at the time.
Unfortunately for teams in smaller conferences, it comes down to conference tournament performance more times than not and after suffering an 89-87 defeat to the College of Charleston in the SoCo semifinals there is very real reason to worry about the Mountaineers’ bubble chances.
If any borderline small conference team deserves to be in the tourney, Appalachian State is it. And if there is any justice in the world (I’m doubting this after Haley Scarnatto advanced to the final 12 of American Idol, but I digress) somehow, someway the selection committee will find a way to get them in.
