Saturday, March 12, 2011

March Madness Teams and Tips


Here is the conference breakdown of teams to watch and to stay away from as you make your pick:

Big East
Teams to watch: UConn (Kemba Walker could be player of the year. They played well early, slumped in the middle and now are coming on strong.) Louisville (might Pitino's best coaching job in a while) Syracuse (a closer in the making in Scoop Jardine) Pitt (can score a little better but I'm not fully sold on them) St. Johns (10 seniors and Lavin can coach them up)
Team to stay away from: Notre Dame (although they have a lot of seniors, they were atrocious on the road. They will get to sweet 16 but I doubt any farther) Villanova (they collapsed at the end of the season) Georgetown, (lost their starting point guard) Cincy, Marquette and West Virginia.

Big Ten
Teams to watch: Ohio State (the most complete team in the country) Wisconsin (love the senior leadership and they have a closer in PG Jordan Taylor) Purdue (two studs in E'twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson, sleeper Final Four pick) Michigan St. (looked dead in the water but Izzo has got them righted and they always perform well in March)
Teams to stay away from: Michigan, Illinois, and Penn St.

Big 12
Teams to watch: Texas (playing awful the last couple of weeks) Texas A&M(senior leadership) Kansas (although they are here, just know the Jayhawks play when they want to and in the end will get beat by a team that they would normally crush. Plus they have issues at the PG position) Kansas St. (got hot at the right time and has a superior player in Jacob Pullen
Teams to stay away from: Mizzou (horrible on the road, do not play with any urgency)

ACC
Teams to watch: North Carolina (started slowly and now they are coming on like gangbusters) Duke (will get to the Sweet 16 but not any farther. Very perimeter oriented)
Teams to stay away from: Clemson, Florida St.

SEC
Teams to watch: Vanderbilt (great shooters and good inside game) Florida ( a stud in Chandler Parsons, who is a matchup nightmare and Donovan can coach) Kentucky (although they are young very talented plus Calipari knows how to get the best out of his players)
Teams to stay away from: Georgia

Pac-10
Teams to watch: Arizona (honestly only reason I'm picking them is there staring guard has the same name as me. Derrick Williams is good but this team is young and the conference is bad). Washington (They can flat out score and they play up tempo. Have a star and closer in Isiah Thomas, no relation to the other Thomas)
Teams to stay away from: UCLA, USC

Best Of The Rest (Teams that can win a game or two)
Belmont(they play 11 guys and can score and score and score), Oakland(senior-laden and not afraid to play anyone, beat Tennessee in Knoxville), ODU (seniors), George Mason, Utah State(great inside-outside combination, experienced players and coach)

Mid-Majors Who Could Make The Final Four (This years Butler Bulldogs)

BYU(If you haven't seen Jimmer play, trust me he is as good as advertised), San Diego St.(Kawhi Leonard is a terrific basketball player and the Aztecs are really solid)
This year college basketball has a lot of parity. If the NCAA tournament is 3/4 as exciting as the conference tourney's have been then we are in store for another wild and memorable March.

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