Sweet 16 of Madness

Time to quickly review and preview the Madness. I’m pressed for time, so we’re going in list format:

Big Man Who Made the Most Cash in One Weekend: This one goes to O’Bryant on Bradley. In my MVC preview weeks ago, I just said “Bradley has a 7-footer.” Now, he has a name, and because he’s a 7-footer, he will be drafted at some point, barring injury. Congratulations on making a lot of money!

Best “George” in the Tourney: If only GW would have made the Sweet 16, we would have had a trifecta of Georges (to join George Mason and Georgetown). I think both Mason and G-town can make the next round, but I’m suspecting only G-town will make it through, and take home the trophy of BEST GEORGE.

Best MVC Team in the Sweet 16: I’m going with Wichita State. Obviously, it’s a coin flip this weekend against G. Mason, but I like Wichita’s chances better than Bradley’s against Memphis.

Best in the Big 10: Damn. I’m taking the Clark Kellogg stance, no matter how precarious it might be: “You can’t judge a conference off of what happens in the tournament, because that’s about individual matchups. The Big 10 didn’t get the right matchups. You have to judge a conference off of their body of work from the duration of the season.”

#1 seed most likely to lose in the Sweet 16: It seems quite unlikely that all 4 #1s will make the Elite 8 (though I picked that in one bracket because I liked my chances of hitting 3 out of 4). Anyways, I hate to say it, but ‘Nova is my pick. ‘Nova could easily get bullied around by the bigger BC. Of course, if ‘Nova is running and hitting their 3s, everything should be fine.

Most likely Cinderella in the Final 4: Does Gonzaga count? Probably not. I’ll go with Georgetown who could ride their size advantage and the Princeton offense to glory. Granted, I think if teams practices their zone defenses they will avoid being embarrassed by the Princeton offense, like Ohio State was. I can’t tell you how many backcourt layups Georgetown got.

Best Name for the Midwest Region: “3 Big Men and a Little Ray” – This one goes out to ‘Nova and the other 3 teams in their region. The 3 other teams all have capable big men (BU has 2, Florida has Noah, Georgetown has Dr. Hibbert). ‘Nova starts 4 guards, including Ray & Foye. It’s a contrast in style and if ‘Nova can survive all of these big men, the sky is the limit.