Okay, time for the annual DBR cop-out, which means we refuse to pick the entire
tournament at one sitting. We do round-by-round, because one Butler can totally screw up
your forecast. In our considerations, we take in talent, of course, but also
ballhandling, coaching, and defense. At least this year. Tell us yours!
So: in the Midwest:
- Kentucky over IUPUI
- Utah over Oregon. The Johnson absence will inspire Utah.
- Wisconsin over Weber State. No one's buying that upset again this soon.
- Dayton over Tulsa. Smart, well-coached team. Their rise is both real and
impressive. - Mizzou over SIU.
- Marquette over Holy Cross
- IU over Alabama. It's the battle of the underachievers, but IU sucks less than
Alabama, and their players have tournament experience. Look for Mike Davis to become
overly emotional about coaching vs. his alma mater. - Pitt over Whittenburg's Wagner team
West:
- Arizona over Vermont. There's a reason why no #1 team in the 64 team version of
this tourney has ever lost a first round game: 61-64 really suck. Well except
for Mississippi Valley State. - Gonzaga over Cincy.
- Notre Dame over the directional cheese school.
- Here's an upset - Dennis Felton's WKU over Illinois.
- We'll take Creighton, but only on reputation. We haven't seen them yet. Korver may be a
better shooter than JJ Redick. - Duke over CSU. Altitude could be a problem, but Duke has access to various tools
to simulate the lack of oxygen. - Memphis over ASU.
- KU over Utah State
South
- Texas over Asheville? You think so? Gee, so do we.
- LSU-Purdue. No clue.
- UConn over BYU.
- Stanford over San Diego
- Maryland over Wilmington, but Blizzard could make it very interesting.
- Xavier of Troy State
- Michigan State over Colorado, but we'll probably get this one wrong.
- Florida over the Texas Hero school.
East
- Oklahoma sweeps the Carolinas. Sweet 16 ahead!
- NCSU over Cal, but Ben Braun is a very smart coach.
- Butler over Miss. State
- Louisville over Austin Peay
- OSU over Penn
- Syracuse-Manhattan - my heart says Syracuse, but my gut tells me they have a ways to go.
- St. Joe's-Auburn. St. Joe's. Clif will have an excuse, and his team will fold like
an accordion made out of saran wrap. - Finally, Wake over ETSU.