First, I wanted to let you all know that Tony Bozzella's Iona Lady Gaels will be playing in the first round of the Women's NIT at Quinnipiac tomorrow night at 7pm. Winner gets to play at St John's. I hope to be making the road trip up to Connecticut for that one.
Second, my friend Grant Hayden sent me this link to a great article in the NY Times by fomer Penn basketball player Stephen Danley. He really hits it on the head as far as what to watch for in the tournament, talks about the lost art of position rebounding (which thankfully George Mason's Will Thomas still understands as the article talks about) and some of his predictions are dead spot on (as noted in Sunday night's post, I too love Siena to beat Vanderbilt, and Butler to go very far, though I disagree on St Joe's).
One of my colleagues at work looked at my site yesterday and asked how I am able to write so much , saying "it must be a full time job" (Tom Kemp, my fellow writer on this site, is also amazed how I churn this out).
(Sigh) I wish.
But basically, I spend most of my late nights and early mornings before leaving for work writing my column. Last night and early this morning, I started writing my first part of my NCAA predictions, which I will have hopefully later tonight. I also take time during the day to gather up mental notes to myself on what I will write later. Hopefully that transcends into enjoyable columns for you all.
Well, the NIT starts tonight and C.M. Newton and the boys have made Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Arizona State the number one seeds, which I can understand for the most part since three of them; Ohio State, Virginia Tech and Arizona State were the last three teams probably left out of the NCAAs and Syracuse wasn't far behind. I will give them credit for giving Illinois State a two seed (remember when they gave Hofstra and Missouri State three seeds after both were the last teams left out of the NCAAs in 2006..nice). The A10 has four teams in the tournament (UMass, Dayton, Rhode Island, and Charlotte), while the ACC has three (Va Tech, Maryland, and Florida State) and Missouri Valley has three (Illinois State, Southern Illinois, and Creighton). Surprising omission - Houston, who was left out in favor of the mediocre Oklahoma State.
Well there are some intriguing matchups, especially for Tom Kemp, the A-10's number one fan (if you are a daily reader of this site you know I am being extremely sarcastic ). A former MAC coach, Gary Waters, leads Cleveland State, the Horizon runnerup, vs. Dayton, the seemingly one time NCAA lock. Another potential intriguing Tom Kemp matchup is in the second round if UMass and Akron win their first round games (Akron's won't be so easy at Florida State), you have Tom Kemp's dream matchup of MAC vs. A10. Tom so badly wants that matchup.
So my quick predictions on this all. Here's my final eight. First, I think everyone is about to find out how good the Missouri Valley is. I think Illinois State beats Utah State, then Dayton, to setup a matchup vs. Ohio State. Meanwhile I have the Salukis of Southern Illinois beating Oklahoma State at home in one of the loudest places to play college basketball, Carbondale, Illinois. Then the battle tested Salukis knock off the Sun Devils on the road and face fellow MVC team Creighton, who will beat defenseless Rhode Island, then knock off those overrated Florida Gators, who Billy Donovan seems to hate so much. Syracuse gets a nice home bounce and faces...Akron, who gets revenge for Tom Kemp for all the A10's transgressions and denies the Orange the rematch with UMass. Finally VCU beats UAB showing how weak Conference USA is, then shows everyone that the committee wasn't certifiably insane in leaving Va Tech out and beats the Hokies on their home floor. The Rams then take on the Rebels of Mississippi, who now free of the SEC, show why they were 14-1 out of conference.
In the quarterfinals, I have three of the home teams making it, basically because of the home court advantage; Ohio State will sneak by Illinois State, Syracuse will end Tom Kemp's dream of a MAC team making the NIT Final Four, Mississippi will get by Eric Maynor and VCU, but the Salukis will knock off Creighton in the battle of the Missouri Valley powers. However, I hope I am dead wrong, and its an all mid major final four. Wouldn't that be awesome.
In the semifinals, the Cuse somehow sneak by the Salukis in front of lots of their orange clad fans in the Garden in what will seem like a home game. Mississippi knocks out Ohio State, setting up the final. I like the Rebels to win that game.
Like I said though, would love an all mid major final four at the NIT. Wouldn't C.M. Newton and the boys at the NIT love that? You know the answer to that one...
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