Wednesday March 14, 2007

With the tournament right around the corner, I found myself in an NCAA tournament pool formatted like a draft. The picks were serpentine (first round- 1-8, second round 8-1), then every two rounds the draft order was randomized again. If you get a team to the final four, you get your entry fee back; the owner of the championship team gets everything else. I started with the second pick.

The first round started with Kansas, not surprising. Everyone looked at me in surprise when I took Texas A&M (a 3 seed) at second overall, but I had some method to my madness. The main goal is to get a team to the final four and Texas A&M looks to have the easiest road there.

In the West, there is Kansas, UCLA and a group of teams that can be troublesome, so it is tough to pick anyone from there.

The East is a monster of a bracket with Georgetown, UNC, WSU, Texas. I have Georgetown winning the whole thing (if they guards can just limit turnovers) in many of my brackets, but that is a tough way to get to the final four.

Florida might have an easy road in the Midwest, relative to the other teams, if Oregon ever stops hitting every shot and Wisconsin can’t recover from losing their inside presence, but I couldn’t bring myself to take them.

So, that leaves the South. Ohio State may be one of the most talented teams in the field, but the tournament is a different game, and veteran leadership, especially from the guard position helps a lot. Conley is a great point guard, but maybe not the leader needed for a deep run. I’ve never believed in Memphis that much, mostly because they haven’t played anyone. I could be wrong about them, but they don’t look like a threat. Texas A&M will have some talented teams to beat, but with Acie Law at the helm, they could go a long way.

Florida, UNC, OSU, UCLA, Georgetown, Texas, Wisconsin, Memphis, WSU, Oregon, Butler, and Pittsburgh went between my picks. I swung Maryland, a team that I liked a whole lot more before an ACC-tourney blip against Miami. I am hoping they can get past Old Dominion in the second round (obviously not high on Butler either), then make some noise against Florida.

Next, I took Virginia Tech, an athletic team that might do some damage. Then I went with a popular darkhorse in Georgia Tech that could simply overpower Wisconsin offensively. At this point in the draft, I realized that I had taken three consecutive ACC teams which was troubling, but that’s how the picks fell.

The next pick was my worst, Illinois. I had three teams queued up, ready to go. Villanova, Michigan State, and Creighton all went pretty much right before me. And before you say anything, yes, I realize that Illinois plays Virginia Tech, another team I picked, in the first round. Whoever wins is my favorite against Southern Illinois/ Holy Cross, and will get a chance to upset Kansas. At this point, there isn’t a lot of quality available anyway.

I took BYU next. Basically I took them because they were sitting out there as an eight seed, and maybe they could catch lightning in a bottle and beat an inexperienced OSU team. I ended with Wright State playing Pittsburgh (hopefully Aaron Gray doesn’t remember how to play in the post) and North Texas against Memphis.

You may notice I stayed completely away from the East. The top four teams all went in the first eleven picks and I didn’t want anyone else from the powerhouse bracket. I figure with my Texas A&M pick I’ll either be a genius or an idiot, but at least I stuck to my guns.
-Adam