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2008 Sweet 16 Predictions
What a first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. All four #1 seeds avoided a major upset and were all able to advance to the Sweet 16. The #2 seeds weren’t so lucky as #2 Duke went down to #7 West Virginia, and #2 Georgetown went down to #10 Davidson. All #3 seeds took care of business and looked much better than the #2 seeds. The two Cinderella teams that will be looking for another big win are #12 Western Kentucky and #12 Villanova. While both of the #12 seeds that won in the first round caught a break as they each faced a #13 seed in round 2. So with another exciting weekend right around the corner lets take a look at how we think the brackets will go from here.East
#1 North Carolina looked unstoppable this weekend destroying both #16 Mt. St. Mary’s and #9 Arkansas. They will face a very good #4 Washington State team out of the Pac 10, but will have no chance against North Carolina. On the other side of the bracket #2 Tennessee will face #3 Louisville. While we were high on Tennessee before the tournament started, they struggled against #7 Butler in round 2. Louisville should be able to control the game, and move on to face North Carolina in the Elite 8. This will be North Carolina’s biggest test of the tournament, but if they come to play they are just far better than any other team in the league.
Midwest
This bracket will likely see the powers take charge, as #1 Kansas has a pretty easy matchup against #12 Villanova. #1 Kansas will move on to the Elite 8 to face the winner of #3 Wisconsin and #10 Davidson. The Badgers have yet to be really tested, and while Davidson is a #10 seed they rely so much on one guy that we see the Badgers defense being too much. So this sets up another #1 vs. #3. Kansas will really have a tough game here against Wisconsin, as the Badgers continue to play their best ball of the season. We are going to take the upset here and send Wisconsin packing for San Antonio and the Final Four.
South
This bracket is a little trickier as Memphis really scares us. While we believe the Tigers are a great team, you just don’t know if they can bring it every single game. They are set to square off with #5 Michigan St. and while we want to pick the Spartans, we are going to take the safe pick and take the Tigers here. At the bottom we got #2 Texas vs. #3 Stanford. While we were quick to rule out the Longhorns when we first filled out the bracket, we were convinced this weekend, and we are taking the Longhorns to the Elite 8. This sets up our only #1 vs. #2 matchup of the tournament. While the Tigers are playing good, the Longhorns look better. Texas is coming out of the South and staying close to home in San Antonio for the Final Four.
West
Here lies the other team that looks as though it really came to play in the NCAA Tournament. #1 UCLA made #16 Mississippi Val. look like it didn’t belong in division 1. They then took apart #9 Texas A&M and will feast on the upset squad of #12 Western Kentucky. The other end sees #3 Xavier taking on #7 West Virginia for the right to move on to the Elite 8. We really like how West Virginia played this weekend, and we are going to make them our lowest seed into the Elite 8, with a tough victory over the Musketeers. This sets up yet another pretty easy game for UCLA, not taking anything away from West Virginia, but like UNC, UCLA should be able to take care of any team left in their bracket.
Final 4 and Championship
The Final 4 is set with two #1 seeds in North Carolina and UCLA, a #2 seed in Texas, and a #3 seed in the Wisconsin Badgers. The Tar Heels will be matched up against a very good Wisconsin team that should give them everything it can handle. Don’t look for an upset here; Roy Williams will have UNC in the final game once again. On the other side we got UCLA vs. Texas. We were really torn over this game, and wanted to take Texas into the final game, but we are going with the Bruins, as Kevin Love will be too much for the Longhorns to handle.
This sets up #1 North Carolina vs. #1 UCLA. While many of you seen this coming from day one, we weren’t so sure about UNC getting out of their difficult bracket. So while we are changing teams there, our champions remain the same. We think Love will be able to control North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough, and take home the Championship when it’s all said and done.
We will be previewing some of the big games this coming weekend with our predictions on who we think will win based on the spread, and also on the total of the game. So while we already picked who we think will win, doesn’t mean they will be the team we pick against the spread. As always feel free to leave any comments in the comment box.
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