NCAA Basketball Tournament

[SteveHorn]

Ok! We have the FINAL FOUR figured out. First congrats to the Buckeyes for a great season. If they had been the only #1 seed to lose I would have been much more disapointed then I am today. But as we know no #1s or #2s made the Final Four and 34 wins & 3 losses ain't bad. Sullinger said he was retuning but I'll believe that when I see it.

Lets take a look at the Final Four Teams

VCU - The tourny people were'nt even sure they deserved a spot in the field of 64. They had to play USC on the Tuesday before to get into the field of 64

Butler - They were'nt even good enough to win the Horizon league regular season. They would'nt have made the field of 64 had they not won their conference tourny.

U Conn - 9th in the Big East regular season. Many thought before their conference tourney run of 5 straight wins in 5 days that they may be a bubble team.

Kentucky - Young, talented, athletic and a #4 seed. The only team that isn't a huge suprise.

WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN

[tincup]

Man... who would have thought an 11 seed (VCU) would knock off mighty Kansas!!??

I guess have to go with VCU for several reasons:
-Everyone told them they shouldn't even be there
-they are like a family... they genuinely like each other
-they love their coach
-they have mo-mo
-they are damned good and don't seem to get rattled in the big games

But, picking a winner at this point is really a coin toss... who knows?

Dar

[Stan Nehilla]

None of the teams I thought would still be in made it.

Here goes:
Kentucky will beat UConn
Butler will beat VCU

Consolation - VCU beats UConn

Kentucky wins

[bryce]

Like Dar said, it's a coin toss! I'm going to have to go with Butler winning it all. They out-rebounded the #2 rebounding team in the NCAA (Pitt), dominated a solid Wisconsin team, and had to fight to get back in the game against Florida. They just seemed to will their way to wins, so I'll go with them over UConn in the championship.

ESPN's website has the tourny challenge where you can enter up to 10 brackets each. With almost 6 million brackets entered, only 2 had correctly predicted the Final Four teams. Two out of 6 million.....wow!

[Indy Anna Jones]

My brackets failed so miserably (4/16, 3/8, 0/4) that I hate to even make a guess.

Three of the four teams have been playing above their talent level, IMO, and I love it. My biggest regret is that either Butler or VCU isn't on the other half of the brackets and both have a chance to meet Monday night instead of in the semi-final game. Sentimentally of course I'm for Butler (their campus is 60 miles from me, they're a small school, they "deserve" after their near win last year) but if VCU wins I'll be pulling for them to win it all. There, I just put the kiss of death on poor Butler.

UConn has been playing very well, and sometimes it's not the best who wins but the hottest at the time (ala #6 NFL seeds Steelers, Giants, Packers) and they are a #3 seed, not exactly shabby, but Kentucky (one of those programs a Midwesterner either loves or hates and I hate them) has both the talent and the tradition to win it all, and I would assume is now the favorite. If I were a better I'd put the money on the Wildcats.

So sentimentally I'm for a Butler-UConn finals with Butler taking it all, and realistically I think Butler has the talent and experience (4 starters played last year) to win it all. But I expect it to be Butler-UK with Kentucky taking home the net.

[Stan Nehilla]

How about the NCAA Women - They sure did a better job of seeding that tournament then the men.
Final Four:
UConn #1 vs. Notre Dame #2 and Stanford #1 vs. Texas A&M #2

My picks UConn & Texas A&M - - UConn wins it all

[poppy]

STAN, just as a matter of information, there is NO CONSOLATION GAME in the NCAA MENS FINAL FOUR....one loss and you dont play anymore....

[Stan Nehilla]

Right Gary.
I forgot they stopped in 2003.

[Stan Nehilla]

well, I was wrong on the UConn/Kentucky game.

Monday: UConn wins.

[SteveHorn]

What an Ugly Championship game. Congrats to U-Conn for an amazing finish to their season. Another great run by Butler but with horrible outside shooting and no inside game last night it just wasn't meant to be.