Thursday, November 08, 2007

Money’s NCAA Basketball predictions: The Break-up

I suppose the writing has been on the wall for some time. Money continues to buy into Kansas year after year and touts their senior leaders, loves their freshmen, and embraces their coach. Money even went as far as getting a small KU Jayhawk tattoo on his right ankle. But enough is enough. It is over. One of our frequent readers, Double Down, has been telling me for years to dump this pig. While I will still include them amongst the teams to make the sweet 16, they won’t be in the final four or competing for a national title this year.

Who will? My pick to win it all this year is LOUISVILLE. They return four starters from last year’s team that went 24-10 and put the fear of God into Texas A&M. This could quite possibly be Rick Pitino’s best college basketball team. They have great players and depth at every position. Edgar Sosa will lead this team and put some of his freshman mistakes behind him. They have two future NBA prospects in Earl Clark and Derrick Caracter. Terrence Williams, a returning starter, is a preseason player of the year candidate in the Big East. Don’t forget about the big guys, Juan Palacios and David Padgett. This team is loaded and is primed to be cutting down the nets in April.

Louisville will play UCLA, who will now be known as the Buffalo Bills of NCAA Basketball. We all know about the Bruins and their hard-nosed defensive minded players led by Ben Howland. This team is made up of great players, who don’t quit and play great defense; Darren Collison, Josh Shipp, Luc Mbah a Moute. This year, they continue to improve with the addition of Kevin Love, one of the best passing big men in the country, but it is still not enough.

Rounding out my last two spots in the Final Four will Memphis (B Anthony will appreciate this) and Tennessee (B Anthony will hate this). Memphis will get some early season tests and then coast through their division (again). Depth will not be a problem for this team, just playing time. Their core is strong, starting with Joey Dorsey. The guards will be running all over the floor heaving up threes while they will introduce two highly regarded signees, point guard Derrick Rose and guard Jeff Robinson to their run and gun style. Tennessee, will meet them in San Antonio with the same frenzied pace led by sharp shooter Chris Lofton and the Smith Twins (We’re not really twins) Ramar, JaJuan, and Tyler.

Final 4 (AP preseason rankings in parenthesis)

1- Louisville (6)
2 –UCLA (2)
3 – Memphis (3)
4 – Tennessee (7)

Great 8

5 – North Carolina (1)
6- Gonzaga (14)
7 – Kansas (4)
8 – Michigan state (8)

Sweet 16

9- Arizona (17)
10- Florida (not ranked)
11- Arkansas (19)
12 – Davidson (not ranked)
13- Villanova (not ranked)
14 – Marquette (11)
15 – Syracuse (not ranked)
16 – UConn (not ranked)

That’s right; No Duke (13), Kentucky (20), Texas (15), Georgetown (4), Washington state (10) or Indiana (9).

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

nice work money. That will be a tough act to follow. I will actually see Tennessee going deep, but it doesn't soften my hate for Bruce Pearl.

b

7:23 AM  

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