Notes From A Basketball Junkie

And I don’t know if the braintust of the teams making the picks do either, but I know why it seems like teams are just randomly picking European players who may, or more likely, may not ever play in the NBA. They don’t have to pay them for a couple years and they don’t have to focus on developing them either; something that NBA coaching staffs aren’t any good at anyway. By taking the likes of Nando De Colo, Emir Preldzic, and Sergiy Gladyr, teams save some scratch and roster space for a couple of years. And if the guy ends up panning out, you look like a genius for taking him.

I think Portland got a steal by getting Patty Mills with the 55th pick. Yeah, I’m biased because he’s a Mid-Major stud, but the dude can play. He should get major minutes backing up Steve Blake for the Trailblazers this season and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up supplanting Blake at some point in the second half of the season.

While not as much of a steal as Mills, Charlotte got a big-time talent in Robert Vaden at 54. Vaden can really shoot the rock and has the quickness and instincts to guard NBA wings. I project him as a Raja Bell type player in the NBA. Don’t know if he’ll be that good, but that’s what I think.

Stock on point guards. Not sure what the strategy is, or even if there is one, but at least Calathes will be playing in Europe the next couple of years instead of teaming up with Rubio and Flynn in a three point guard alignment.

Bet if they had one more pick that Patty Mills would be going to Minnesota.

Jonas Jerebko, the 6-9 Swedish forward Detroit took with the 39th pick, was this close to hooping it up for my UB Bulls. He had actually signed a letter of intent to play for Buffalo, but backed out on after blowing up in some European hoops tournament the same summer he signed the letter. Contract offers came pouring in and the centerpiece of Coach ‘Spoon’s recruiting class went pro. I don’t know that Jerebko’s presence would’ve gotten my Bulls to the Big Dance by itself, but they would’ve been contenders each and every season he was in Bulls blue and white.

Taking Brandon Jennings at 10 means they should be able to put last year’s Joe Alexander fiasco behind them. It also means that I will never see Jennings play since I’d rather sit through a Gossip Girl marathon than watch the Bucks.

He will end up sucking. Toronto’s draft history is littered with horrible picks (Rafael Araujo anyone?). Being drafted by the Raptors is a ticket to professional mediocrity. Sorry Demar…

Jordan Hill was not the pick with Holiday and Derozan still on the board. Last time the Knicks took a big from Arizona this early in the draft, the guy ended being able to do little other than make an uncovered 15-foot jumper. That isn’t Hill’s game and, to be honest, I don’t really know what his game is. Maybe Jordan Hill ends up fitting into Mike D’Antoni’s system and teams with Danilo Gallinari to be the Knicks frontcourt for the forseeable future. Or maybe he just ends up taking up a roster spot.

Dude is gonna fill it up in Nellie’s run-n-gun offense. I don’t know that Golden State really needed more firepower but that’s what they just got in Curry. I was hoping Curry was going to be Gotham bound, as did most of the fans at The Garden, but that’s not going to happen. The best pick for the Knicks right now is probably Jrue Holiday or Demar Derozan.

Taking Jonny Flynn at number 6 with Stephen Curry still on the board is asinine. The T-Wolves now have two point guards who can’t make an NBA jumper. Fucking genius…

But I agree with Jay Bilas. Minnesota has to take Stephen Curry with the 6th pick

I do. I guess. Even if the lack of content in this space the past several months makes it seem like, well, I just don’t give a shit. And, for a while, that was definitely kind of the case.

At some point around the 13:00 minute mark of the second half of the 2009 MAC championship game, when it became clear that my Buffalo Bulls did not have a comeback in them, I began the process of looking forward to the 2009-10 hoops season. One reason why I didn’t take UB’s 65-53 loss to Akron in the MAC Final so hard was my firm belief that this is a team that can win the MAC in 2009-10. I believed it then and I still believe it now. Given my excitement about next season, it was pretty hard to get pumped about March Madness; let alone the NBA playoffs.

It became tougher to get excited about March Madness when the feckless NCAA Tournament Selection Committee put together a field off 65 designed to please CBS’s corporate masters and the innumerable ex-BCS league coaches and players that CBS and ESPN have hired as college hoops analysts, commentators, and bloviators. This was a field missing two 26-win teams in Creighton and Niagara, as well as two of college hoops transcendent talents in Davidson’s Stephen Curry and St. Mary’s Patty Mills. Teams that don’t have athletic budgets swelling with the largess of BCS sponsors snared a mere four at-large invites to the 2009 NCAA tourney; an all-time low. This was not a Big Dance that I could get excited about.

Further tamping down my interest in March Madness was my feeling like this was the way it is going to be from now on. With fields compromised of many Mid-Majors that would’ve, could’ve, should’ve gone dancing, the College Basketball Invitational and College Basketball Insider.Com — as well as the NIT to a certain extent — seem on their way to becoming the college basketball version of non-BCS bowls. There’s not much money in them and there isn’t that much exposure, but it’s better than nothing.

And better than nothing is probably the best those of us in the Mid-Major nation can hope for when it comes to big-time college football and basketball. (Actually, my best friend and fellow UB alum Eric and I have been talking about an idea for non-BCS leagues when it comes to football for a while now that I’ll share in a later post.) And better than nothing pretty much sucks. So I officially checked out of the 2008-09 college hoops season on Sunday March 22nd when Cleveland State and Siena lost their second round Big Dance games.

As for the NBA, I haven’t been able to generate much enthusiasm for it. Certainly, the 2009 playoffs had some compelling moments, but nothing that got me motivated enough to post about it. And the fact is, the NBA just isn’t my bag anymore.

When I first started Notes From A Basketball Junkie in 2002 my life was a lot different than it is now. I was going on my second year living in New York City and had so few friends that I somehow ended up playing Dungeons and Dragons a couple times a month with a few guys that also had no friends. It was, to put it mildly, pathetic. But at least I was drinking someplace other than my apartment or Rudy’s a couple times a month. So playing D& was progress.

The embarrassingly complete lack of social life was complemented by a job with an NYC pension fund so mind-numbing that my erstwhile colleagues were able to satisfactorily fulfill their duties while napping at their desks, throwing up in garbage cans, having sex in the hallways, fighting in the restrooms, and typing with but a single hand. Working in that sort of environment and having nothing outside of work to do other than numb myself with too much beer (apologies to legendary Rochester hardcore outfit Hunger Artist), meant that I needed something to throw myself into just to stay semi-sane. That became this blog and the NBA.

I could always find a Knicks game to watch and since the NBA season lasts longer than an epoch, I could find a steady stream of NBA news on the web to post about. Plus, the busier I was with the blog, the less free time I had to play D&D. It was a win-win. For the time being.

Nearly seven years after my first post, I can happily say that my life in no way, shape, or form resembles what it was in 2002. I spent a few years earning an MS in Policy Analysis and Management, which allowed me to get out of the mind-numbing hell I was in, and find a gig that is challenging, interesting, and even frustrating. And I don’t mind since it beats not giving a shit. However, there are still some downsides. My pay still in no way, shape, or form is commensurate with my skill level and, most importantly for NFABJ, I often come home from work wanting nothing to do with, well, thinking. And that can make blogging tough.

My girlfriend and I have been the proud owners of the most stubborn, yet adorable and playful Shih Tzu-Lapso-mutt mix on the planet for the past year. It may sound stupid, but the dog requires a lot of attention. Walks, feeding, and playing take time and energy. And that’s time and energy I don’t have for other stuff. Like watching the Knicks and blogging about it.

I guess that’s the point of this post — life changes. I’m not who I was in 2002 and this blog isn’t what it was back then either. And I don’t really know what that means for the future. I can say that, thanks to a miracle worker named Turner Gill, I’m pretty excited about the upcoming college football season in forever. I’m also excited about the 2009-10 UB Bulls basketball team. That being said, I don’t foresee this space becoming all about UB athletics or anything like that. I do know that I’d like it to be more personal and to better reflect my interests and personality so once I get back in the groove of writing regularly, I anticipate that happening.

That means more posts about soccer. That means that my Bills and Sabres will be getting the occasional shout-out. That means that I might even share my top secret sangria recipe. Why not? After all, I pay Bluehost for this space every year. I might as well as have fun with it.

At the end of the day, I started writing this blog because, well, I was bored and wanted to do something that would make me happy and I could have fun with. I may not be bored anymore, but I still want this blog to be a source of fun and happiness for me, as well as being, at the very least, mildly amusing to those that read it.

Summer is usually my laziest time of the year when it comes blogging because I tend to spend more time outside and less time inside. Unless Brooklyn continues to be deluged with rains of biblical proportions, I expect that trend to continue. However, don’t be surprised if posts lamenting how terrible the New York Red Bulls are or counting down to UB vs UTEP on September 5th keep on popping up.

Funny. At first I was going to blog about what a shame it was that two of college hoops best players — Patty Mills and Stephen Curry — and their teasm, St. Mary’s and Davidson, respectively, two of the best teams in college basketball all season long, were being forced to play in a “lesser” tournament; the NIT rather than the Big Dance. But, that’s not what’s on my mind any more. In fact, I’m not so sure the NIT is a lesser tournament.

Fact is, there were tons of empty sites at each and every site for the opening round of the NCAA basketball tournament. Many arenas had all the atmosphere and excitement of a bag of hammers. The only fans who really brought it were the entire state of North Dakota, who showed up in Minneapolis to cheer on their Bison. Otherwise, it seemed like people were just looking for quiet places to mess with their iPhones and Blackberies.

Not so at McKeon Pavilion in Moraga tonight. This gym, the St. Mary’s homecourt, is crazier than an RV full of tweakers. Not only is the game great, but it’s being played in atmosphere worthy of the level of competition. While I may be down on the NCAA tournament because I don’t really have a horse left in that race, the crowds, such as they are, haven’t really gotten into any of the games that I saw in four straight days of watching the Big Dance.

Contrast that with the 17,000 who showed up in Omaha Monday night to root on Creighton (and left with their hearts broken, as Bluejays sharpshooter Booker Woodfork missed a game-winning triple and Kentucky escaped with a 65-63 win) or the 10,000+ that showed up to watch Wichita State beat my UB Bulls last Wednesday in the College Basketball Invitational (8800 on Monday for the Shockers loss to Stanford) or the near-capacity crowd at Oregon State’s Gill Coliseum for the Beavers’ 71-70 OT victory over Vermont in the CBI and, well, it’s starting to look like the NCAA Tournament really isn’t the only game in town for college hoops fans during the month of March.

March is just as mad and, this year at least, more exciting away from CBS’s BCS-laden corporate extravaganza.

If you don’t believe me, flip the channel to ESPN2 right now. It’s 51-47 St. Mary’s with about 13:00 left to play and Mills and Curry are guarding each other. The final 13 minutes of this game going to be epic; Big Dance or no Big Dance.

All the real college hoops fans should be watching them some ESPN2 right now because it doesn’t get any better than Stephen Curry and Davidson traveling to Moraga, Cali to take on St. Mary’s and their star Aussie point guard Patty Mills. Sure, the Big Dance was fun and all, but this should be electric. And better believe that the atmosphere at St. Mary’s will easily exceed the intensity, excitement, and passion that fans at the NCAA Tourney games displayed during the first two rounds.

I’m not cheering for anything other than an old-fashioned, mano-a-mano shootout between Curry and Mills.

But barely. If an ETSU squad that’s usually pretty good from the line had done better than going 12-or-24, we might’ve had the first-ever upset by a 16-seed. Instead, we’ve got another humdrum win by the top seed.

Who knows… Perhaps an inspired Morehead State comes out and slays Louisville tonight. It’s not likely, but it could happen. Which is why we watch.

With top seed Pitt clinging to a 26-23 halftime lead, we can officially ask whether the ETSU Buccaneers can become the first 16th seed to win a first round game.

It’s clear that in slashing wing Kevin Tiggs, quick guards Mike Smith and Isiah Brown, the Buccs have the quickness and athleticism to hang with the Panthers. It’s also clear that Murray Bartow’s squad is not afraid of the team from the Big East.

The only thing I’m really questioning is whether they can make enough shots to pull off the upset. Neither team shot well in the first half, but ETSU was downright miserable from the field, going only 9-of-37 from the floor, which includes a brutal 1-of-12 performance from triple-land. That’s shooting so abysmal that one’s odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot seem about as good as those of ETSU making a shot from the field.

If Tiggs, Smith, or Courtney Pigram can get hot, I think the Buccs can win this one. If not, then we’re in a for a final score somewhere in the 40s.

A spirited effort by North Dakota State wasn’t enough, as Kansas held off the Bison 84-74. At several times in the second half, the Summit League champs had chances to make shots that would have gotten them on even terms with the Jayhawks, but they just couldn’t knock them down.

While NDSU’s senior point guard Ben Woodside was scintillating, scoring 37 points on an assortment of driving lay-ups, pull-up jumpers, and a few triples, he just didn’t get enough help from his teammates, as players not named Woodside went 13-of-38 from the floor for the Bison (Woodside was 13-of-22).

Utah State, another of my Upset Specials, just couldn’t close the deal against Marquette, falling 58-57. WAC POY Gary Wilkinson had a decent, if contested, look from behind the arc to tie the game in the final seconds, but his step back triple came up short. The loss of Jared Quayle, who fouled out with about 1:45 left, doomed the Aggies down the stretch since his three-point shooting brought them back in the second half, and helped them to take the lead for awhile.

The losses by NDSU and Utah State leave me at a not-so-sterling 1-for-6 on Upset Specials, which means I’ve got to count on Cleveland State to knock off Wake Forest and Siena to beat Ohio State to salvage some semblance of looking like I know what I’m doing; even if it’s becoming increasingly clear that I don’t.

But that’s the beauty of the first round of the Big Dance. Cinderella may not have shown her face yet, but there’s still plenty of ball to be played today.

The HIlltoppers survived a frenzied Illinois comeback attempt to eke out a 75-72 win over the Illini.

By upsetting one of the worst Big Ten teams I’ve seen in several seasons, not only did WKU avoid an epic collapse — they were up by 17 points in the second half — but they helped me gain a game in most of the tourney pools I’m participating in, as well as making sure that I didn’t put up an O-fer on NFABJ Upset Specials in Day 1 of the 2009 Big Dance.

Even with A.J. Slaughter and company’s victory, it wasn’t a great day for either the Upset Specials or the new methodology I employed in completing brackets. Butler, Northern Iowa, and VCU all came close today, but the fact is they all lost, which made me 1-4 on Upset Specials. In terms of the bracket, I went 10-6, which isn’t great, but is better than previous performances. More importantly, and a departure from tourneys past is that my Sweet 16 and Final Four remain relatively intact. I had VCU in the Sweet 16. They’re the only team from my Sweet 16 that I lost today so I’m still in the hunt for scratch and bragging rights.

VCU’s senior point guard’s collegiate career ended tonight.

With the rock in his hands and his team trailing UCLA 65-64, Maynor wasn’t able to knock down a highly-contested jumper that would’ve won the game for the Rams and allowed Maynor to extend his career. The Bruins ended up escaping with a 65-64 win.

Instead, the future NBA point guard and the team he led to a first round Big Dance victory over Duke in 2007 are going home after a gritty effort that came up short. You’ve got feel for Maynor; this was a team that deserved better than an 11-seed in this tourney and deserved an At-Large invite in 2008.

At least Maynor moves on with one Big Dance game-winning shot and the near comeback he led tonight as his VCU legacy.

Unfortunately, this could prove to be the end of VCU’s run. Charismatic head coach Anthony Grant, a skilled tactician and teacher, is expected to take one of the high profile coaching jobs that are vacant. With Maynor plying his trade in the NBA and Grant in the SEC or some other BCS league, where would that leave VCU?

I don’t really know. I just know that I’ve enjoyed watching this team the past three years and wish that I would’ve gotten one more chance to watch them.

With twelve games in the 2009 Big Dance having been played so far, I’ve got to say that we’ve yet to see any buzzer beaters nor the sort of upsets that put the madness in March.

Cal-State Northridge gave Memphis a game and American played Villanova tough, but we’ve yet to any see any seeds lower than 10 win games. While Michigan staved off a spirited Clemson comeback bid to win 62-59 and LSU’s 75-71 win over Butler was close the entire game, neither of those games yielded the sort of indelible moments that the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament is none for.

That could change during the last four games tonight, however.

11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth is trailing UCLA 16-15 with about 9:00 left to play in the first half. The Rams may be trailing, but they’ve been able to breakdown the Bruins’ suspect D at will. Eric Maynor and company just haven’t knocked down the open looks they’ve been getting (as if to prove my point, VCU’s Larry Sanders just clanged a wide open dunk off the side of the rim) and they should win this won with room to breath. Of course, that’s easier said then done.

Binghamton is playing the detested Dookies tough, as they trail 37-31. I don’t think the Bearcats can win this one, but I’d love to see them keep it close. If they can and the margin is within two possessions come the final minute or so, Binghamton will have the advantage since their All-Everything (except for All-America East) guard DJ Rivera is the best closer on the floor for either team.

Western Kentucky has an early 9-6 lead over Illinois in a game I fully expect the Hilltoppers to win.

So maybe we’ll have some madness after all on the first day of the Big Dance. If we’re lucky, Cinderella in the form of the Binghamton Bearcats just might make an appearance too.

I’ve been using this killer site called Meet Now Live for a while now. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to make it to one of their legendary Free Beer Fridays because I play soccer on Friday nights and it’s tough to keep goal when loaded, but there’s always interesting shit going down over there.

While messing around on the computer during a break in action in Cleveland last week I read a post over there on the Top Ten places to watch March Madness. While the list was comprehensive, it seemed to be lacking a certain, I dunno, zing or in the know knowledge that only I could provide so I wrote a response.

So if you live anywhere around NYC and want to get off the couch to watch the Big Dance, you have a solid choice of 15 bars of all different types, stripes, and sizes from which to watch the Madness unfold.

Kind of the typical bracket that one has come to expect from this tiny plot of cyberspace. Lots o’upsets and a couple of Final Four darkhorses that will either make me look like a college hoops idiot savant or like a complete dumb ass. Usually, it’s the latter and not the former that occurs, but we’re deploying a few new strategies this Big Dance that we hope will have us on the road to savant-ness.

This is how it breaks down:

Sweet 16
Siena
Utah
West Virginia
Michigan State
UConn
Washington
Utah State
Memphis
Pittsburgh
Xavier
VCU
Duke
North Carolina
Gonzaga
Arizona State
Oklahoma

Elite Eight
Utah
West Virginia
UConn
Memphis
Pitt
Duke
Gonzaga
Arizona State

Final Four
West Virginia
Memphis
Pitt
Gonzaga

Final
Memphis v Pitt

Champion
Memphis beats Pitt 68-61 in a tautly-contested but wildly entertaining affair.

And here’s The Bracket:

The Official 2009 Hoops Junkie Big Dance Bracket

The 2008-08 Buffalo Bulls basketball season.

Unable to string together consecutive stops, the Bulls suffered an 84-73 loss at Wichita State to a Shockers squad that could very well challenge for The Valley championship next season. Considering that Buffalo could very well challenge for the MAC championship, the youthful Shockers convincing victory says all you need to know about MAC hoops at the conclusion — hallelujah! — of Rick Chryst’s turn at the helm of the league

I’ll have more to see about this season at some point soon, but right now I’ve got money to lose and Brackets to fuck up by picking Final Fours that consist of Cleveland State, Binghamton, Utah State, and Akron.

Have to admit I was pretty giddy about getting to see my Bulls play at Wichita State in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational tonight. A lot of the giddiness had to do with the fact the game was going to be shown on HDNet, which meant that not only would I get to enjoy the game on HDNet’s beautiful, crystal clear HD, but I’d also be able to enjoy it free of ESPN’s cadre of BCS-worshipping hacks. The icing on the cake was that I was pretty certain the Bulls would beat a Wichita State squad that’s short on experience.

Turns out I was right on two accounts.

As always with HDNet, the production values are spot fucking on. Watching games on HDNet makes me wish ESPN would just let them televise all the non-power conference games on their schedule so I could watch them on HDNet.

However, the production values might be almost too good since it almost feels like I’m at Wichita State’s Charles Koch Arena. Not a good thing when my Bulls have been no-shows on the defensive end and are getting blitzed by the Shockers. It’s 69-52 with a bit more than 7:00 left and I don’t think there’s anyway back for Coach ‘Spoon’s cold-shooting side tonight.

Such is life.

Guess I can officially start counting down to next season.

The guys in this video will pull off a first round stunner:

Thanks to the tournament selection committee seeming to forget that DI college hoops is played by conferences other than the Big East and Big Ten, this doesn’t, at first glance, seem to be a tourney that will be rife with what I consider upsets: a mid or low-major smiting some power conference automaton. Dig a little deeper, examining the field of 65 knowing that this was the year of parity in college hoops, and that there’s been plenty of talk of the lower seed winning as many as 10 games in the first round, and you realize that there will be upsets.

I’m wondering if the mid and low-majors in the field won’t spring more upsets than usual despite their reduced numbers simply because those that made it won their conference tourneys, which means that we’ve got plenty of mid and low-major sides that know how to get ‘er done in a win or go home situation. Couple that with the fact that a lot of the power conference sides that have higher just aren’t that good — hello Illinois — and I think this could be a wild-n-crazy first round.

Without any more running my mouth, here are the 2009 NCAA Tournament Notes From a Basketball Junkie upset specials:

Not-So Big Upsets

(9) Butler (26-5) over (8) LSU (27-6), South Region Thursday @ 12:20
Like usual, Butler got no respect from the selection committee. Put the Bulldogs in a BCS league and they’d be seeded anywhere from 5-to-7. They aren’t a 9 seed in any way shape or from. The Tigers, on the other hand, are over-seeded. They were simply one of the top two teams in a league having an off year. A 91-61 drubbing on the road at Utah and an 80-70 loss at home to Xavier makes me think Trent Johnson’s squad just doesn’t take Mid-Major teams seriously. They will after Butler beats them Thursday.

(9) Siena (26-7) over (8) Ohio State (22-10), Midwest Region Friday @ 9:40
This game is so easy to pick that it feels like stealing. Ohio State made a late run in a Big Ten that just couldn’t get it’s act together while Siena was, simply put, one of the best teams in college hoops all season long. The tourney-tested Saints, who upset Vanderbilt in the opening round of last year’s Big Dance, have the requisite senior guard in Kenny Hasbrouck, who’s complemented by a deep and talented cast. Fran McCaffrey’s side has the chops not only to dispatch the over-seeded and overrated Buckeyes but to also give Louisville plenty of trouble in the second round.

(11) VCU (24-9) over (6) UCLA (25-8), East Region Thursday @ 9:30
Here we have the trendy upset pool pick for the 2009 Big Dance, but there’s a reason for that. The Rams are led by a senior point guard Eric Maynor, who not only has NBA written all over him, but also quarterbacked a first round upset of Duke as a sophomore two seasons ago. He’s not the only Ram who could be NBA bound, as 6-10 sophomore big Larry Sanders is athletic, long, and tough. The Rams are peaking at the right time, as evidenced by their 71-50 throttling of a very good George Mason squad in the CAA championship. As for the Bruins, it’s hard to know what make of this edition. Unlike most Ben Howland-coached teams, this UCLA squad is inconsistent on defense and prone to lapses of concentration. If VCU has the best guard and the best big on the floor, why wouldn’t they win? They will and they might just stick around for a few more games.

(11) Utah State (30-4) over (6) Marquette (24-9), West Region, Friday @ 12:20
While everyone’s got their eye on the VCU v UCLA game as an upset, it seems like a lot less people are talking Aggies over Warriors, and that’s something I just can’t understand. Marquette’s proven to be a pretty ordinary team without superstar point guard Dominic James. The Aggies, however, are anything if not ordinary, even if it’s just because of the circuitous route star big Gary Wilkinson took to Logan. Tough spot for James’ fill-in, Maurice Acker, since wily Utah State coach Stew Morrill is one of those coaches who loves to constantly change defenses. This one will be a slugfest, but an Aggies side that’s been looking for some love all season will get it after they beat Marquette.

Big Upsets

(12) Northern Iowa (23-10) over (5) Purdue (25-9), West Region, Thursday @ 2:30
The thought process is pretty simple on this one: The Valley is tough. Their champ does not deserve a 12-seed. Purdue may have won the Big Ten championship, but that’s not quite the accomplishment it is always years. Look for a Panthers squad that has plenty of size in 7-1 center Jordan Eglseder; went 12-6 away from home this season; and is one of the best shooting teams in the field to beat a Boilersmakers side that can be offensively-challenged at times.

(12) Western Kentucky (24-8) over (5) Illinois (24-9), South Region, Thursday @ 9:55
Interest contrast of styles here, as a plodding Illinois squad squares off with a WKU side that has a flashy backcourt that thrives in the open floor. Immediately, that makes me want to pick the Hilltoppers. Throw in the fact that said flashy backcourt consists of a couple of guys that were around for last year’s Sweet 16 run, and one of them is Orlando Mendez-Valdez, the Sun Belt POY, I’ll take the ‘Toppers over the Illini.

Bigger Upset

(13) Cleveland State (25-10) over (4) Wake Forest (24-6), Midwest Region, Friday @ 9:40
This won’t come as a surprise to anybody that may have looked any of the posts I’ve done this season, but Cleveland State is the toughest team, pound-for-pound, in this tournament. By matching them against a deep and highly-skilled Wake Forest side, the selection committee has — surprise, surprise! — done Gary Waters’ Vikings no favors. However, I still believe that Cedric Jackson, Norris Cole, J’Nathan Bullock and company are going to turn this into a down-n-dirty barroom brawl of a game. More Road House than Fast and the Furious. Come crunch time, do-everything, jack-of-all-trades senior point Jackson will get Cleveland State over the hump and into the round of 32.

Biggest Upset

(14) North Dakota State (26-6) over (3) Kansas (25-7), Midwest Region, Friday @ 2:30
I’m a big believer in one simple basic basketball tenet when it comes to picking March Madness upsets: If a team can make shots, it has a chance to win. Few teams make shots as consistently as do the Bison. If Summit League POY Ben Woodside, his backcourt mate Mike Nelson, and wing Brett Winkelman are knocking down their J’s, the Jayhawks will be in trouble. Should Bill Self’s relatively inexperienced Kansas side start to panic a little, they will be in even bigger trouble. The Summit League champs won’t beat themselves, as they turn the rock over about as often as Dick Cheney gets nominated for an Optimists Club award. Experienced Summit League sides — think Valpo — have a penchant for busting brackets. NDSU has all the ingredients to join the Crusaders in Big Dance lore.

Along with the upsets that I’m forecasting, there a few other games that I’d keep my eye on. In no particular order:

(16) Radford vs (1) North Carolina – In 6-11 Big South POY Art Parakhouski and his 6-8 running mate Joey Lynch-Flohr, the Highlanders have the size to hold their own on the interior against the Tar Heels. Should streaky shooting guard Kenny Thomas get on one of his hot streaks, Radford could make this interesting.

(13) Portland State vs (4) Xavier – Xavier lacks a real point guard, which means the Vikings dynamic 5-7 point Jeremiah Dominguez could have a field day against the Musketeers. It won’t be enough to get Portland State past Xavier, but it should be enough to make for a close, down-to-the-wire affair.

(14) American vs (3) Villanova – Yes, this game is in Philly. Yes, ‘Nova has played deep into the tourney the past seasons and many of the players from those runs are back for one more go ’round. So what? This is the same American squad that nearly beat Tennessee last season. Garrison Carr and company have come close enough to the Big Dance glory to want to snatch it this year. Unfortunately, they won’t. But, they will let ‘Nova know they were in a game.

(14) Cornell vs (3) Missouri – Fret not Big Red fans, the Tigers don’t seem to respect you at all. Which sucks for them since Cornell is a team that likes to play uptempo since it means more open shots for their bevy of shooters. Mizzou just might have too much firepower, but the boys from Ithaca won’t be run off the floor.

Watching the play-in… err I mean “opening round” game between Morehead State and Alabama State, I’ve been seething ever since that greasy douchebag Steve Lavin said, “The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee nailed it this season.” To his mind, those of the former BCS league players and coaches that comprise 99% of college hoops talking heads, and most fans, the Committee did nail it. By inviting only four extra teams from outside the BCS conferences, the Committee got rid of those pesky, irritating no-name teams like Davidson and George Mason that muck up brackets and prevent CBS from getting the match-ups between “name” schools that it and it’s advertisers want.

Watching this travesty of a game — both these teams won their leagues and should to get to play Thursday or Friday and they certainly deserve significantly more respect than ESPN affords them. Lavin and Brent Musberger interviewed Selection Committee chair Mike Slive while first half action was taking place — I can’t help but think this this is the future of the NCAA tournament. Eventually all non-BCS league champs will face a “play-in/opening round” game to get to the Big Dance. And I bet it happens sooner than you’d expect.

As if all this wasn’t enough, Steph Curry and Davidson are hooping it up in the NIT tonight, as are three teams — Niagara, San Diego State, St. Mary’s — that should be in the Big Dance. Ugghhhh…. Sometimes I really hate March.

So what could possibly make me happy this St. Patrick’s Day since I’m at home when I should be out? I guess there are a few things:

Cheers to St. Paddy’s Day and the things in college hoops that make this blogger smile.