NCAA Tourney Talk

Who is your sleeper pick? Is there a cinderella who can make it to the sweet 16? To me a "sleeper" is a 4 or lower seed who can go DEEP and a cinderella is a 10 or lower than can make the sweet 16. I have my eye on a few games. Let's discuss....

I saw a similar discussion on the CBSSPORTSLINE.com message boards. The thread was titled something like, "NCAA TOURNEY UPSETS THAT YOU PREDICT." What followed was basically every single game in the tourney. I didn't look at the whole list because it was boring but I am sure some Portland State alum picked them to beat Kansas, etc.... However, the thing that it was lacking was WHY WILL THE UPSET HAPPEN? We all make picks on emotion but WHY should I pick Drake to go far in the tourney besides the fact that I played frisbee golf around the campus back in the summer of '95 with my boy Footloose when he was living in Des Moines? Frankly without that visit to the campus I probably wouldn't have even heard of the school, right!? So, WHY are you making a certain upset pick?

Let's start with a sleeper that could go deep. Easy choice here is Pitt. NO, not cuz my family is from there and I could have easily been called the SteelTownGuy but rather because they have a great coach, play tough defense, have solid though not spectacular players, and they are on a roll! A team on a roll is a good one to pick for a sleeper in my opinion. Ok, that's easy and boring but that's all I got.

Ok, now the cinderellas.... Sure I like St. Mary's because they are local to NorCal but how boring. That's an emotional pick. I like their Australian players especially the freshman point guard but he is a freshman. He torched Oregon earlier in the season for about 37, if I remember correctly, but he is still a freshman and I don't think they have a great big man. Who do I like as cinderella? How about Western Kentucky. I actually thought this was an emotional pick at first as I thought that was where the King's shooting guard Kevin Martin went to school. I could hear the King's announcer introducing the starting line-up, in that loud and raspy voice, "... and from Westernnnnnnnnnn Kennn-tucky... Kevvv-in Martin...." However, I checked and he went to Westernnnnnnnnnn Care--oooo-lina. Same part of the country but different school. Thus, without any emotion I tell you the cinderella story will be Western Kentucky. WHY? I have heard they have great guards. I checked the stats and they back that up. Solid guards who score, assist, steal AND rebound! They don't have a big big man as their "big" guy is 6'9" 190 but he averages 1.5 blocks per game which is nice. I think they beat Drake in the first game and though they may have trouble with UConn in round 2 I like Western Kentucky to be this year's Valpo.

With that, I have work to do... researching my picks.

peace out.