Final Four Predictions

After another ridiculous weekend of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament, I am going to make my picks for the two National Semifinal games. My "Reggie Miller Lookin' Good" bracket only correctly picked one team (West Virginia) to make the Final Four, but with the craziness of this year's tournament, I feel lucky that I got at least one.

Wrap your head around this, according to ESPN.com, of the some 4.7 million brackets submitted to their Tournament Challenge, only 200 brackets correctly picked West Virginia, Duke, Butler, and Michigan State to reach the Final Four.

Perhaps I shouldn't feel so bad...

Without further ado, here are the two teams I will immediately give the kiss of death to...

My Final Four Predictions

(5) Michigan State Spartans vs. (5) Butler Bulldogs:

Winner: Michigan State-- I see Izzo's bunch advancing to their second consecutive championship game after another thrilling OT victory over the home town Bulldogs. Raymar Morgan and Korie Lucious will get a rare second chance at cutting down the nets.

(2) West Virginia Mountaineers vs. (1) Duke Blue Devils:

Winner: Duke-- Coach K's squad has it all; three-point assassins, a strong inside presence, experience, and perhaps most importantly; confidence. I see John Scheyer shooting lights out and Brian Zoubek dominating the paint as the Blue Devils reach their 10th title game.

I think we get to see a classic match up of Hall of Fame coaches next Monday night.

But then again, who knows?

---J

What ASU Needs to Do to Get Invited to the BIG Dance

With selection Sunday only 6 days away, bubble teams across the nation are trying impress the NCAA Tournament committee as much as possible.

The Arizona State Sun Devils are no exception. Herb Sendek's squad needs a strong showing at this week's PAC-10 tournament at the Staples Center if they want to better their case for an At-Large bid to the dance. The Sun Devils finished regular season play with a 22-9 overall record and a 12-6 mark in the PAC-10. Not too shabby considering they lost the 3rd and 31st overall picks in last year's NBA draft. No wonder Herb Sendek was named the PAC-10 Coach of the Year today.

In any other season, a 12 win PAC-10 season combined with another 10 non-conference wins would get your foot in the tournament door with no problem. However, with the PAC's down year (currently zero teams ranked in the top 25), there is a chance that the only team partaking in this year's Madness will be the squad climbing the ladder with scissors next Saturday at the Staples Center.

Obviously if the Devils win three straight in LA they will be relaxing come next Sunday as the conference's automatic bid and PAC-10 Tournament Champions. But if they don't win the tourney I think they should still make it as an At-Large bid. I think the Devils' can get in by simply making it to the Championship game. This would mean the Devils would go 2-1 in LA and would finish with a 24-10 overall record, which in my opinion is plenty to receive an invite to the Big Dance. I'm no Bracketologist, nor do I want to be, but 24 wins in a big conference like the PAC-10 is a pretty good resume. Some of these other bubble teams have 17-18 wins this season and even though the PAC-10 is weak this year, it is still 10 times stronger than the Colonial League or the Big West.

If the Devils get to 24-10 and don't get an invite to the tourney it will be a definite snub, but if Derek Glasser and Co. really want ensure back-to-back tournament appearances... they know exactly what they need to do.



---J