West Virginia spent much of the last two months of the regular season ranked in the top 10 and finished as runner-up in the Big 12 to Kansas. “Now, it’s just this is it. This is my last try”. Three of those teams made the Final Four in a field that didn’t have as many upsets as expected, with the Blue Devils eventually winning the national title against the Badgers. I think they are confident. “They are a tough opponent for us in the first round”. “The only other time it has been mentioned is in passing when they do something stupid and I say, ‘Teams that are trying to do something great, they don’t do that stuff, not in March”.
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Oregon, the top seed in the West region, has a potential match with St. Joseph’s in the third round. The Huskies are in the Bridgeport Regional. The Pirates knocked off Xavier and Villanova on their way to winning the Big East tournament, yet they were relegated to B-list status with a No. 6 seed. UConn has already beaten the Gamecocks and Irish this season. Monmouth, which went out of its way to toughen its schedule, per the NCAA’s mandate, and St. Bonaventure, which was rated 25 in the RPI but had bad strength of schedule, were among those that did not.
For the 27th-straight tourney, Kansas is in. The UCLA men’s team won seven in a row.
Atlantic Coast Conference runner-up Virginia is No. 1 seed in the Midwest and open with an in-state rivalry game against 16 seed Hampton. The Colonials won the NEC championship. Ohio Valley Conference Champions Austin Peay State University will provide little resistance, but the victor of the 8/9 seed game between Pac-12 stalwart Colorado and AAC Tournament champion CT will give the Jayhawks an early test against two talented teams.
The Jayhawks are a No. 1 seed for the sixth time in the last 10 years.
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who left Kansas State to oversee the Mountaineers’ program, will match wits against one of his former K-State assistants when the Mountaineers meet Stephen F. Austin in a Friday contest (6:10 p.m., KTVT/Ch. 11).
“Is it where we usually are?”
“It motivates us a lot”, said senior Perry Ellis. They will survive and advance to the Final Four. Or were they on a meal break then?
In terms of getting at least one team back to the Final Four, Baylor coach Scott Drew said: “We’re looking forward to having a better March this year”.
“Regardless of where we are at, we are excited to get an opportunity to play. I feel like we’ll have to keep moving the ball around and make sure we stay on top of our game”. Just curious: Did members actually watch Vandy get dumped out of the SEC tournament on the first day by below-.500 Tennessee? In the Sweet Sixteen Virginia could possibly face off against Purdue or Iowa State. “Princeton just became the first team in Ivy League history to earn an at-large bid”, Princeton coach Courtney Banghart said. Yet when the bracket was revealed, they were part of the First Four, facing MI.
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Penn is a 10-seed and will face Washington in the opening round. Now with the tournament set to start in a few days it is time to start focusing on some of the teams that have the potential to win it all.
