What Lincoln is Thinkin’ - Bracket Breakdown

What Lincoln is Thinkin' - Bracket Breakdown

First off, if you need a printable bracket, Click Here

Secondly, no big shocker, South Carolina did not get in. What shocks me, is that I thought at the time all they needed was a win over Mississippi State to get in. Now, looking at it, that probably would not have been enough. Even just getting to the SEC championship game might not have been enough. This is an unfortunate situation for Darrin Horn's boys - obviously it was a down year for the SEC and each team got penalized for that (only three teams in the tournament, and none of them ranked higher than an 8 seed. Yikes.) In the future, he's going to have to try to schedule tougher non-conference games. Winning games down the stretch, also would help.

Meanwhile the tournament did not do Clemson any favors. I feel this team is better than last year's team, and they received a worse bid. That being said, I like their chances against Michigan. The Wolverines are well-coached and can win games when their shots are falling. But this should be a big game for Trevor Booker. It's amazing how far they've fallen - a month ago I thought they had a shot at the Elite 8. Now, they'll lose in the second round.

Here are just some musings about the rest of the field:

Teams I like, a lot

Louisville They've put to bed a lot of the criticisms. They're playing much better defense, they're strong inside, and Terrence Williams may be the best all-around guard in America.

Pittsburgh The Panthers seem to yak it up every year, but this team is so strong at every position. I feel like they're the best all-around team in the tournament. Just their history haunts them.

North Carolina If Lawson's healthy, the only team that can stop them is themselves. But this team was the favorite to win it the last two years and they came up empty.

Teams I like, a little

Missouri Playing great basketball right now, the Tigers can push the tempo and score in a variety of ways. Mizzou had an impressive run in the Big 12 tournament.

Oklahoma They have the best player in the country, and some pretty good players around him.

Wake Forest They've been up and down in the ACC this year, but Jeff Teague is one of those players that is made for March.

Florida State Toney Douglas, see above.

West Virginia The Mountaineers are as talented as they've been the past few years, and lately they find ways to win games in March. They're very dangerous.

Syracuse If you're not all ready sick about hearing how much heart and courage they have, then you will be by the second weekend. Syracuse might have the best backcourt in the country, but they lack the depth and free throw shooting to make it to past both Oklahoma and North Carolina.

Texas They're sort of the Clemson of the Big 12. They have everything in place to be better, the question is whether they can find it within themselves. I definitely, definitely, definitely think they can beat Duke in the second round.

Teams I'm wary about

Memphis Every year, I stay well away from Memphis because it's been months since they've played anyone good. I know last year they made the championship game, but I'm just wary of a team that lost games early in the season to power conferences, and then beat up on their crappy league.

Gonzaga See above.

Connecticut I know it took six overtimes for the Orange to knock them out of the Big East. But they're .500 since Jerome Dyson went down. I see them getting tripped up.

Tennessee Oklahoma State will beat them. It's the easiest 8-9 matchup on the bracket.

The Big Ten I'm not going to unveil my whole bracket, but I'll tell you that I don't have any Big 10 team in the Sweet 16.

The Mountain West Utah and BYU were both given generous seeds in terms of number, but not in terms of opponent.

Lower Seeds I like

VCU This is a hot pick over UCLA. I like Ben Howland, I like Darren Collison, and I like Josh Shipp. But VCU is one of those teams that can beat anyone on any given night.

Arizona The last team to get into the tournament has at least two NBA ready players on their team. Watch out.

Western Kentucky Darrin Horn's old team is still just as good, and just as ripe for another upset.

The other USC The Trojans have finally got things rolling. Taj Gibson is a beast down low, and they came back from a huge deficit to win the Pac 10 tournament title game. Bye Bye BC.

North Dakota State Let me level with you. I usually do fairly well in my bracket, but rarely ever win. But one thing I do right every year is get a feeling about one double-digit seed. Last year I had Siena, the year before that I had VCU, the year before I had Northwestern State, the year before I had Wisconsin-Milwaukee, I could go on and on. Every year there's a crazy upset that I really like, and I'm almost always right. This year, I like North Dakota State over Kansas. Believe.

I want to know what your bracket looks like. Tell me who you're picking to win it all and who your upsets are in the first round.

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