My Beaver Blog

48 down 15 to go. This is unquestionably my favorite time of year. And by no coincidence my wife's least favorite. Here are my random takes on the tourney and college hoops in general;

• Salim Stoudamire is the best shooter in college period. And whoever is in second (My vote goes to T.J. Sorrentine of Vermont), it's not even close. All this JJ Reddick talk is just that, talk.
• Free throw shooting wins games
• Washington is better than people thought, and better than I want them to be. Let's hope L'ville can knock them off.
• Turnovers are a killer
• TiVo is the best invention ever!!
  
• Toughest region huh? Well now all that's left for UNC is Nova, then the NC State/Wisconsin winner. Looks like a done deal to me.
• The SEC wasn't that good (see Alabama, Florida, and Miss St. to a lesser degree)
• The Big 10 wasn't that bad (see Illinois, Mich St., Wisconsin)
• Bucknell's win was the biggest upset I can remember in the tournament. They only have 5 scholarship players on the team. First tourney win ever for the conference and it comes against a stroried program. It also killed the much anticipated UNC-Kansas duel.

Can't wait for Thursday. Here are my picks for the rest of the way.

Chicago
Ill. over UWM
Zona over OSU

Illinois over Zona

Albuquerque
L'ville over Wash
W. Va. over TTech

L'Ville over W. Va.

Syracuse
UNC over Nova
NC St. over Wisconsin

UNC over NC St.

Austin
Mich St over Duke
Kentucky over Utah

Mich St over Kentucky

FINAL FOUR
UNC over Mich St
Illinois over Louisville

UNC over Illinois