With Joe Lunardi over at Bracketology updating daily now, I'll try and analyze the bracket he puts us in at least every couple of days leading up to Selection Sunday in 9 days. This is the first time we've appeared as a #1 seed with North Carolina falling in Atlanta, Georgia last night. We are a #1 seed along with UCLA, Wisconsin and Ohio State.
We start out with an easy game against the MEAC representative, Delaware State. We should get past them, but after that it gets shaky. I think both Stanford and Marquette are high-quality teams, especially Stanford with the two 7 foot twins. I'm not sure how we would defend those guys, but I would rather face the Cardinal than Dominic James and the Golden Eagles. You know how I don't like Golden Eagles, and Marquette is a good team.
In the Sweet 16 there is likely BYU and Virginia, with a possible 12 seed in Old Dominion. Don't know a whole lot about either ODU or BYU, but Virginia has two great guards (Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds) and not much else. I would have to vote for us to face Virginy, we could handle their guards with RR and Super and we would do pretty good on offense.
The rest of the bracket is pretty hard. A possible Kansas vs. Roy Williams matchup in the Elite Eight will get all of the MSM all hyped up, but I think they could lose in the 2nd round to either Tennessee or Xavier. Tennessee especially, Chris Lofton is incredible and they have the capability to make a deep run. One thing worries me about this bracket. Georgetown. I've talked before about how hot the Hoyas are and how much I DON'T want them in our bracket. Well, Joe Lunardi gave me my worst fear by putting them as the #3 seed in our bracket. They will likely make the Elite Eight, that is what my bracket would look like if the Tournament started tomorrow, especially considering that overrated Butler (who would have thought someone could seriously say that in our lifetimes?) and Georgia Tech are the only things standing in the way between them and the Sweet 16. Don't get me wrong, Butler is a very solid team but they aren't as good of a team as the other 6 seeds. A.J. Graves and Mike Green could probably lead them to a first round victory but they wouldn't beat Georgetown.
All in all, I like our top-half of the bracket but I would be very wary of whoever we play in the Elite Eight, either North Carolina or Georgetown.
Rock Chalk!