AFT Bracketology – 3/3
By Will
Just in time for the first conference tournament championship games on Saturday, here’s a bracketology update to keep you going throughout the weekend.
Here’s your bracket for this Saturday:
Last Four In: Northwestern, Colorado State, USF, Xavier
First Four Out: Mississippi State, VCU, Arizona, Oregon
Next Four Out: NC State, Dayton, St. Joseph’s, Tennessee (!!!!!!!!!!)
Sorry, Kansas. That’s a sneakily ridiculous road to the Final Four. There’s the potential of playing a conference champion in every single round (look at the bottom half of the West!) while the other three 1 seeds play one or two. Even worse, the teams that aren’t conference champions are still really good – Alabama plays some fantastic defense and Michigan, despite running an offense that may or may not make you hate basketball, is a pretty good team.
Just keep winning. Normally, I don’t think Long Beach would really deserve or need an 11 seed (or a perfect set-up game like Vanderbilt), but in a year like this where the goal seems to be to lose as much as possible and still sneak in, they’ve been perfect in 2012 save for a two-point loss at Creighton. Good enough for me.
A penny-pincher’s nightmare. Said penny-pincher is myself (when it comes to sports, anyway). That Florida/Indiana/MTSU group would be the perfect fit in Nashville…and send ticket prices through the freaking roof. What I’m silently hoping for is as many out-of-town teams as possible so I can watch happily as prices nosedive.
Fun potential matchups. I’m writing this at 12:30 early Saturday morning, so why not? Wichita State-Murray State in the second round would be endlessly intriguing – the very best mid-major squad in the nation against one of the most polarizing teams (seed/resume-wise) in America. Long Beach would almost certainly beat Vanderbilt, so I’d love to see a second-round matchup with Georgetown. Either St. Mary’s or Alabama playing Kansas in the second round would have at least some upset potential.
No awards this time. Next week, you’ll get your awards.