Good draw for my Jays -- the West Virginia Mountaineers from the Big East Conference. Yes, WVU is hot right now, and many prognosticators had pegged them as a potential sleeper. But I am the only prognosticator that knows what's up. And I am telling you right now, Creighton wins this game.
West Virginia shot 890 three pointers this year. To put this in perspective, Creighton shoots a lot of threes, and they shot just under 700 for the year. Furthermore, Creighton shoots them at well over a 40% clip, good for fourth in the country, while West Virginia shoots a respectable but lesser 31%.
The Mountaineers have no real inside post threat. Their bigs like to shoot jumpers and threes. This plays into Creighton's hands because their big weakness all year long has been with bigs that dominate them inside.
And its a 10-7 game. The percentages on that? The 7 seed wins 54% of the time, meaning the 10 pulls the "upset" 46% of the time. This will be no upset, folks. Creighton wins, because they are the better team.
I'm not even going to contemplate a losing scenario. In fact, I'm already looking forward to a beatdown against Wake Forest in Round Two. Unless our friends, the Moccasins from Chattanooga, who we hung 100 points on earlier this year, can pull the upset in the 15-2 game. Either way, Saturday's game should be entertaining.
Thanks for playing, West Virginia. See ya.
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My only concern is that Creighton has once again been assigned the night game, an 8:30 tip Thursday night. In the magical 2002 season, where they were 29-4 and got the 5 seed, I took the day off work to watch the game live on TV -- so tired of listening to them on radio, I was -- only to find them to get assigned the night game. And it was Third Thursday for AIGA that night, so I manned up and went to that knowing full well I would not get to see the Jays game. This was a serious sacrifice, folks.
We were at The Upstream, and it turns out they had the game on. Creighton fell behind by 20 in the first half, and despite a furious comeback, were upset by the HEAVY underdog Central Michigan. I spent more money on beer this night than any other, ever. At one point, despondent and sad, I was tipping the waiter $2 for each $3 beer, so that he would come around again real soon with another beer. My buddy Nate remembers this night well.
Why is this pertinent? This Thursday is also an AIGA Third Thursday. Creighton is once again playing in the evening session. And where is Third Thursday at this month?
The Upstream.
Oh boy.
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As my brother and I sat at the Mac uploading songs onto his brand new iPod Mini (Blue in color, if you care), we watched the selection show and were excited to see all three state schools from Iowa get into the field of 64. Briefly:
Iowa plays Cincinnati at 1:50 pm central Thursday, this is a game they can win. Cincinnati is a team of thugs who deserve to be beaten all of the time.
Iowa State gets Minnesota on Friday at 11:30. This is a tossup, a classic 8-9 game that is impossible to pick. Not sure yet on this one. I do know that with North Carolina awaiting the winner, it will an early exit for both teams.
And my brother's alma mater, the Northern Iowa Panthers, make their second straight tournament appearance when they face off in the opener of the evening session at 6:30 Friday night against Wisconsin. Since I hate 'Sconsin more than Vanilla Ice with a microphone, I got to go with UNI here. Plus Ben Jacobsen is the shit.
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Preliminary Polyfro Final Four Picks*:
Midwest (Chicago) - Illinois
West (Albuquerque) - Creighton
South (Austin) - Iowa
East (Syracuse) - Northern Iowa
*subject to change, at a time when I am not as inebriated as I currently am
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(Edited by Tom, ten minutes later)
Slightly less Preliminary Polyfro Final Four Picks*:
Midwest (Chicago) - Illinois
West (Albuquerque) - Louisville
South (Austin) - Oklahoma
East (Syracuse) - North Carolina
*still subject to change
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(Edited by Tom, again, this time 8 and a half minutes later)
Just slightly less Preliminary Polyfro Final Four Picks*:
Midwest (Chicago) - Illinois
West (Albuquerque) - Gonzaga
South (Austin) - Kentucky
East (Syracuse) - North Carolina
*obviously I can't make up my mind, so these are subject to change. A lot.
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Watch for my entire bracket later in the week, plus more unwarranted hatin' on West Virginia, and why the Mountaineer mascot sucks even worse than the Saluki mascot. Peace.
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