Broad Street Believers

Selection Sunday.  My favorite day of the year.  Not only because it reveals the menu for our Madness, but because it comes with the crowning of another CTC champion.  There are four major conference championships today (each worth at least 60 points, and there are 3 people within 60 of the current leader, and three more within 180.  But, in actuality, there is only one person who can catch Bry for the 2012 overall title – and it all comes down to a single game for all the marbles.  If Florida State beats UNC today, Primm will come from behind and win, which would be the second year in a row that Bry blew a lead on the final day of the competition.

Championships
Atlantic 10
ACC
Big Ten
SEC

If you bought a ticket to Saturday’s ACC semifinal doubleheader in Atlanta, then you’re probably pretty glad you did.  Both games yesterday were dramatic, well-played, down-to-the-wire contests that showed that the top of the ACC should not be judged at all by the rest of the league’s struggles.  Now, today, we’ve got another great game to top it off.

Gross has the ACC lead and UNC winning the title, so a Tar Heel title will give him the ACC championship, which is nice.  But, the one with the most at stake (e.g. everything) is Primm.  A FSU win today and Primm will steal not only the 2012 ACC title, but also the 2012 overall title as well.

#1 North Carolina vs. #3 Florida St.
The last time these two teams met, the result was so jarring (a 33-point FSU win) that all the national stories were revolving around why we should write off UNC as a title contender and about whether or not Roy Williams has any respect for walkons.  Today, the talk is about whether or not UNC can get to the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament if Kentucky falters today.  It looked like FSU had a shot at an unexpected ACC regular season title this year, but they fell short.  Now, they can at least pull off a nice tournament title if they can come through today.

Primm is the only one with FSU winning the title and will have earned both the conference and overall titles, if that prediction comes through.  Half the field (Alexi, Bry, Doogan, Gersh, Gross, Lohse, Rikey, RDoc, Scoot, Stri) has UNC winning this title, including Bry, who will clinch the overall title with a Tar Heels win today.

Kentucky is one win away from running the table in the SEC – a very impressive feat, no matter how “down” this conference is or how good this UK team is.  But, they don’t exactly have an easy final game today to do it.

Doogan and Primm are perfect in the SEC to this point.  Both have Kentucky winning the tournament, so they will split this title if the ‘Cats get it done.  If Vandy wins today, Mac will win the SEC with a massive 405 points.  RDoc will win the SEC money division outright if Vandy wins today.

#1 Kentucky vs. #3 Vanderbilt
The best team in America played three very uninspired halves down here in New Orleans, but the second half against Florida yesterday was very impressive.  Vandy caught a couple huge tournament-style breaks to get here, have to beat #11 Georgia and #7 Ole Miss on their way to today’s title game.  But, that doesn’t change the fact that the Commodores are immensely talented, experienced, and, typically, very well-coached.  This is their chance to turn around what was, up to this point, a bit of a disappoinment of a season.

The CTC was all over the SEC tournament this year, as all 20 entries have one off these two teams winning it.  17 have Kentucky; KA, Mac, and RDoc have Vandy.

The best conference in America started to show some chinks in the armor down the stretch, as teams like Minnesota, Northwestern, and especially Illinois, were revealed to be rather fraudulent.  But, that doesn’t change how good the top of this league is.  And, now we’ve got a championship game that may easily be recreated in the Final Four in a couple of weeks.

Rikey is the current Big Ten leader and will clinch the 2012 CTC title here with an Ohio St. win.  If the Spartans come through today, Gersh and Scoot will split the 2012 crown.

#1 Michigan St. vs. #3 Ohio St.
One of the best 3-seeds in a conference tournament I can remember is taking on the conference’s #1-seed in a game that could determine a #1-seed in the Big Tournament (though, more likely, a #2 is the ceiling for the Buckeyes).  OSU seems to have found that extra gear at just the right time, as they have two blowouts of sure-fire tournament teams, beating Purdue by 17 on Friday night and Michigan by 22 yesterday.  Michigan St. won a weird game yesterday against Wisconsin, but Tom Izzo might be the best ever at coaching in a tournament setting.

Gersh, Scoot, Stri, and Waters are the only 4 with #1 Michigan St. here.  KA, Lil Lohse, and Lynch have already lost this game with Purdue, Michigan, and Indiana.  The other 13 have Ohio St.

The true depth of the A-10 has been on display all year, yet was never more evident than in AC this week.  6 games so far have been played down the shore, and they have all been hard-fought competitive games, leading us to a championship between a potential Big Dance sleeper and the coming-to-fruiting A-10 tournament sleeper.

Teddy, who nailed the UMass upset of Temple in the quarterfinals, is the current A-10 leader, but he has lost his champion (St. Louis).  With no one picking the Bonnies, Teddy will win the A-10 crown if St. Bonaventure wins.  If Xavier wins, Dave (who has already clinched the money division) will steal this title.

#3 Xavier vs. #4 St. Bonaventure
The Musketeers are probably pretty safe for the tournament, after yesterday’s 7-point win over a really good St. Louis team, but it might be a good idea for them to finish the job today.  The Bonnies, who have beaten St. Joe’s and UMass here in AC en route to today’s championship match with the Musketeers.  And, as good as the Bonnies have been all year, they still have yet to prove that they can play with the league’s elite.  Today would be a good time to start.  Side note:  it is surprising to anyone else that this the first time Xavier has made the A-10 championship game since 2006.

No one has the Bonnies even in this game, let alone winning it.  A title for XU here would give Dave and KA a 90-point standings bump.

Alexi’s 585.5 points are almost 60 more than Lohse (who had another impressive day) and almost 120 more than 3rd place Scoot, and over 200 more than the average score on the day.

The great day for Alexi jumped him 4 spots from 12th to 8th.  RSmith also gained 4 spots in the standings, moving up to 11th place.  Lohse climbed back to 3rd from 6th, and Scoot went from 17th to 14th.

Lynch had a rough day, finishing in last place on the day and falling 6 spots in the standings from 9th to 15th.  Mac fell from 2nd to 5th and Dave fell from 7th to 10th.  The only other one to fall more than 1 spot was the defending champ, Rikey, who went from 14th to 16th.

(NOTE: individual conference recaps and standings to come…)

DAY THIRTEEN SCORES (days won):

1. Alexi – 585.5 (1)
2. Lohse – 530 (3)
3. Scoot – 469 (1)
4. RSmith – 461.5
5. Teddy – 456 (1)
6. Doogan – 454
7. Primm – 420.5 (1)
8. RDoc – 418 (1)
9. Stri – 417 (1)
10. J – 401.5 (1)
11. Gross – 392
12. Bry – 388
13. Gersh – 349
14. Waters – 342
15. Mac – 332
16. Lil Lohse – 317
17. KA – 254.5
18. Dave – 245.5 (1)
19. Rikey – 205 (1)
20. Lynch – 186

OVERALL STANDINGS:

1. Bry – 2830
2. Doogan- 2816
3. Lohse – 2799
4. Primm – 2779.5
5. Mac – 76.5
6. Gross – 2688.5
7. RDoc – 2663
8. Alexi – 2611
9. Teddy – 2564
10. Dave – 2513
11. RSmith – 2471.5
12. Stri – 2450.5
13. J – 2422.5
14. Scoot – 2328.5
15. Lynch – 2323.5
16. Rikey – 2223.5
17. Waters – 2220.5
18. Gersh – 2137.5
19. Lil Lohse – 2120
20. KA – 1788

Like several of the conferences that came before, the WAC was supposed to come down to one game between the league’s two best teams.  But, something happened on the way to this fateful game tonight.  Cinderella lives in Ruston, LA, as Louisiana Tech took out the top-seeded Nevada Wolfpack last night.  Tonight they will try and take out the #2 team en route to the Dance.

There is a three-way tie for the 2012 WAC title, but if New Mexico St. wins, there will only be two.  Bry, Lohse, and Waters will split the title three ways if NMSU loses to La Tech tonight.  If the Aggies win, Bry (who picked Nevada) will drop out of the title.  For the money division, Bry will win if La Tech wins.  If NMSU wins, Gersh, Gross, and RDoc will split it three ways.

#2 New Mexico St. vs. #5 Louisiana Tech
The Aggies have been playing the best ball in the league for about a month now.  La Tech has been hot, but they are not nearly as talented as the Aggies.  This is a pretty lopsided matchup on paper, but it’s March, and we all know how mad March can be.

Gersh, Gross, Lohse, Mac, RDoc, Teddy, and Waters all have the Aggies tonight.  No one has La Tech.

You could see this coming back in November.  Long Beach St. was the clear favorite in this league and, despite their aggressive schedule, it was hard to imagine an at-large coming from a conference so weak.  So, the Beach would have to win this tournament in order to throw fear into some higher seed in March.  But, there was one problem – UCSB.  The Gouchos are talented and unafraid of the 49ers, having ruined last year for them in this game.  Now, this year, the 49ers actually do have a shot at an at-large, but I’m sure they’d rather not roll that die.

Bry and Mac are perfect in the Big West, and both have LBSU, so if the Niners win, they will complete the perfect bracket.  If the Gouchos win tonight, RDoc will steal the title.

#1 Long Beach St. vs. #3 UC-Santa Barbara
It all comes down to this for the Beach.  This team is built to win now.  They have 3 seniors that are 3 of the best players in school history.  They have several other upperclassmen ready to win.  No one who could be a 4- or 5-seed wants this team to win today because they are going to be a tough out next week.

KA and Waters have both lost this one already.  RDoc has UCSB, and everyone else has Long Beach St.

Every year this tournament gets turned upside-down and every year we end up with a finale that, while good and interesting, usually has no CTC impact.  And, here we are again – same thing.  Syracuse, Marquette, Notre Dame, and even Georgetown were chosen as CTC champion picks.  And, yet, our Big East final has none of them.

Thanks mostly to the great pick of L’ville to reach the finals, Primm is your 2012 Big East CTC champion.

#4 Cincinnati vs. #7 Louisville
If Cincy was on the bubble at the beginning of the week, they are certainly off of it now and safely in the tournament, thanks to a thrilling double-OT win over Georgetown and an impressive win over the #2 team in the nation, Syracuse, last night.  Rick Pitino’s Cardinals didn’t necessarily need these wins to get in like Cincy may have, but they have looked really good, beating Seton Hall, then back-to-back 13- and 14-point wins over Marquette and Notre Dame.  Regardless of any CTC implications, the final in the World’s Most Famous Arena is always good.

No one has either of these teams winning this tournament.

If the goal of the new MAC tournament format was to give the NCAA tournament the best representative of the Mid-American conference, then it is going to succeed, as the two best teams all year are battling it out for conference supremacy tonight in Cleveland.

Mac has got one more first round game than RDoc, so he leads the standings by 3 points.  They both have Ohio, so Mac will take the title if the Bobcats win.  If Akron wins tonight, Mac will have to share the 2012 MAC title with Bry.  The money division is between RDoc (Ohio) and Bry (Akron).

#1 Akron vs. #3 Ohio
The Akron Zips, thanks to their semifinal win last night over Kent St., have now made an incredible 6 consecutive MAC finals.  While that is really good, they have struggled at this point, only winning one of the previous 5.  This year, Akron has done what they hadn’t done earlier and that is win the regular season title in the MAC.  Ohio, who can probably already be penciled in as the 2013 favorite, is trying to win this tournament a year ahead of schedule.  The Bobcats got here by beating Toledo on Thursday night and winning a really tough game against #2 Buffalo last night.

Bry, Rikey, and Waters are the only three who actually took the top seed in this tournament.  Ohio is, by far, the most popular champion pick here, as they were pegged by Alexi, Doogan, Gersh, Lohse, Lynch, Mac, RDoc, RSmith, Scoot, and Stri.