{"id":2314,"date":"2012-03-01T14:22:30","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T18:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=2314"},"modified":"2012-03-01T14:30:09","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T18:30:09","slug":"ctc-day-four-preview-arch-madness-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=2314","title":{"rendered":"CTC Day Four Preview: Arch Madness Begins!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I prefer the first week of the CTC to the second, surprisingly.\u00a0 Probably because, as great as the major tournaments are next week (and they are phenomenal<\/em>), I think that my two favorite conference tournaments every year are the MVC and the CAA.\u00a0 And, the Valley begins tonight!\u00a0 The tournament known as “Arch Madness” gets going with a double-header to whet the appetite for tomorrow’s always-thrilling quarterfinal quadruple-header.\u00a0 And, this year is shaping up to be the best yet.<\/p>\n

Championship Picks<\/em>
\n12 for #1 Wichita St.
\n5 for #2 Creighton (Alexi, Bry, Mac, RSmith, Teddy)
\n0 for #3 Evansville
\n1 for #4 Illinois St. (Dave)<\/p>\n

Biggest Upsets
\n<\/em>R1 – #10 Bradley (Bry, Doogan, Teddy, Waters)
\nQF – #7 Drake (J)
\nSF\u00a0– #6 Missouri St. (Doogan, RDoc)<\/p>\n

Previous CTC Champs<\/em>
\n2011 – Alexi
\n2010 – Stri
\n2009 – Stri
\n2008 – Ina<\/p>\n

#7 Drake vs. #10 Bradley<\/em>
\nWhen the sun rose on January 29th, Drake fans were probably as excited as they’ve been in several years – at least since that Selection Sunday that saw them chosen as a 5-seed in the Big Dance.\u00a0 They had just beaten first-place Wichita State in a quadruple-overtime thriller the night before and they could finally consider themselves true contenders in the tough MVC.\u00a0 Then, the hangover happened.\u00a0 They lost three straight\u00a0to slip back under .500 in the league.\u00a0 They rebounded to finish at 9-9.\u00a0 The good news?\u00a0 9-9 is good enough to be in a tie for 3rd-place.\u00a0 The bad news?\u00a0 It is a ridiculous FIVE-way tie and they ended up losing out with the crazy tiebreaker procedures to finish in 7th place – the only team of the 5 not to earn a first-round bye in the conference tournament.\u00a0 So, they are stuck playing a bad, but dangerous Bradley team in the opening round just for the chance to face Doug McDermott and Creighton tomorrow in the quarters.\u00a0 4 people (Bry, Doogan, Teddy, Waters) have Bradley in this decent-sized upset.\u00a0 None of them have them going any further.\u00a0 J is the biggest fan of the Koffee Kakes, as he has them in the semis.<\/p>\n

#8 Indiana St. vs. #9 S. Illinois<\/em>
\nJust as disappointing Drake’s finish was – that’s how disappointing Indiana St’s whole conference season was.\u00a0 This team did everything they needed to do in the non-conference to really put themselves on the map.\u00a0 But, they were do disappointing in the conference season – losing to the two bottom feeders (Bradley and SIU) along the way.\u00a0 But, they are a talented team that is battle-tested, so if I were a Wichita State fan, I’d be rooting hard for the Salukis tonight because I wouldn’t want any part of Indiana State in the quarters tomorrow.\u00a0 4 people went with the minor upset pick of SIU here (Alexi, Gersh, Gross, Waters).\u00a0 No one has either of these teams beating Wichita in the quarters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I prefer the first week of the CTC to the second, surprisingly.\u00a0 Probably because, as great as the major tournaments are next week (and they are phenomenal), I think that my two favorite conference tournaments every year are the MVC … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[479,483],"tags":[1261],"class_list":["post-2314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conf-tourney-challenge","category-conference-tourney-challenge","tag-ctc-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2314"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2347,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314\/revisions\/2347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}