It seems like once we all kind of jointly decided that Conference USA wasn’t a very good league, it immediately got a lot more interesting – in more of a mid-major kind of a way.\u00a0 And, this year was no exception.\u00a0 Once we realized that Memphis wasn’t a top-10 team or that Marshall was a top-25 team, the conference immediately got a lot more interesting in trying to sift through the UCFs and Southern Misses, as well as the UABs, UTEPs, and Tulanes of the world.\u00a0 And, what we have here is a pretty intriguing tournament at The Pyramid in Memphis, as exemplified by the fact that all of the top four seeds have at least two people picking them to win the whole thing (though more than half of the field does have #1 Memphis).<\/p>\n
Championship Picks Biggest Upsets Previous CTC Champions<\/em> #7 Rice vs. #10 East Carolina #6 Marshall vs. #11 SMU #8 UTEP vs. #9 Houston #5 UAB vs. #12 Tulane It seems like once we all kind of jointly decided that Conference USA wasn’t a very good league, it immediately got a lot more interesting – in more of a mid-major kind of a way.\u00a0 And, this year was no … Continue reading
\n<\/em>12 for #1 Memphis
\n4\u00a0for #2 Southern Miss (J, Lil Lohse, Lynch, Primm)
\n2 for #3 Tulsa (Mac, Rikey)
\n2 for #4 UCF (Dave, KA)<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>R1 – #12 Tulane (Bry, RDoc)
\nQF – #8 UTEP (J, KA)
\nSF – #6 Marshall (Lohse)<\/p>\n
\n2011 – Lynch
\n2010 – Lohse\/Teddy
\n2009 – Bry
\n2008 – Ina<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>This is one of the best teams in Rice history, led by everyone’s favorite Iranian, Arsalan Kazemi.\u00a0 ECU had one stretch where it looked like they might actually compete in this year’s C-USA, but before and since, they just haven’t been very good.\u00a0 2nd-seeded Southern Miss is next in line for the winner here.\u00a0 This is a rather popular upset pick here, as only 8 people have 7th-seeded Rice winning this game (Alexi, Doogan, Gross, KA, Mac, Rikey, Scoot, Waters).\u00a0 But, those that believe, believe strongly, as Gross, KA, and Mac all have the Owls beating S. Miss in the quarters.\u00a0 No one has ECU in the semis.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>The Thundering Herd was picked to finish 2nd in the preseason by just about everyone (except those bold prognosticators that had them winning the conference), but it just hasn’t worked out this year.\u00a0 They still have the talent, so anything can happen, but this team was supposed to be a borderline Top 25 team.\u00a0 SMU stinks.\u00a0 They scored 67 points earlier this year…IN TWO GAMES.\u00a0 Yes, that’s right, they lost to Rice on February 11th, 43-39 and then, 4 days later, they lost to UAB 47-28.\u00a0 67 points in TWO games…wow.\u00a0 #3 Tulsa awaits the winner.\u00a0 J and KA are the only two with the big upset pick of SMU here, and neither of them have the Mustangs going any further.\u00a0 An SMU win here, though, would really blow up some brackets, as\u00a011 people have Marshall in the semis (Alexi, Bry, Dave, Doogan, Gross, Lohse, Lynch, Primm, RDoc, RSmith, Teddy).\u00a0 Gross and Lohse both have the Herd thundering into the finals.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>The Miners, who have made the past two NCAA tournaments, fell on some hard times this year, but have been playing better lately.\u00a0 Houston has been up-and-down, mostly down this year.\u00a0 The winner here will get #1 Memphis tomorrow.\u00a0 8 people have the mild upset of Houston here (Bry, Dave, Gross, Lil Lohse, Lohse, RSmith, Scoot, Waters).\u00a0 This game is huge for J and KA, as they both have UTEP beating Houston today and Memphis tomorrow.\u00a0 No one has Houston in the semis.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>On December 3rd, Tulane beat Georgia Tech 57-52, to improve to 9-0.\u00a0 The only other undefeated teams in the country were Syracuse, Kentucky, and Murray St.\u00a0 After that, they finished their last 5 non-conference games with 3 more wins.\u00a0 They entered conference play at 12-2, with their only losses on the road against a good Wofford team and #1 Syracuse.\u00a0 They lost their first conference game by 7 at UCF (no real shame in that) and then lost in OT to S.Miss, by 1 point to Rice, and by 4 at Tulsa.\u00a0 They picked up two wins and then lost by 2 in OT at UTEP.\u00a0 It looked like they were just snakebitten.\u00a0 Well, they’ve only won 1 game since and haven’t even been competitive.\u00a0 UAB had a very similar story in losing a lot of close games to good teams early in conference play, but where Tulane turned south, UAB really came together and looked like one of the best teams in the conference in the second half.\u00a0 Now, the two get together, battling for the right to play UCF in the quarters.\u00a0 Bry, Doogan, and RDoc all went for the longshot upset of Tulane.\u00a0 Alexi, RSmith, and Scoot have UAB going to the semis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"