We’ve had 11 great days of conference tournaments and now we finally get a glimpse at the best team in the country, as Kentucky joins the party on Bourbon Street today.\u00a0 Yesterday’s SEC opening round got the party started late, with Mississippi State becoming yet another bubble team to implode, losing to 11th-seeded Georgia late last night.<\/p>\n
Doogan and Primm nailed all four opening round games last night, so they will try and continue their SEC run today.<\/p>\n
#1 Kentucky vs. #8 LSU 17 people have UK winning this whole tournament.\u00a0 20 people have them winning this game.<\/p>\n #4 Florida vs. #5 Alabama Alexi, Dave, Gross, J, KA, Lynch, and Teddy all have Alabama in the mild upset here.\u00a0 KA has Alabama in the finlas.\u00a0 RDoc has Florida in the finals.<\/p>\n #2 Tennessee vs. #7 Ole Miss This deep in the competition, this game could really make waves on the CTC leaderboard, as 6 people have a pretty big upset pick here with Ole Miss (Dave, Doogan, J, KA, Mac, Primm).\u00a0 Moreover, the top 6 on the overall standings page entering today are exactly split 3 and 3 on this game, so all eyes are on New Orleans to see how this shakes out.\u00a0 Incidentally, Lynch is the only one of the entire 20-person field to pick the 2-seed Tennessee to even make the finals, so the ramifications of this game are a one-time thing.<\/p>\n #3 Vanderbilt vs. #11 Georgia Gersh, Gross, Lynch, and Rikey have all lost this game already with Miss St.\u00a0 The other 16 all have Vandy here, with 15 of them taking the ‘Dores to the finals.\u00a0 KA, Mac, and RDoc have Vandy cutting down the nets on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We’ve had 11 great days of conference tournaments and now we finally get a glimpse at the best team in the country, as Kentucky joins the party on Bourbon Street today.\u00a0 Yesterday’s SEC opening round got the party started late, … Continue reading
\n<\/span><\/em>The Tigers rode the home crowd to a 16-point victory that ended the Arkansas season early.\u00a0 And, their reward?\u00a0 A date with the #1 team in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/em>This is a really good game between two very flawed teams.\u00a0 I’m not really sure why either team is flawed, as they have talent at every spot, but they most certainly are.\u00a0 The Gators lead the nation in 3-pointers made, which is their greatest strength and also, quite possibly, their greatest weakness, in that they are so reliant on the long ball, and they tend to force so many shots, that they can shoot themselves out of a game really easily.\u00a0 ‘Bama, on the other hand, should be a lot more consistent than they are.\u00a0 Size and athleticism comes to the table every game, so it’s hard to imagine why this big, athletic ‘Bama team doesn’t show up some days.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/em>Ole Miss, who looked rather far from the NCAA tournament at the beginning of the day yesterday, did what a lot of teams in their position (and better) did not do – they took care of business against a team they should have beaten.\u00a0 While teams like Washington, Northwestern, Illinois, and conference-mate Mississippi State were busy losing games they should have won, the Rebels dispatched of an inferior Auburn team (sending them home to deal with point-shaving allegations) to set up a quarterfinal date with one of the hottest teams in the country.\u00a0 It’s strange how we can just write teams off at some point in a college basketball season and then they turn around and force us to take notice.\u00a0 The Vols were dead and buried, entering February, but they have won 8 of their last 9 and look like a completely different team with Jarnell Stokes in the lineup.\u00a0 What a coaching job Cuonzo Martin has done in Knoxville this year, and now they have a shot to really put themselves into legit tournament discussion here.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/em>An amazing day of madness had one last act to play out yesterday, and that was the UGA upset of 6th-seeded and bubble hopeful, Mississippi St.\u00a0 The ‘Dawgs were in control most of the way and ended up with a double-digit win that caused ripples in SEC and CTC circles, alike.\u00a0 Now, they go for another big upset, as they entertain 3rd-seeded Vanderbilt.\u00a0 The Commodores have had a very peculiar season, in that they were pegged (understandably) as a Top 10 team in the preseason.\u00a0 Their talent and experienced is unrivaled by all but the best teams in the nation.\u00a0 But, in the beginning of the year they weren’t very good (or so you’d be led to believe by the national media).\u00a0 In reality, they did have a head-scratching loss IN NOVEMBER to Cleveland State.\u00a0 Then, they lost back-to-back overtime games to Xavier and Louisville, followed by a win at Davidson and another loss to a mid-major – this time Indiana St.\u00a0 But, CSU and ISU are very good mid-majors and Xavier and L’ville were both in the top 10 when they beat the ‘Dores.\u00a0 They went 10-6 in the SEC, with 2\u00a0losses to UK, an OT loss to Miss St. and road losses to Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee.\u00a0 They have posted double-digit wins over Florida and Marquette (on the road).\u00a0 While they may not have been quite as good as people realized, I don’t see why they are seen as this huge disappoinment.\u00a0 This was a good season by a potentially great team.\u00a0 Watch out for them next week.<\/p>\n