Eve of Madness

Tomorrow the games begin, and if you are like me you probably won't get anything done at work because you will be watching the games online via cbsSportline.com's March Madness on demand (it's free by the way). My bracket is filled out and once again I have confidence that I will dominate the 234598 pools I am in. Including my office pool where I hoping victory will land me a promotion or large pay increase; but most likely just bragging rights. Here are some games to pay close attention too:


6 Duke
11 VCU

Having seen VCU play a lot this season I really like them to "upset" Duke in this game. Duke really doesn't deserve a seed this high, but I guess anything less from the committee would have been an insult to Coach K. Duke doesn't have a lot of quality depth or a legit go to guy, they are young and have been turning over the ball a lot towards the end of the season. VCU thrives off creating turnovers and playing an up tempo game, not exactly the Blue Devils style. Duke has had trouble with teams with athletic guards and we all know first hand how athletic Maynor and B.A. Walker are. If Duke wins this game its because Josh McRoberts dominates inside.


5 Butler
12 Old Dominon

A mid-major match-up that ODU can win against a Butler team that really fell off after winning the pre-season NIT tournament. I am not sold on Butler because it seems that as the season went on good teams found out how to beat them: contain A.J. Graves. Southern Illinois and Wright State did it and ODU plays better defense then both those teams. ODU is a hungry team and came close to winning the NIT last March; their experience will make the difference. ODU plays excellent defense but often has trouble scoring late in games. It will take a lot from Vasylius and Dahi but they have come through in big games before for the Monarchs this season.


3 Washington State
14 Oral Roberts

Call me crazy but I like Oral Roberts here. Oral Roberts starts five upperclassmen and has two big time scorers. Caleb Green is a 6'8" 255-pound scoring machine, you don't see guys like him very often on 14-seed teams. They return most of their players from last years NCAA tournament team and now they now they have more confidence and a better seed. Keep in mind this team beat #1 seed Kansas on the road already this season, and every year it seems like theres 13 or 14 seed that makes some noise. Washington State on the other hand is the worst 3 seed in the field and hasn't been to the big dance in quite some time. The Cougars give up a lot of three point attempts and Oral Roberts has the shooters to make them pay for it; should be interesting.


6 Notre Dame
11 Wintrop

Wintrop is another mid-major team returning to the big dance this year with something to prove. This years team has three big scoring threats and efficient team rebounding. They are 22-1 when they out rebound their opponents this season and Notre Dame is no juggernaut in that category. This team hung around with UNC til the closing minutes and lost to Wisconsin by only three earlier in the year. Winthrop is more athletic than the Irish, which matters a lot this time of season. Notre Dame is very one dimension team and without Carter and Falls shooting good the team will fall.