The Week ahead

Some notes and thinks to look forward to over the next 7 days.

Seeds:

The chances of a 1 seed and a 5 seed are pretty much gone. The Badgers took care of business this week and the teams fighting for a 1 seed did the same.

With a sweep this week and with losses by MSU, IU, and Vandy this weekend, the chances of the Badgers dropping to a 4 seed seem more and more remote, I would put them around 8% right now, but probably less.

A 3 seed seems most likely, but with losses by Xavier and 2 to Stanford, the competition for the last 2 seed is now between the Badgers, Georgetown and Louisville, but only if the Cards can win their tourney. If Georgetown cuts down the nets in MSG on Saturday night, I would have a hard time denying them the final 2 seed.

I would give the 3 seed 54% and the 2 seed 38%, but things will change as games go on in Manhattan.


The Badgers will square off against the winner of Iowa/Michigan at 11AM on Friday. The game will be on ESPN, so plan your lunches accordingly. The Badgers are 0-2 as #1 seeds in the BTT and the top seed has only won the tourney 3 times: MSU in 1999, Illinois in 05, and OSU last year. After watching the Wolverines hang tight with Purdue today, I will be rooting for Iowa to win a 5 OT drainer on Thursday afternoon.

Off the top of my head here are my predictions for this weekend:

Michigan over Iowa
Minn over NU
Illinois over PSU

Wisconsin over Mich
MSU over OSU
Indiana over Minn
Purdue over Illinois

MSU over Wisconsin (fine by me, incidentally)
Purdue over IU

Purdue over MSU


With that in mind I'll give 3 seeds to Wisc, Lville, Purdue, Xavier. 4 seeds to ND, Conn, Stanford, and either Vandy or Drake (who looked awesome today, btw)

IU and MSU probably grab 5 seeds with Drake or Vandy and then someone like Gonzaga or Clemson if they have a big ACC tourney.


I also think OSU will be the 65th or 66th team. So they need to keep it close against MSU if they are going to lose, and hope someone like Texas A&M gets bounced early.


Oh, as for the big dance itself, it certainly appears Wisconsin will be headed towards Omaha, which is the closest sub-regional to Madison and the Big 10. It is a Thurs/Sat sub regional which is good news/bad news: games on Thurs afternoon (bad) no games on Easter (good).

Finally, during Championship week you might want to scout the following teams as potential first round foes: Oral Roberts, S.F. Austin, the SWAC winner, the WAC winner, and the Nashville combo of Belmont and Austin Peay. For the record, I would much rather have Belmont than anyone else on this list and Austin Peay or S.F. Austin would scare me to death.