Post by JSS on Mar 19, 2009 8:11:39 GMT -5
Connecticut (1)
Best Case: A.J. Price hits game-winning shot to beat Memphis in regional final. Jeff Adrien putback beats Louisville in Final Four, then he throws his mouthpiece into the crowd for a slobbery souvenir. Finally, Hasheem Thabeet rejects a DeJuan Blair dunk attempt at the buzzer to preserve a one-point national championship victory for the Huskies. Thabeet is named MOP after posting Noah numbers: 35 points, 25 rebounds, 12 blocks in two games. In the end, even Ken Krayeske agrees: Jim Calhoun has earned his salary this year.
Worst Case: Huskies don't recover from consecutive losses to Pitt and Syracuse and register a no-show performance. They never miss injured Jerome Dyson more than in the second round, when BYU's Lee Cummard lights up UConn for 25 points in a staggering defeat. Price shoots 3-for-15 and the Huskies fail to get the ball inside enough. Third time in four years Connecticut is upset by a much lower seed, and much of the Nutmeg State joins Krayeske in suggesting that Calhoun is overpaid.
Chattanooga (16)
Best Case: The plane to Philly is on time, the hotel beds are comfortable, the practice gym is available when it's supposed to be, and the team finds a primo cheesesteak spot. Then the mighty Mocs shock the socks off UConn by staying in the game until the 12-minute mark of the second half. After that, reality sets in.
Worst Case: Tourney organizers miffed that the Southern Conference champion is not Davidson and Stephen Curry shove the Mocs in fleabag hotel and moldy practice gym in Chester. Then UConn shoves the Mocs off the floor in the first four minutes on the way to a 35-point blowout.
BYU (8)
Best Case: Regional final. Hot-shooting, disruptive Cougars handle Texas A&M, then wall UConn off the offensive glass, then slice through Washington's indifferent defense to reach the Elite Eight. Team that won 11 of its last 14 -- with the losses by a total of nine points -- will be in every contest. Just keep BYU off the court on Sundays and everything will be fine.
Worst Case: Cougars don't react well to what is a 10:30 tip-off Mountain time, sleepwalk through the first half, fall 15 points behind the Aggies and then cannot come back. Compassionate Philly fans boo and call the Cougars chokers. Meanwhile, Utah and Utah State both go on runs through the bracket.
Texas A&M (9)
Best Case: Josh Carter is a morning person, dropping seven 3s on groggy BYU in the second-earliest tip-off of the entire tournament. Then he does the same thing to UConn in Round 2, and the Aggies catch a break by meeting 13th-seeded Mississippi State in a maroon-intensive Sweet 16 game. By the time A&M is done with the Bulldogs, the Aggies are having midnight yell practice in Glendale. Loss to Memphis in regional final finally stops all the yelling.
Worst Case: If the Aggies can surrender 29 straight points to the third-leading scorer on a 14-19 team, how many can they give up to Lee Cummard, Jimmer Fredette or Jonathan Tavernari, all of whom average more than Mike Singletary? Let's go for 30 straight in a BYU victory. Afterward, A&M coach Mark Turgeon gets an engraved invitation to a coach's clinic on how to deny an offensive player the ball.
Purdue (5)
Best Case: Robbie Hummel makes shots inside and out, continuing his late-season resurgence after a back injury. JaJuan Johnson controls the paint, continuing his season-long coming-out party. E'Twaun Moore makes plays the way he's capable of. Purdue defends like a Matt Painter team and shoots the way it did in the Big Ten tourney (42 percent in three victories). Boilermakers go where they never went under Gene Keady: the Final Four. Indiana fans slink further into hiding.
Worst Case: Locked in a possession-by-possession trench warfare game with Northern Iowa, the Boilermakers are eliminated in the first round. Purdue Pete is ejected for swinging his sledgehammer with excessive force. One member of Purdue's talented sophomore triumvirate (Hummel, Johnson, Moore) turns pro. Indiana fans continue to point out the superiority of their trophy case.
Northern Iowa (12)
Best Case: Panthers' diligent interior defense frustrates Purdue's big men, and when the Boilers aren't making shots from the outside they're forced into a slow-down game that's won by UNI in an upset. After Mississippi State upsets Washington, Iowa's best basketball program beats the Bulldogs and magically appears in the Sweet 16. Missouri Valley Conference commissioner Doug Elgin takes that opportunity to remind America that Creighton got screwed out of an at-large bid in favor of yet another middle-of-the-pack team from a glamour league.
Worst Case: Team that couldn't score against Marquette (43 points) and Iowa (46 points) can't score against the Boilermakers, either. An 18-point first half results in a 20-point deficit, and it's all over but the handshakes. The Panthers are overmatched athletically and can't do anything about it. Missouri Valley carping about being a one-bid league falls on deaf ears.
Washington (4)
Best Case: Huskies sprint through Mississippi State and punk Purdue by forcing the tempo out of the Boilermakers' comfort zone. In Glendale, Washington gets double Sweet 16 revenge upon UConn. The Huskies East eliminated the Huskies West in 1998 on a last-second shot in the regional semifinals, and the Huskies East eliminated the Huskies West in overtime in 2006 in the same round. This time it's Jon Brockman hitting the game-winning putback at the buzzer. Somewhere, Todd MacCulloch looks up from a pinball machine and smiles. In an NBA locker room, so does Brandon Roy. Huskies go on to reach their first Final Four since 1951, when they were under the direction of the immortal William "Tippy" Dye.
Worst Case: Huskies run into a hot Bulldogs team -- most notably the long arms of Jarvis Varnado inside -- and are ejected from the Dance in the first round. Defensively indifferent Huskies fail to close out on Mississippi State shooters and are strafed from the outside. Washington fans unsuccessfully attempt to blame the outcome on East Coast bias. Meanwhile, Jake Locker gets hurt in spring football practice.
Mississippi State (13)
Best Case: Jarvis Varnado blocks everything within 5 feet of him at the Rose Garden and a team full of streaky 3-point shooters sinks them all. After finishing their conference tournament on a roll, the Bulldogs oust Washington, a team that played badly in its conference tournament. Mississippi State then knocks off equally upset-minded Northern Iowa to advance to the Sweet 16. The wall comes up in Arizona in the form of Hasheem Thabeet, and Connecticut sends the Bulldogs home.
Worst Case: Rick Stansbury's history of sketchy NCAA tournament coaching haunts the Bulldogs again. The streaky shooters miss everything, Varnado swats nothing more than air and the Bulldogs, who weren't very good all season in a bad league, get rolled by Washington by 20.
Marquette (6)
Best Case: Maurice Acker, tired of hearing that the Golden Eagles have no chance without Dominic James at point guard, hits game-winning 3-pointer to upset Memphis in the Sweet 16. From there, Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews and Lazar Hayward come up just short in a valiant regional final effort against UConn. Hayward comes back to school for his senior season. Buzz Williams gets a raise. Wisconsin once again fails to beat a team seeded in the top half of the tournament.
Worst Case: The Golden Eagles are hosed by the NCAA, placing them in Boise against an 11th-seeded Utah State team that is only four hours from home. Marquette has no chance without James and is done in Round 1, ending its season by losing six of seven. Hayward looks at all the guards leaving the program and decides he's out of there, too. Buzz Williams is criticized for failing to make adjustments in the absence of James. Wisconsin goes on fairy-tale run to regional final.
Utah State (11)
Best Case: Gary Wilkinson, the high school dropout turned star Aggies center, becomes the Cinderella story of the tournament's first week after leading Utah State to the Sweet 16. Wilkinson drops 20 and 10 on Marquette and then repeats the feat against Missouri. USU capitalizes on cushy placement in nearby Boise and shows why it won 30 games. Stew Morrill is heralded as an underappreciated coaching sharpie. Meanwhile, Utah and BYU both get bounced in the first round.
Worst Case: Wilkinson gets in early foul trouble, and Marquette's guards spindle the Aggies in a blowout first-round loss. Morrill is criticized for his 1-7 NCAA tournament history. Both Utah and BYU crash the Sweet 16.
Missouri (3)
Best Case: Relentless pressure defense and constant trapping totally overwhelm Cornell and wear down Marquette, and when coach Mike Anderson faces familiar opponent John Calipari in the regional semifinals, he's ready. Anderson's Tigers force nine turnovers from freshman Tyreke Evans and bounce into the regional final, where they run the legs off Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien on their way to the first Final Four in school history. Anderson signs 10-year contract extension. Kansas loses to North Dakota State. All-night party breaks out on the quad.
Worst Case: After wobbling past Cornell, Tigers are gifted with the presence of 11th-seeded Utah State in the second round -- and blow the opportunity. Mizzou falls behind by 15 early, shoots 29 percent from the field, fails to force turnovers and slinks out of Boise badly beaten. Anderson answers call to return to his home state and coach Alabama. Kansas repeats as national champion. On campus, one of the columns in the quad tips over and squashes three coeds.
Cornell (14)
Best Case: Despite dreadful draw in athletic terms, Big Red are not uncomfortable playing quickly. Cornell stays calm in the face of Missouri pressure, limits turnovers, takes good shots and allows the Tigers to quickly fire bad shots. Game stays close into the final seconds. Bad year in the Ivy League looks a little better after noble defeat.
Worst Case: Ivy League basketball craters. Thanks to dreadful draw in athletic terms, Cornell turns the ball over on its first four possessions, falls behind 10-0, panics and folds. Missouri team that went 8-4 against opponents in the NCAA field beats down Big Red team that went 0-3 against the field.
Cal (7)
Best Case: Golden Bears get the Mike Montgomery coaching effort that took Stanford to the 1998 Final Four as Cal picks apart Maryland with deadly 3-point shooting and tidy ballhandling. Bears then scare Memphis in Round 2, pushing it to the brink before relenting. Team without seniors returns intact to challenge for the Pac-10 crown in 2010.
Worst Case: Golden Bears get the Monty who coached Stanford to staggering NCAA upset losses in 1999, 2000 and 2004. Cal cannot contain Greivis Vasquez or get decent perimeter looks against annoying Maryland defense. Bears are blown out, ending their season with four losses in their last seven games, and remain without an NCAA win since 2003. After the season, two underclassmen leave the team to live in a tree on campus.
Maryland (10)
Best Case: Gary Williams and athletic director Debbie Yow embrace after the Terrapins upset both California and Memphis to reach the Sweet 16. Not done there, Greivis Vasquez solves Missouri's pressure defense, and the Terps reach the regional final before losing to UConn. Williams says, "This run is for you, Debbie." Yow responds, "Lifetime contract, Gary." Without encouragement or involvement from Under Armour, recruits line up to sign with the Terps.
Worst Case: Williams and Yow engage in hallway hissing match in Kansas City after Maryland loses by 20 to Cal. "I made this athletic department," Williams says. "I'm calling Tubby," Yow responds. Under Armour reps slip out the back door of the locker room. Duke and North Carolina go on to the Final Four.
Memphis (2)
Best Case: After hugging William Wesley, populist millionaire John Calipari waves a Ford Field net over his head and declares that this is for Conference USA, and for the disenfranchised middle class of Division I basketball nationwide. Final Four Most Outstanding Player Tyreke Evans says he's had so much fun in college, he's coming back to do it again next year with Xavier Henry, DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall. C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky abandons pretense and moves the league office to the Finch Center, Memphis' practice facility.
Worst Case: Up three against Maryland in the second round with 10 seconds to play, Calipari actually uses his final timeout and instructs his players to foul rather than surrender a 3-point shot. Doneal Mack tardily fouls Vasquez as he's shooting, the ball goes in, and Vasquez makes the free throw to win the game. Evans declares for the draft before he takes off his uniform. Wesley finds a new favorite team. Telling friends he's sick of being part of the disenfranchised middle class, Calipari lobbies behind the scenes for every open job in a BCS league.
Cal State Northridge (15)
Best Case: Matadors hear all their names pronounced correctly in pregame introductions. Then they tip off against Memphis. Nobody is hurt, and coach Bobby Braswell goes deep into the first half without having to call a timeout.
Worst Case: Braswell might be living the worst case already this week. According to the L.A. Times, he spent much of Monday attending a hearing in San Fernando County Court to see whether his son, Jeffrey, should stand trial on felony burglary and theft charges for his part in alleged thefts from a Best Buy store where the younger Braswell worked. Doesn't get too much worse than that.
Best Case: A.J. Price hits game-winning shot to beat Memphis in regional final. Jeff Adrien putback beats Louisville in Final Four, then he throws his mouthpiece into the crowd for a slobbery souvenir. Finally, Hasheem Thabeet rejects a DeJuan Blair dunk attempt at the buzzer to preserve a one-point national championship victory for the Huskies. Thabeet is named MOP after posting Noah numbers: 35 points, 25 rebounds, 12 blocks in two games. In the end, even Ken Krayeske agrees: Jim Calhoun has earned his salary this year.
Worst Case: Huskies don't recover from consecutive losses to Pitt and Syracuse and register a no-show performance. They never miss injured Jerome Dyson more than in the second round, when BYU's Lee Cummard lights up UConn for 25 points in a staggering defeat. Price shoots 3-for-15 and the Huskies fail to get the ball inside enough. Third time in four years Connecticut is upset by a much lower seed, and much of the Nutmeg State joins Krayeske in suggesting that Calhoun is overpaid.
Chattanooga (16)
Best Case: The plane to Philly is on time, the hotel beds are comfortable, the practice gym is available when it's supposed to be, and the team finds a primo cheesesteak spot. Then the mighty Mocs shock the socks off UConn by staying in the game until the 12-minute mark of the second half. After that, reality sets in.
Worst Case: Tourney organizers miffed that the Southern Conference champion is not Davidson and Stephen Curry shove the Mocs in fleabag hotel and moldy practice gym in Chester. Then UConn shoves the Mocs off the floor in the first four minutes on the way to a 35-point blowout.
BYU (8)
Best Case: Regional final. Hot-shooting, disruptive Cougars handle Texas A&M, then wall UConn off the offensive glass, then slice through Washington's indifferent defense to reach the Elite Eight. Team that won 11 of its last 14 -- with the losses by a total of nine points -- will be in every contest. Just keep BYU off the court on Sundays and everything will be fine.
Worst Case: Cougars don't react well to what is a 10:30 tip-off Mountain time, sleepwalk through the first half, fall 15 points behind the Aggies and then cannot come back. Compassionate Philly fans boo and call the Cougars chokers. Meanwhile, Utah and Utah State both go on runs through the bracket.
Texas A&M (9)
Best Case: Josh Carter is a morning person, dropping seven 3s on groggy BYU in the second-earliest tip-off of the entire tournament. Then he does the same thing to UConn in Round 2, and the Aggies catch a break by meeting 13th-seeded Mississippi State in a maroon-intensive Sweet 16 game. By the time A&M is done with the Bulldogs, the Aggies are having midnight yell practice in Glendale. Loss to Memphis in regional final finally stops all the yelling.
Worst Case: If the Aggies can surrender 29 straight points to the third-leading scorer on a 14-19 team, how many can they give up to Lee Cummard, Jimmer Fredette or Jonathan Tavernari, all of whom average more than Mike Singletary? Let's go for 30 straight in a BYU victory. Afterward, A&M coach Mark Turgeon gets an engraved invitation to a coach's clinic on how to deny an offensive player the ball.
Purdue (5)
Best Case: Robbie Hummel makes shots inside and out, continuing his late-season resurgence after a back injury. JaJuan Johnson controls the paint, continuing his season-long coming-out party. E'Twaun Moore makes plays the way he's capable of. Purdue defends like a Matt Painter team and shoots the way it did in the Big Ten tourney (42 percent in three victories). Boilermakers go where they never went under Gene Keady: the Final Four. Indiana fans slink further into hiding.
Worst Case: Locked in a possession-by-possession trench warfare game with Northern Iowa, the Boilermakers are eliminated in the first round. Purdue Pete is ejected for swinging his sledgehammer with excessive force. One member of Purdue's talented sophomore triumvirate (Hummel, Johnson, Moore) turns pro. Indiana fans continue to point out the superiority of their trophy case.
Northern Iowa (12)
Best Case: Panthers' diligent interior defense frustrates Purdue's big men, and when the Boilers aren't making shots from the outside they're forced into a slow-down game that's won by UNI in an upset. After Mississippi State upsets Washington, Iowa's best basketball program beats the Bulldogs and magically appears in the Sweet 16. Missouri Valley Conference commissioner Doug Elgin takes that opportunity to remind America that Creighton got screwed out of an at-large bid in favor of yet another middle-of-the-pack team from a glamour league.
Worst Case: Team that couldn't score against Marquette (43 points) and Iowa (46 points) can't score against the Boilermakers, either. An 18-point first half results in a 20-point deficit, and it's all over but the handshakes. The Panthers are overmatched athletically and can't do anything about it. Missouri Valley carping about being a one-bid league falls on deaf ears.
Washington (4)
Best Case: Huskies sprint through Mississippi State and punk Purdue by forcing the tempo out of the Boilermakers' comfort zone. In Glendale, Washington gets double Sweet 16 revenge upon UConn. The Huskies East eliminated the Huskies West in 1998 on a last-second shot in the regional semifinals, and the Huskies East eliminated the Huskies West in overtime in 2006 in the same round. This time it's Jon Brockman hitting the game-winning putback at the buzzer. Somewhere, Todd MacCulloch looks up from a pinball machine and smiles. In an NBA locker room, so does Brandon Roy. Huskies go on to reach their first Final Four since 1951, when they were under the direction of the immortal William "Tippy" Dye.
Worst Case: Huskies run into a hot Bulldogs team -- most notably the long arms of Jarvis Varnado inside -- and are ejected from the Dance in the first round. Defensively indifferent Huskies fail to close out on Mississippi State shooters and are strafed from the outside. Washington fans unsuccessfully attempt to blame the outcome on East Coast bias. Meanwhile, Jake Locker gets hurt in spring football practice.
Mississippi State (13)
Best Case: Jarvis Varnado blocks everything within 5 feet of him at the Rose Garden and a team full of streaky 3-point shooters sinks them all. After finishing their conference tournament on a roll, the Bulldogs oust Washington, a team that played badly in its conference tournament. Mississippi State then knocks off equally upset-minded Northern Iowa to advance to the Sweet 16. The wall comes up in Arizona in the form of Hasheem Thabeet, and Connecticut sends the Bulldogs home.
Worst Case: Rick Stansbury's history of sketchy NCAA tournament coaching haunts the Bulldogs again. The streaky shooters miss everything, Varnado swats nothing more than air and the Bulldogs, who weren't very good all season in a bad league, get rolled by Washington by 20.
Marquette (6)
Best Case: Maurice Acker, tired of hearing that the Golden Eagles have no chance without Dominic James at point guard, hits game-winning 3-pointer to upset Memphis in the Sweet 16. From there, Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews and Lazar Hayward come up just short in a valiant regional final effort against UConn. Hayward comes back to school for his senior season. Buzz Williams gets a raise. Wisconsin once again fails to beat a team seeded in the top half of the tournament.
Worst Case: The Golden Eagles are hosed by the NCAA, placing them in Boise against an 11th-seeded Utah State team that is only four hours from home. Marquette has no chance without James and is done in Round 1, ending its season by losing six of seven. Hayward looks at all the guards leaving the program and decides he's out of there, too. Buzz Williams is criticized for failing to make adjustments in the absence of James. Wisconsin goes on fairy-tale run to regional final.
Utah State (11)
Best Case: Gary Wilkinson, the high school dropout turned star Aggies center, becomes the Cinderella story of the tournament's first week after leading Utah State to the Sweet 16. Wilkinson drops 20 and 10 on Marquette and then repeats the feat against Missouri. USU capitalizes on cushy placement in nearby Boise and shows why it won 30 games. Stew Morrill is heralded as an underappreciated coaching sharpie. Meanwhile, Utah and BYU both get bounced in the first round.
Worst Case: Wilkinson gets in early foul trouble, and Marquette's guards spindle the Aggies in a blowout first-round loss. Morrill is criticized for his 1-7 NCAA tournament history. Both Utah and BYU crash the Sweet 16.
Missouri (3)
Best Case: Relentless pressure defense and constant trapping totally overwhelm Cornell and wear down Marquette, and when coach Mike Anderson faces familiar opponent John Calipari in the regional semifinals, he's ready. Anderson's Tigers force nine turnovers from freshman Tyreke Evans and bounce into the regional final, where they run the legs off Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien on their way to the first Final Four in school history. Anderson signs 10-year contract extension. Kansas loses to North Dakota State. All-night party breaks out on the quad.
Worst Case: After wobbling past Cornell, Tigers are gifted with the presence of 11th-seeded Utah State in the second round -- and blow the opportunity. Mizzou falls behind by 15 early, shoots 29 percent from the field, fails to force turnovers and slinks out of Boise badly beaten. Anderson answers call to return to his home state and coach Alabama. Kansas repeats as national champion. On campus, one of the columns in the quad tips over and squashes three coeds.
Cornell (14)
Best Case: Despite dreadful draw in athletic terms, Big Red are not uncomfortable playing quickly. Cornell stays calm in the face of Missouri pressure, limits turnovers, takes good shots and allows the Tigers to quickly fire bad shots. Game stays close into the final seconds. Bad year in the Ivy League looks a little better after noble defeat.
Worst Case: Ivy League basketball craters. Thanks to dreadful draw in athletic terms, Cornell turns the ball over on its first four possessions, falls behind 10-0, panics and folds. Missouri team that went 8-4 against opponents in the NCAA field beats down Big Red team that went 0-3 against the field.
Cal (7)
Best Case: Golden Bears get the Mike Montgomery coaching effort that took Stanford to the 1998 Final Four as Cal picks apart Maryland with deadly 3-point shooting and tidy ballhandling. Bears then scare Memphis in Round 2, pushing it to the brink before relenting. Team without seniors returns intact to challenge for the Pac-10 crown in 2010.
Worst Case: Golden Bears get the Monty who coached Stanford to staggering NCAA upset losses in 1999, 2000 and 2004. Cal cannot contain Greivis Vasquez or get decent perimeter looks against annoying Maryland defense. Bears are blown out, ending their season with four losses in their last seven games, and remain without an NCAA win since 2003. After the season, two underclassmen leave the team to live in a tree on campus.
Maryland (10)
Best Case: Gary Williams and athletic director Debbie Yow embrace after the Terrapins upset both California and Memphis to reach the Sweet 16. Not done there, Greivis Vasquez solves Missouri's pressure defense, and the Terps reach the regional final before losing to UConn. Williams says, "This run is for you, Debbie." Yow responds, "Lifetime contract, Gary." Without encouragement or involvement from Under Armour, recruits line up to sign with the Terps.
Worst Case: Williams and Yow engage in hallway hissing match in Kansas City after Maryland loses by 20 to Cal. "I made this athletic department," Williams says. "I'm calling Tubby," Yow responds. Under Armour reps slip out the back door of the locker room. Duke and North Carolina go on to the Final Four.
Memphis (2)
Best Case: After hugging William Wesley, populist millionaire John Calipari waves a Ford Field net over his head and declares that this is for Conference USA, and for the disenfranchised middle class of Division I basketball nationwide. Final Four Most Outstanding Player Tyreke Evans says he's had so much fun in college, he's coming back to do it again next year with Xavier Henry, DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall. C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky abandons pretense and moves the league office to the Finch Center, Memphis' practice facility.
Worst Case: Up three against Maryland in the second round with 10 seconds to play, Calipari actually uses his final timeout and instructs his players to foul rather than surrender a 3-point shot. Doneal Mack tardily fouls Vasquez as he's shooting, the ball goes in, and Vasquez makes the free throw to win the game. Evans declares for the draft before he takes off his uniform. Wesley finds a new favorite team. Telling friends he's sick of being part of the disenfranchised middle class, Calipari lobbies behind the scenes for every open job in a BCS league.
Cal State Northridge (15)
Best Case: Matadors hear all their names pronounced correctly in pregame introductions. Then they tip off against Memphis. Nobody is hurt, and coach Bobby Braswell goes deep into the first half without having to call a timeout.
Worst Case: Braswell might be living the worst case already this week. According to the L.A. Times, he spent much of Monday attending a hearing in San Fernando County Court to see whether his son, Jeffrey, should stand trial on felony burglary and theft charges for his part in alleged thefts from a Best Buy store where the younger Braswell worked. Doesn't get too much worse than that.