EAST: 1. Villanova (11-1) 2. Virginia (11-3)
MIDEAST: 1. Michigan (13-1) 2. Iowa (12-4)
MIDWEST: 1. Baylor (16-0) 2. Houston (15-1)
WEST: 1. Gonzaga (17-0) 2. USC (13-3)
EAST: 1. Villanova (11-1) 2. Virginia (11-3)
MIDEAST: 1. Michigan (13-1) 2. Iowa (12-4)
MIDWEST: 1. Baylor (16-0) 2. Houston (15-1)
WEST: 1. Gonzaga (17-0) 2. USC (13-3)
Here's the current projections for the Mideast Region:
ReplyDeleteBig 10 Champion (wins a bye): Michigan
SEC Champion (wins a bye): Alabama
MAC Champion: Toledo
OVC Champion: W. Kentucky (In this scenario, Western stayed in the OVC).
Independent: Loyola of Chicago
Independent: Florida St.
According to Ken Pomeroy, Baylor is as good as Gonzaga. He may be right. Baylor was trailing Texas 47-45 in Austin, called timeout, and unleashed a 16-4 run. Bears now lead 61-51 with 12 minutes to go.
ReplyDeleteThe AP has Baylor number 2, and Texas number 6. According to the Baylor radio guys, this is the first game ever between two schools from Texas both ranked in the top 10.
ReplyDeleteLonghorns now 5-7 from 3-point range in the second half -- but they still trail Baylor 65-59 with 7:34 left.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, if UK had played Texas on Saturday I think Texas would have won by a score of something like 61-54. I think UK could defend Texas, but they couldn't score on them.
ReplyDeleteTexas had a chance for awhile in this game, but they've blown it at the line. Longhorns are currently 2-12 from the line, and just missed all three free-throws after a foul on a three-point shot. I don't think I've ever seen that before. Baylor leads 73-64 with 3:30 left.
ReplyDeleteBaylor rolls in Austin, 83 to 69. Wow! They are really good. I don't normally care too much about these things, but this year the NC2A has to keep Gonzaga and Baylor on the opposite sides of the bracket.
ReplyDeleteHere's what the Midwest Region would look like under the old regime right now:
ReplyDeleteBig 8 Champion (wins a bye): Colorado
Missouri Valley Champion (wins a bye): Louisville
Southwest Champion: Baylor
Independent: Houston
Independent: Creighton
Independent: Xavier
Meanwhile, down in Ole Miss, Tennessee trails 51-49 with 3.5 seconds left. There's a foul, and UT goes to the line looking for a tie. They miss the first free throw. Timeout.
ReplyDeleteEverybody braces as if UT will miss the second free throw on purpose. But they don't. Now Ole Miss leads 51-50 with 3.5 seconds left. Timeout again.
ReplyDeleteOle Miss inbounds the ball and is fouled. They miss the first FT. They make the second. 52-50 with 3.2 seconds left.
ReplyDeleteTennessee gets a pretty good look at the buzzer, but their three-pointer bounces off the rim. Vols fall to 5-4 in the SEC. Ole Miss wins 52-50.
ReplyDeleteI have a brother-in-law who went to Ole Miss, and so this result was lighting up the fam's cellphones last night.
DeleteBased on Ken Pomeroy's method, 2021 Baylor and 2021 Gonzaga are the two strongest teams in college basketball since 2015 Kentucky. They are unfortunate to be stuck in the same year with each other.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, back in the parallel SI version of 2014, Louisville and Florida were meeting for the National Championship. This was a tough game to call, but I just don't see Donovan beating Pitino under these circumstances. So Louisville wins the national title FOR THE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW!
ReplyDeleteHere's what we have so far:
Delete2010: Duke over Baylor
2011: Ohio State over Kansas
2012: Kentucky over Kansas
2013: Louisville over Michigan
2014: Louisville over Florida
2015: Duke over Arizona
DeleteIn 2015, UK roars back to the tournament for the first time since 2012. Here is the Mideast Region:
ReplyDeleteBig 10 Champion: Wisconsin
SEC Champion: Kentucky
MAC Champion: Buffalo
OVC Champion: Murray State
Independent: Notre Dame
Independent: Butler
The preliminary games are played at Dayton, Ohio. Notre Dame eases past Buffalo, and Butler beats Murray State in a close game. Notre Dame and Butler head to Athens, Georgia for the regionals. The match-ups are as follows:
ReplyDeleteWisconsin v. Butler
Kentucky v. Notre Dame
One of my favorite parts of this exercise is figuring out where the regionals are played.
DeleteOn Friday night in Athens, Wisconsin buried Butler with a blizzard of three-pointers, and rolled to a 12-point win. The nightcap between UK and Notre Dame was epic. With 6:14 left, Notre Dame led 59-53, and with 2 minutes left, the Irish led 66-64. But UK scored the last four points of the game to pull out a 68-66 victory! You can look it up.
ReplyDeleteSo the next night everyone tuned in to watch UK play Wisconsin for the trip to the Final Four. But you know what happened. Wisconsin got revenge for UK's victory in the NIT the year before, beating the Cats 71-64 and ending their undefeated season. You can look it up.
ReplyDeleteSo Wisconsin went to the Final Four, while UK once again lost in the Elite Eight -- the same round where they came up short in 2003, 2005, and 2010.
ReplyDeleteThe 2015 Final Four was played at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. Duke (champion of the East region), Kansas (champion of the Midwest), and Arizona (champion of the West) joined Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteWisconsin, exhausted after their efforts against UK, was useless against Duke and lost 68-63. You can look it up. Arizona beat Kansas by about eight points. And then Duke beat Arizona to win it all.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, back in this universe, number-7 Ohio State is beating number-8 Iowa by 20-15 with 11 minutes left in the first half. This game is being played in Iowa.
ReplyDeleteNow it's Iowa 53, Ohio State 47 and I have the radio and TV synced up perfectly, so this game just got a lot more interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteI see the ball hit the rim on TV, and I can hear it on the radio at the exact same time. It's glorious.
DeleteWe have a color-on-color matchup: Iowa in black, OSU in red. I like these matchups in football, but not in basketball.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great game: Ohio State now leads 71 to 70 with 8:10 to go.
ReplyDeleteOSU beats Iowa 89-85. I've now seen Iowa lose to Gonzaga and Ohio State. According to Ken Pom, Iowa is 1st in offense, and 117th in defense. That's not going to work.
ReplyDelete