NCAA Day 3 Running Thread

Does VCU stay alive today?

 

Possibly. But hoping, as you'd guess.

 

I think they got a shot. But I doubt it. Pitt only lost to five teams this season; four made the NCAA Tournament and three of those won their first-round games. Beating Duke was a name-brand victory for VCU, but I think the victory had more to do with Duke not being all that good than VCU being something special.

 

Watching Pitt at times, they don't look like anything special, same as Duke. Though Pitt has a history of underachieving in the tournament, so a loss here would simply be the norm for that program. Like in my brackets, I'll go with VCU.

 

I would not be surprised to see Xavier beat Ohio State today. Not saying it will happen, but I expect to see some fired-up Musketeers today. And if the Buckeyes can't knock down the threes like they did in the first round, this thing could be very close to the end.

 

I'm in a NCAA Tournament survivor pool. Pick one straight up winner each day of the tournament; can't use the same team more than once. It's tougher than I thought once you get past the first round. It was easy to pick teams in the first round that looked like sure winners but that probably wouldn't go too far, so you'd want to get them out of the way early. I took Pitt on Thursday and Tennesse today.

Now the sure bets are a lot less sure, and you still want to leave yourself with something if you're still alive in the Final 8 or Final Four. Florida's probably as sure a bet as anyone to win this round, but I want to keep them alive for a future round. I think the best bets today are Georgetown and UCLA. I'm taking UCLA today and Texas for tomorrow. I think both those teams COULD advance past the Sweet 16 but it won't be easy, and they'll both be dogs in the Final 8.

And if you really want to win it all, you've got to have two teams still alive in the Final Four on opposite sides of the bracket and hope you pick the right one to advance to the championship and lose to your other pick.

 

Go Butler!

 

Aaron Gray will have a field day. Pitt wins comfortably by 12-15.

 

Unless Pitt's guards cough up turnovers before they can ever get him the ball, which is my bet to happen.

 

Fields, Ramon and company should take care of that. I'd be more worried if Fields was a shaky ballhander, but he's pretty solid in that department.

 

This is the same Pitt team that nipped SUNY Buffalo earlier in the year.