Thursday's Round 2 Predictions

The tourney is upon us. I used two different "strategies" in formulating my brackets this year, neither of which worked last year. I used a numbers "strategy" in which I took personal bias out of the equation, and I also went with my gut. I feel like my gut has become more substantial over the last year so it would follow that it's picks will also be more substantial. Let us hope. On to Thursday's second round match ups.

*winner in BOLD*

 12 o'clock hour:

5 West Virginia v. 12 Clemson -- They had similar conference records but West Virginia plays in the Big East and not the ACC.

8 Butler v. 9 Old Dominion -- Butler has been playing well recently but it seems like Old Dominion is the better team.

1 o'clock hour:

4 Louisville v. 13 Morehead State -- Aside from having an incredibly funny name, Morehead State features 6'8" Kenneth Faried who is averaging 17.6 ppg 14.5 rpg and 2.4 bpg. It will not be enough.

2 o'clock hour:

4 Kentucky v. 13 Princeton -- The benefit of recruiting one and done players is that you end up getting more one and done players the next year.

7 Temple v. 10 Penn State -- I like Temple. I haven't watched Penn State.

3 o'clock hour:

1 Pittsburgh v. 16 UNC-Asheville -- I had to go to the basketball team's ESPN website to see if it was spelled Ashville or Asheville.

4 o'clock hour:

2 San Diego State v. 15 Northern Colorado -- My gut tells me the Final will be San Diego State against Kansas. Ohio State and Wisconsin lose in the Final Four. Interesting... my "research" bracket  has Belmont beating Wisconsin today.

5 Vanderbilt v. 12 Richmond -- I really like Richmond. Kevin Anderson is a beast. So is Vanderbilt's John Jenkins. This should be a fun game no matter how it turns out.

6 o'clock hour:

2 Florida v. 15 UC-Santa Barbara -- Apparently Florida is pretty good. They should win here, but I'm not sold.

7 o'clock hour:

3 Connecticut v. 14 Bucknell -- Kemba Walker.

4 Wisconsin v. 13 Belmont -- Belmont is a trendy pick here. If one of my brackets is right, the other cannot be. In retrospect that seems foolish.

3 BYU v. 14 Wofford -- If BYU hadn't suspended that Davies kid, I would have predicted a San Diego State/BYU Final that rocks college basketball to it's core. One can dream.

9 o'clock hour:

6 Cincinnati v. 11 Missouri -- Cincinnati likes to slow the game down and Missouri plays at a breakneck pace. Normally the tournament favors the defensive team but Missouri's uptempo style comes from their defense. Probably not the most interesting game, but it should be a good one.

5 Kansas State v. 12 Utah State -- Utah State is another popular upset pick. For good reason too. Kansas State seems to have trouble playing well consistently. That is disastrous this time of year.

6 St. John's v. 11 Gonzaga -- If DJ Kennedy didn't go down with a knee injury I think St. John's could have done work. Stupid basketball.

7 UCLA v. 10 Michigan State -- This doesn't seem like your normal Michigan State team and UCLA has some guy that is 6'10" 305.