I go with the most obvious 12-5 game.  Colorado State is on a 10 game winning streak, including 7 wins over Pomeroy top 100 teams, and 4 wins over other tournament teams. 

Meanwhile, 5 seed Memphis hasn't even played a top 100 team since Jan 5, and it has 11 games that were losses or single digit wins since then.

 

I’ll give you three

UC San Diego over Michigan, Drake over Mizzou, and obviously Yale over atm

Come back to this when you see that I’m right

Edited March 17, 20251 yr by ElCafetero

I see all the trendy upset picks but curious if anyone has an upset that’s a little more off the board.  

High Point over Purdue is mine. This smells like perfect Painter territory for slip-up early. 

I love that pick against Memphis. 

Drake is a trendy pick too, I just have a hard time buying into teams with snail like paces. Just a personal approach to the tournament for me. 

34 minutes ago, JMarquette said:

High Point over Purdue is mine. This smells like perfect Painter territory for slip-up early. 

I like High Point but I am basing it of their name. 

Yale beating lil brother. 

Texas/Xavier winner over Illinois

Texas over Xavier.

McNeese over Clemson & Akron over Zona are my sneaky picks

9 hours ago, bierce said:

I go with the most obvious 12-5 game.  Colorado State is on a 10 game winning streak, including 7 wins over Pomeroy top 100 teams, and 4 wins over other tournament teams. 

Meanwhile, 5 seed Memphis hasn't even played a top 100 team since Jan 5, and it has 11 games that were losses or single digit wins since then.

 

This is most likely with our guy Tyrese not likely to play. If he was playing, Memphis all day

Montana over Wisconsin and to the sweet 16.

Ahh f*ck it… GIVE ME THE TROJANS OF TROY TO BEAT KENTUCKY!! 

11 hours ago, BabyBevo said:

Ahh f*ck it… GIVE ME THE TROJANS OF TROY TO BEAT KENTUCKY!! 

I've thought about picking the same upset.

Both first four 11's to win their 6/11

Troy over UK

VCU over BYU

Drake to Sweet 16

Now the first round is done, I will offer congrats to those who picked McNeese, Drake, or Colorado State.

Anybody want to suggest a second round upset?  I'm sorry I'm asking only after McNeese went down bigly to Purdue, so you are left with Arky/St. John's, Drake/Tech, Creighton/Auburn, Gonzaga/Houston, UCLA/Tennessee (a 7/2 matchup is the lower limit for an upset for me in this round), UConn/Florida, Baylor/Duke, St. Mary's/Alabama, Colorado State/Maryland, or UNM/Michigan State. 

None of those leap out to me as a really good bet for the underdog.  I suppose UCLA against Tennessee because Barnes still hasn't shook off his rep as an underachiever in the tournament, but he usually loses 2/3 or 4/5 kinds of games.  Both are .500 against top 20 teams this year, but to be fair Tennessee split 6 games against top 6 teams, while UCLA never played anyone in the Pomeroy top 6, and while it beat #7 Michigan and # 8 Gonzaga, it did that at home and in an arena a few miles away from home. 

Auburn hasn't been playing well.  Creighton's offense is a beautiful thing to watch for the way it creates open shots, and Creighton makes it hard for opponents to shoot and make 2s, and it does it without fouling, so there is maybe something here suggesting an upset is possible, but I'm not really feeling secure in predicting one in this game, even if Creighton looked a lot better in the first round than Auburn.

I didn't get any buyers on this thread today, and I don't blame any of you.  We all missed Arky beating St. John's in the battle of the sleaziest coaches, but at least I can claim my reservations about calling an upset for Creighton or UCLA have or are proving sound.

It's not a secret that I'm a Richard Pitino fan, but I don't see UNM beating Michigan State tomorrow.  Hurley is a terrific coach, but Florida is playing too well to thin there will be an upset there.  Flagg is back for Duke, so Baylor is a longshot.  I think Maryland is just too good for Colorado State. 

So, F it.  Oats will always be a utter dirtbag for wearing jackass jackets and not seriously punishing Brandon Miller for taking the murder weapon to a former teammate.   Go St. Mary's.  

 

7 hours ago, bierce said:

So, F it.  Oats will always be a utter dirtbag for wearing jackass jackets and not seriously punishing Brandon Miller for taking the murder weapon to a former teammate.   Go St. Mary's.  

 

Don't know about the jackets, but dirtbag is right. College basketball coaches aren't exactly a group of morally upstanding citizens. That's why all the talk about hiring guys who have more dirty laundry than a nineteenth century bordello is more than a little strange. We supposedly fired the best coach we could have possibly had for being immoral, and now most of the candidates for the job make him look like an angel. Makes no damn sense.

Edited March 23, 20251 yr by harveycmd

They hire Miller after firing Beard, they can count me out on supporting. Cheating the game is the worst sin.

16 minutes ago, harveycmd said:

They hire Miller after firing Beard, they can count me out on supporting. Cheating the game is the worst sin.

Dude you know it’s college basketball right? 

On 3/17/2025 at 5:29 PM, Jack Lala said:

Yale beating lil brother. 

I had that one too, but it didn't pan out. I have BYU in the E8, so maybe that gamble pays off.