http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology
UTEP, although they play in what many would consider a weak conference (USA) and haven't beaten any ranked teams this year, they have won 16 of their last 17 games and start Louisville transfer Derrick Caracter (6' 9") and another 6' 11" forward. If we get by them, we play the arguably the overall #1 seed. This would suck balls...
UTEP should be a great match-up. See how our undersizers fare against the beef!
Lunardi makes no sense. He had Miss State out already. They lost. Somehow, with no other action happening, Minnesota moved up 2 spots, Illinois moved in, and Virginia Tech moved out.
I'm not going to put any weight behind Joe Lunardi and his predictions. This is the same man who still considered UConn on the bubble even after St. Johns smoked them.
I think Lunardi has the top four correct... Kentucky, Kansas, Dook, and Cuse. Although, I could see OSU displacing either of those last two.
I think the conventional wisdom is that MU is an 8 or 9 seed... I tend to agree with this. As such, MU is going to have to go up against KU, Dook or UK in the 2nd round (since they won't pair MU and Cuse in the same pod).
Kentucky goes to Milwaukee, Kansas goes to OKC, and Dook goes to Jax. Since MU can't play in Milwaukee, Kansas or Dook is going to be the 2nd round matchup. Since Jacksonville plays Fri/Sun, the committee should avoid placing MU in that pod, although if it had to, MU could matchup against Dook.
So my money is on MU as the 8/9 against Kansas in OKC on Thu/Sat. While KU is probably a nightmare matchup, if MU can find a way to get to the second weekend, they'll be playing close to home (relatively speaking) in St Louis assuming Kansas is the overall #1 and gets priority over UK to the Midwest regional.
Unfortunately, if you are right, Kansas will be pretty damn close to home as well...
Assuming of course we win the first round game, given how much of a crapshoot the 8/9 game usually is.
Playing in Oklahoma City will be like home games for Kansas.