GCHO First Round Update and Seth Davis is a Furburger

Well, one of the most boring first two days of the NCAA tourney is in the books and it took until the last two games of the night to bring the excitement we come to expect in March. It also took the last round of games to see the first real upset in Cleveland State's thrashing of Wake.

I could go on and on about the Badger game. I think Badger fans were owed that one after some of the games the team pissed away during the season. I still don't enjoy watching this team, but it was a sweet win. So many great elements to that win. Most underrated: Landry and Nankivil playing the last 15 minutes with 4 fouls and Bo going to the 3 guard attack.

As for Seth Davis, at the half after they showed the Wisconsin/FSU highlights, Seth said something along the lines of, "I see Florida State easily pulling away with this one in the second half." Suck it Seth.

I would also like to congratulate Marquette's vaunted senior class on their second ever NCAA Tournament win.

Outside of some of the lackluster games, a solid two days of taking off work and watching basketball. Day one involved a bar and way to much Red Bull and Vodka consumption by those in my group. Never a good thing when those start coming out at halftime of the first set of games. Not really sure where the time went, but at one point I looked outside and realized it had gotten dark out. Also not the best idea to only eat once when you are on a 13 hour drinking march. On the plus side, we had a direct line to the Vegas books in the form of a buddy's parents, so that worked out well, especially in the form of the Illinois-WKU gimmie. Day 2 was a much calmer affair and involved some frozen pizzas, a friends living room and way to much water and Pepsi as opposed to booze. Good Times!

On to the GCHO. Day 2 was much more unkind to everyone than Day 1.

• Jonathan Ottman stands alone in first place after having picked 28 of the 32 first round games correctly.
• Craig Becker and Jared Blohm make up the second place duo with 27 games correctly picked.
  
• We also have a handful of people at 26 and 25 games.
• Everyone still has their predicted champion still alive, meaning no one picked Wake to win it all.
• David Handley picked 25 games right so far and has the best possible remaining score at 226. Aloha Mr. Hand!
• Mr. Ottman and an entry by the name of "Doodie Pie" have a possible 224 points still on the table.
• 2008 champ Rich Hager had a solid first round with 25 games correctly picked. 2007 champ Paul Wambold checks in with 23 wins.
• On the bottom end we have Jim Morrell and long time comment leaver AP with only 19 wins.
• However, the lowest possible "Best Score" belongs to none other than Brad with 176 possible total points and 23 wins.
• For the other Hackers, Woz has 26 correct and 220 total points, Goldy is at 25 correct and 222 possible points and Matt checks in at 25 correct and 214 possible points.
• Full GCHO standings can be viewed here.
  

Best of luck this weekend and have fun watching basketball!

Seth Davis - Still Wrong

This is always fun - let's go back to Seth Davis and his November thoughts on the Badgers and their postseason chances:

I know it's folly to underestimate a Bo Ryan-coached team, but I just don't see how Wisconsin is going to score enough points (especially on the perimeter) to reach the NCAA tournament. The good news is, this is a good time to have a down year in the Big Ten.

Hey Seth, do you think the Big Ten champs are going to sneak in to the NCAA tournament as a 2 or 3 seed? They somehow managed to score enough points to beat Texas on the road and go 25-4 on the year playing a top-50 schedule (no mean feat in the Big 10 this year). They're 12th in your precious RPI. And 3-point shooting has actually become a strength in the second half of the year.

Other than that, Seth, your analysis was right on the mark. And yes, I know that this is the third time that I've railed on Davis for this same paragraph buried in one of his columns. No, I'm not one to hold a grudge....not at all.

Seth Davis Continues to Bang on Badgers

Although this one is a little more defensible. In his weekend picks:

No. 11 Wisconsin (16-2) at Purdue (14-5)

The Badgers have won 10 straight to climb to No. 11. In other words, this is the perfect time for a reality check. Purdue 67, Wisconsin 62.

Let's hope he's wrong again, although I think Purdue is pretty good and Wisconsin has won once at Purdue (last year) in the past 30 years or so. I could see this one going the Boilers' way. A split of their two upcoming games (Indiana at home being the other one) would be fine.

UW 11th in the Polls

In two short months, the UW men's basketball team has gone from being a non-tourney team (according to SI's Seth Davis) to ranked 11th in the country in the polls.

Overrated? Perhaps - their Big 10 schedule has been ultra soft thus far. We'll know more when they face Purdue, Indiana and MSU in the upcoming weeks.

But I think they'll make the NCAA tournament.

Bucky Hoops - NIT Bound?

Seth Davis, Badger hater, on SI.com in a story posted on Friday:

I know it's folly to underestimate a Bo Ryan-coached team, but I just don't see how Wisconsin is going to score enough points (especially on the perimeter) to reach the NCAA tournament. The good news is, this is a good time to have a down year in the Big Ten.

So Seth is on record that Wisconsin won't reach the NCAA tournament, because they won't score enough points. Although the season is only 4 games old, and the competition has been lackluster, to say the least, let's take a look at UW's scoring (and in particular, perimeter) stats to see if there's anything to Seth's concerns:

• They are shooting 36.1% from the 3-point arc as a team (not too shabby). Travon Hughes is shooting 50% (10 for 20). Jason Bohannen is shooting 43.8% (7 for 16).
• Travon Hughes (who, as the PG, must be considered a perimeter scorer) is leading the team in scoring at 19.8 ppg.
• The Badgers are scoring 82 ppg as a team.

Clearly, it's way too early to say that UW is definitely a NCAA tournament team. You can be assured that UW won't end up averaging 82 points per game on the season. And Travon Hughes won't shoot 50% from downtown, and he won't average 20 points per game for the year.

But I think Davis is going to end up disappointed at the end of the year when the tournament brackets are unveiled and Bucky finds itself in the field. I'm not saying this is a great UW team, but I think it will be better than the experts think...