Pat chipped away at the lead a little bit yesterday and added another champion to his belt when Robert Morris beat Quinnipiac in the NEC final. The score now stands at 206-179 with the majority of the points available still to be awarded. And the performance by Montana’s Anthony Johnson last night was awesome and I only saw the highlights and the last 2 minutes. Way to make Pat pay for picking Weber.

WAC (2-pointer)

Quarters: #1 Utah St. over #8 Boise St., #4 La. Tech over #5 Fresno St., #6 San Jose St. over #3 New Mexico St., #2 Nevada over Idaho

Semis: Utah St. over La. Tech, Nevada over SJ St.

Champion: Utah St.

Utah St. is just better than everyone else, but Nevada does have home court advantage.

Mountain West (3-pointer)

Quarters: #1 New Mexico over #9 Air Force, #4 San Diego St. over #5 Colorado St., #3 UNLV over #6 Utah, #2 BYU over #7 TCU

Semis: San Diego St. over New Mexico, BYU over UNLV

Champion: BYU

Have a feeling that New Mexico slips up. Every year I think UNLV can steal this tourney because it’s in Vegas but I’m not falling for it this time.

SEC (3-pointer)

1st round: #5 South Carolina over #4 Alabama, #3 Tennessee over #6 LSU, #4 Florida over #5 Auburn, #6 Georgia over #3 Arkansas

Quarters: #1 Kentucky over South Carolina, Tennessee over #2 Mississippi, Florida over #1 Mississippi St., #2 Vanderbilt over Georgia

Semis: Kentucky over Tennessee, Vanderbilt over Florida

Champion: Kentucky

I understand Pat’s point that UK could be disinterested by this tournament, but I still think they win it. Also notice that I picked the SEC East in every head-to-head game with a west team because I think the disparity is that great.

Big Ten (3-pointer)

1st round: #8 Michigan over #9 Iowa, #6 Minnesota over #11 Penn St., #7 Northwestern over #10 Indiana

Quarters: #1 Ohio St. over Michigan, #4  Wisconsin over #5 Illinois, Minnesota over #3 Michigan St., #2 Purdue over Northwestern

Semis: Wisconsin over Ohio State, Minnesota over Purdue

Champion: Wisconsin

Like Pat, I’m a huge Izzo fan come March but I think they’re going to make their run in the real tournament and Minnesota is a bit underrated. I also think Ohio State will do very well in the big dance, but I can see them slipping up here.

ACC (3-pointer)

1st round: #8 Boston College over #9 Virginia, #5 Wake Forest over #12 Miami, #10 UNC over #7 Georgia Tech, #6 Clemson over #11 NC State

Quarters: #1 Duke over BC, #4 Virginia Tech over Wake, #2 Maryland over UNC, Clemson over #3 Florida State

Semis: Duke over Va Tech, Maryland over Clemson

Champion: Duke

Also think that Duke wins the tournament and it hurt to pick against Wake in the second round but I just don’t think they’re disciplined enough to win two games in a row right now. I’m calling you out Aminu, prove me wrong.