Bo: 327, 18 yesterday (0 Am. East, 0 ACC, 0 A-10, 0 Big East, 3 Big Ten, 0 Big XII, 0 Big West, 9 C-USA, 0 MAC, 3 MEAC, 0 MWC, 0 Pac-10, 0 SEC, 3 SWAC, 0 WAC)

Thoughts: Well all of the head-to-head meatchups yesterday went Pat’s way and he’s more of a sure thing to win this thing than The Great Khali is to die an early death. Of the games left today, Pat can get 9 points from a Tennessee win and we can both get 6 points from a Stone Cold win in the Southland final. Anyway, it was fun having a nominal rooting interest in all of the random conference tourneys and hopefully I can make it a little more competitive next year. Pat, congratulations on the first championship, you can wear the belt proudly.

Bo: 309, 41 yesterday (6 ACC, 0 A-10, 0 Big East, 12 Big Ten, 0 Big 12, 4 Big West, 3 C-USA, 0 MAC, 1 MEAC, 0 MWC, 0 PAc-10, 3 Patriot, 6 SEC, 2 Southland, 4 WAC)

Champs picked: Pat – 7 Bo – 6

Thoughts: Pat extended the lead a little, and everything needs to break my way for the comeback shocker. I need UNC to win the ACC tournament, which would be a 12 point swing in my favor. There are three big head to head games between me and Pat today: I have Pacific and he has Northridge in the Big West final, Auburn and Tennessee in the SEC semi’s will be a  big swing, and if LSU then wins the tourney it will be in m favor, and we’re also going head to head in the WAC final – me with Nevada and Pat with Utah St. Lastly, Pat has championship pick possibility with Akron in the MAC.

Bo: 268, 78 last night (6 ACC, 9 A-10, 6 Big East, 3 Big Ten, 6 Big XII, 2 Big West, 9 C-USA, 2 MAC, 0 MEAC, 6 MWC, 9 Pac-10, 9 SEC, 4 Southland, 1 SWAC, 6 WAC)

Champs picked: Pat -6 Bo -5

Despite the abundance of points, last night was not good for either of us, although Pat now has what amounts to an almost insurmountable lead. Casualties included my A-10 runner-up, both of our Big East champions, both of our Big XII champs and my runner-up, both of my picks for the MAC final, both of our MWC champs and my runner-up, and Pat’s Pac-10 champ. The only way I can pull it out is a combination of a UNC ACC championship which all of a sudden doesn’t look so promising with Ty Lawson out, a Pacific Big West championship, an LSU SEC championship, and a Nevada WAC championship accompanied by some of Pat’s picks falling through like Binghamton and his MAC picks. My chances are about as good as Evan Eschmeyer’s chances of winning a fight to the death with Kueth Duany.

1st Round: #1 Stephen F. Austin over #8 SE Louisiana, #5 UT-Arlington over #4 Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, #3 Sam Houston St. over #6 UT-San Antonio, #2 Nicholls St. over #7 Texas St. 

Semi’s: The Ringmaster over UT-Arlington, Sam Houston St. over Nicholls St. 

Champion: Stephen F. Austin 3:16

Thoughts: I was shocked to see that this was a 2 point conference, and glad to see that Pat started the Stone Cold references with Stephen F. Austin. 

Big Ten (3 pointer)

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

2nd Round: #1 Michigan St. over Northwstern, #5 Ohio St. over #4 Wisconsin, #3 Purdue over Penn St., #2 Illinois over Iowa

Semi’s: Michigan St. over Ohio St., Purdue over Illinois

Champion: Michigan St. 

Thoughts: Agree with Pat both on the crappiness of this conference and Izzo being a great March coach. Seriously though, I’d pick Georgia Tech by 10 on a neutral court against Penn State, what a joke of a conference. Just because all the teams are the definition of mediocre and beat each other doesn’t mean they should all get into the tournament. 

SEC (3 pointer)

1st Round: E4 Kentucky over W5 Mississippi, W3 Mississippi St. over E6 Georgia, E3 Florida over W6 Arkansas, E5 Vanderbilt over W4 Alabama

2nd Round: W1 LSU over Kentucky, E2 South Carolina over Mississippi St., W2 Auburn over Florida, Vandy over E1 Tennessee

Semi’s: LSU over South Carolina, Auburn over Vandy

Champion: LSU

Thoughts: I don’t actually think LSU is good, but they seem to have an easy road to the finals, and although I agree that Tennessee is the most talented team in the conference, I like the Vandy upset. Kentucky really has no business being this bad, and I do see a possibility of them winning this whole tournament too, but they’ve just shat the bed in so many games this year that I’m not putting any faith in them. 

ACC (3 pointer)

1st Round: #8 Virginia Tech over #9 Miami, #5 Clemson over #12 Georgia Tech, #6 Boston College over #11 Virginia, #10 NC State over #7 Maryland

2nd Round: #1 UNC over Virginia Tech, Clemson over #4 Florida State, #3 Duke over Boston College, #2 Wake Forest over NC State

Semi’s: UNC over Clemson, Wake Forest over Duke

Champion: UNC

Thoughts: As a Wake fan, I have more confidence that they’d win a semifinal game over Duke than I do that they’re going to beat either Maryland or NC State in the 2nd round. Like Pat, I really like Florida State in the big dance, but I have to think that Clemson will have some self-respect and not lose to them three times in one year. Aside – Trevor Booker is the most overrated player in the ACC, I haven’t seen him play one game that’s really impressed me. KC Rivers is the real star of that team, and they need Oglesby to have a good game more than they need Booker to have one. I can see UNC losing to either V Tech or Miami and also Florida St., but if they get to the final, I think they’ll win it. And if Wake does win this tournament, beating Duke and UNC along the way, how do they not deserve a #1 seed? I know they won’t get it, partially because the timing of the game, but they will have swept UNC, beaten Duke twice, and be 7-1 against the other top 5 teams in the ACC, along with their road win at BYU. That’s a better resume than Michigan St., Oklahoma, Memphis, and Louisville.

Bo: 190, 48 last night (9 A-10, 6 Big East, 0 Big Sky, 12 Big XII, 4 Big West, 6 C-USA, 3 MEAC, 0 MWC, 0 NEC, 6 Pac-10, 2 SWAC)

Champions picked: Pat – 6 Bo – 5

Thoughts: Still absurdly tight after a night in which Pat got two more champions, and swept the A-10. I was able to mostly offset that by sweeping the Big XII and Big West first rounds. It’s really getting down to the wire now, and I don’t think either of us expected it to be this close, but there’s a ton of points left to be had with all but one of the top 10 conferences still playing.

First Round: Nicholls State over Texas State, Sam Houston State over UTSA, Stone Cold Stephen F. Austin over SE Louisiana, Tx A&M Corpus Christi over UT Arlington

Semifinals: Sam Houston over Nicholls, Stone Cold over Corpus Christi

Champion: Stone Cold Steve Austin (down early after a steel chair shot with the ref not looking, but fights back and eventually nails Slammin’ Sammy Houston with the stunner at about the 16 minute mark… 1…2…3… cue the Fink)

Random Thoughts: I wish there was a Bretford M. Hart State University, but there’s not, so I’ll have to go with Stone Cold.

Big 10

First Round: Minnesota over Northwestern, Michigan over Iowa, Penn State over Indiana

Second Round: Michigan State over Minnesota, Ohio State over Wisconsin, Illinois over Michigan, Purdue over Penn State

Semifinals: Michigan State over Ohio State, Purde over Illinois

Champion: Michigan State

Random Thoughts: I could not be more pissed that this conference is going to get 7 or 8 teams in. Turning on ESPN and seeing a Big 10 basketball game is like turning on a porno and seeing your grandparents fucking.  I’m looking forward to filling out my bracket next week and having just about all of these teams get picked off in the first weekend. Michigan State isn’t good (like I’m pretty sure Florida State would beat them by 10 on a neutral court), but Izzo is a great March coach so I like them to win this tournament over a bunch of other shitty, overrated teams.

SEC

First Round: Kentucky over Ole Miss, MSU over UGA, Vandy over Bama, Florida over Arkansas

Second Round: LSU over Kentucky, South Carolina over MSU, Tennessee over Vandy, Florida over Auburn

Semifinals: LSU over South Carolina, Tennessee over Florida

Champion: Tennessee

Random Thoughts: An even worse conference than the Big 10, but everyone knows this conference blows so i don’t hate it so much. Even though people are jumping on the LSU bandwagon, I’m still convinced they pretty much suck and that Tennessee has more talent.

ACC

First Round: Miami over Va. Tech, Clemson over Ga. Tech, Maryland over NCSU, BC over UVA

Second Round: UNC over Miami, FSU over Clemson, Wake over Maryland, BC over Duke

Semifinals: FSU over UNC, Wake over BC

Champion: Wake Forest

Random Thoughts: I’m going with my heart here even though I have a weird feeling FSU is going to win this thing. I originally had NCSU over Maryland, but I changed it at the last second. Still, watch for the upset there to knock Maryland off the bubble. I also think Miami gives UNC a good game, but ultimately falls short. I wouldn’t mind another Duke/Wake game, but I couldn’t help but knock them off in their first game, which would likely install the Deacs as a 2 seed in Greensboro. So that is all for the conference tournament picks. I enjoyed it.

First Round: UC Irvine over UC Davis, UC Riverside over Fullerton

Second Round: Pacific over Riverside, Santa Barbera over UC Irvine

Semifinals: Long Beach over Pacific, Northridge over Santa Barbera

Champion: Cal State Northridge

Random Thoughts: Pacific, Northridge, and Long Beach are all pretty evenly matched as far as I can tell, so I’m really just pissing in the wind on this one.

SWAC

First Round: Alabama State over Alabama A&M, Arkansas Pine Bluff over Southern, Prairie View over MVSU, Jackson State over Texas Southern

Semifinals: Alabama State over Pine Bluff, Jackson State over Prairie View

Champion: Alabama State

Random Thoughts: I literally have nothing to say about this conference.

Mountain West

First Round: Colorado State over Air Force

Second Round: BYU over CSU, SDSU over UNLV, New Mexico over Wyoming, Utah over TCU

Semifinals: SDSU over BYU, New Mexico over Utah

Champion: New Mexico

Random Thoughts: I know this thing is in Vegas, but I can’t see UNLV winning it all as Bo predicted. There’s just too many other teams that are better than them. If he’s right though, more power to him. Anyway BYU is not nearly as good away from home, and I like New Mexico a little better than Utah so that’s what I’m going with (plus anything that makes Kenny Thomas happy, makes me happy).

Pac 10

First Round: Stanford over Oregon State, Washington State over Oregon

Second Round: Washington over Stanford, Arizona State over Arizona, Cal over USC, Washington State over UCLA

Semifinals: Washington over Arizona State, Cal over Washington State

Champion: Cal

Random Thoughts: I actually compltely agree with Bo on Cal. In fact, they’re the only team I like at all in this conference, at least in terms of making noise in the big dance. I’m going with UCLA to lose early because of a big game by that douchy looking little guy from WSU. I forget his name, but it’s something long and dumb, and I don’t feel like looking it up. Also, can someone please explain to me this James Harden thing? Why is he a top 5 pick again? I mean I’m sure he’d be a decent enough NBA rotation player, but he’s a stubby guy who can’t shoot all that well. He’s not going to be Paul Pierce.

1st Round: #8 La Salle over #9 Saint Louis, #5 St. Joe’s over #12 Charlotte, #6 Richmond over #11 St. Bonaventure’s, #7 Duquesne over #10 UMass

2nd Round: #1 Xavier over La Salle, #4 Temple over St. Joe’s, #3 Dayton over Richmond, #2 Rhode Island over Duquesne

Semi’s: Xavier over Temple, Rhode Island over Dayton

Champion: Xavier

Thoughts: One team I actually really like for no reason is Duquesne, but I think Rhode Island should show some balls and make it to the finals and get an at-large. Xavier is the class of this league for sure, although they’ve had several flubs this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if they lose early. 

Conference USA (3 pointer)

1st Round: #8 Tulane over #9 East Carolina, #5 Houston over #12 SMU, #6 Central Florida over #11 Southern Miss, #7 Marshall over #10 Rice

2nd Round: #1 Memphis over Tulane, #4 UTEP over Houston, #3 UAB over So. Miss, #2 Tulsa over Marshall

Semi’s: Memphis over UTEP, UAB over Tulsa

Champion: Memphis

Thoughts: I’m with Pat and John Chaney, John Calipari is an asshole and should show some goddamn self-respect and get in a real conference. 

Big XII (3  pointer)

1st Round: #9 Baylor over #8 Nebraska, #5 Texas over #12 Colorado, #11 Texas Tech over #6 Texas A&M, #7 Oklahoma St. over #10 Iowa St. 

2nd Round: #1 Kansas over Baylor, Texas over #4 Kansas St., #3 Missouri over Texas Tech, #2 Oklahoma over Oklahoma St. 

Semi’s: Kansas over Texas, Oklahoma over Missouri

Champion: Oklahoma

Thoughts: Agree with Pat in that I don’t like the teams in this conference come Big Dance time, but I think Oklahoma will show up to grab the fourth #1 seed. 

Big West (2 pointer)

1st Round: #8 UC-Davis over #5 UC-Irvine, #7 Cal St. Fullerton over #6 UC-Riverside

2nd Round: #3 Pacific over UC-Davis, Cal St. Fullerton over #4 Santa Barbara

Semi’s: Pacific over #2 Long Beach State, #1 Cal St. Northridge over Fullerton

Champion: Pacific

Thoughts: This is a weird conference in that there are double byes for the top two seeds, and it’s a re-seed in both the second and third rounds. I like Pacific here, they’ve showed up in a couple solid non-conference matchups, including a win at Nevada, and also closed the season with a win over Northridge. 

SWAC (1 pointer)

1st Round: #1 Alabama State over #8 Alabama A&M, #4 Arkansas Pine Bluff over #5 Southern, #6 Mississippi Valley St.  over #3 Prairie View A&M, #2 Jackson St. over #7 Texas Southern

Semi’s: Alabama St. over Pine Bluff, Jackson St. over Mississippi Valley St. 

Champion: Alabama St. 

Thoughts: This is literally the worst conference in college basketball. 

Mountain West (3 pointer)

1st Round: #8 Colorado St. over #9 Air Force

2nd Round: #1 BYU over Colorado St., #5 UNLV over #4 San Diego St., #3 New Mexico over #6 Wyoming, #2 Utah over #7 TCU

Semi’s: UNLV over BYU, New Mexico over Utah

Champion: UNLV

Thoughts: This is a really good conference, and should be a competitive tournament. I like San Diego State back to the Brandon Heath days, but the tourney is being played on UNLV’s home floor, so I’m giving them the edge to go all the way. BYU and Utah are just playing for seeding, and if everything breaks right, the MWC should get more bids than the SEC. 

Pac-10 (3 pointer)

1st Round: #9 Stanford over #8 Oregon St., #7 Washington St. over #10 Oregon

2nd Round: #1 Washington over Stanford, #5 Arizona over #4 Arizona St., #6 USC over #3 California, #2 UCLA over Washington St. 

Semi’s: Arizona over Washington, UCLA over USC

Champion: UCLA

Thoughts: I really like Cal as a potential Sweet 16 team if they get the right draw, but I’m picking them to get upset here. I’ve been getting burned on Arizona all year, and I’ve always thought Chase Budinger was one of the most overrated players in the country, but I really like Jordan Hill and even though they haven’t proved themselves in most of their opportunities this year, I think they’ll get to the finals. I don’t really like any of these teams in the big dance, and experience is overrated, but UCLA should prove to be the best team here.

Bo: 142, 25 last night (6 Big East, 0 Big Sky, 0 Horizon, 8 MAC, 2 MEAC, 6 Summit, 3 Sun Belt, 0 WAC)

Champions picked: Bo – 5 Pat – 4

And just like that, we’re back to a tie ballgame. We both correctly picked North Dakota State to take the Summit, and I also got Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt. At the risk of jinxing it, I’ll mention that Pat and I are both currently on pace to post the highest scores in 30 Conference Tournament pick’em history. We could be witnessing something really special. A whopping seven tournaments get started today, and there are two potential championships for Pat with Portland State in the Big Sky and Robert Morris in the NEC.

First Round: St. Louis over La Salle, St. Joe’s over Charlotte, Duquesne over UMass, Richmond over St. Bonaventure

Second Round: Xavier over St. Louis, Temple over St. Joe’s, Rhode Island over Duquesne, Dayton over Richmond

Semifinals: Xavier over Temple, Dayton over Rhode Island

Champion: Xavier

Random Thoughts: I like Dayton a lot, but Xavier’s much better. Not much else to say.

Conference USA

First Round: Marshall over Rice, UCF ove S. Miss, ECU over Tulane, Houston over SMU

Second Round: Tulsa over Marshall, UAB over UCF, Memphis over ECU, UTEP over Houston

Semifinals: UAB over Tulsa, Memphis over UTEP

Champion: Memphis

Random Thoughts: Fuck Memphis. Get out of this conference.

Big 12

First Round: Baylor over Nebraska, Texas over Colorado, Iowa State over Oklahoma State, Texas A&M over Texas Tech

Second Round: Kansas over Baylor, Texas over KSU, Oklahoma over Iowa State, Missouri over TAMU

Semifinals: Kansas over Texas, Missouri over Oklahoma

Champion: Kansas

Random Thoughts: I hate this conference to be honest. I don’t like any of these teams to do well in the NCAA tournament, including OU. Anyway, this is all for now. A few more conferences to come tomorrow.