NCAA Tourney Second Round predictions, day two

We went 6-2 in yesterday's second round predictions. We did predict Bob Thuggins and his Threepointers beating the Whining Express of Coach Ratface K, and that Washington State would short-circuit the Fighting Irish, and that Izzo State would beat up the Pitt Panthers. We pointed out that Pitt's marvelous performances at MSG happen for a reason, half of their team comes from the New York area, so MSG games are home-coming games for those players. The only two we got wrong? The wild prediction that UNLV would beat Kansas and Beasley and Billy "Get me a towel" Walker would out-talent the Wisconsin Badgers.

It is worthy to point out that we believe that both Wisconsin and Washington State are "ceiling" teams, they can consistently beat the teams they are supposed to, but they cannot beat teams that are better than them. That's why Washington State can beat teams like Notre Dame, and the middle of the Pac-10, but was 0 for ever against UCLA and Stanford.

Anyways, now let's move on to day two of the second round. Action tips off with Villanova short-circuiting Siena. The Cinderella run ends for Siena. Remember, this is the team that beat Stanford early in the season when the feisty Trent Johnson scheduled a home-coming game for Taj Gibson. But you can get Jay Wright won't sleep on them, he was the Hofstra coach after all, so he is familiar with the east coast mid-majoralia.

Run and gun? Whatever it is, Texas will beat Miami handily. This is easy to predict. The other three games in the same time slot are not. And CBS is going to go crazy with quick live look-ins.

In the super-battle of the double-digit cinderellas, Western Kentucky will squeak by San Diego, and first-year former GoneZaga coach will taste what GoneZaga has been tasting the last few years, bitter tears of defeat. Speaking of the surprise mid-majors, be sure to check the post at Casey's Clipboard on them and Siena.

The end of the rainbow does not contain Sweet 16 gold for the Figthing McKillops, who just shuttered their NCAA Glass Ceiling by finally winning their first McKillop NCAA tourney game. This could mean that they lose their coach to a bigger job though. Oregon maybe hiring and the international man of mystery could be a good-will ambassador for Nike ;-) We predict that Georgetown will grind Davidson to the ground, and get a Hoyas-style but convincing win.

The hardest game to predict? Butler and Tennessee. The Wild Pearls have not been convincing and given their recent results in the NCAA tourney in the Bruce Pearl era (perhaps the shadow of the giant ...Summitt looming on them men's program?), and last season's pre-season NIT game, we are prepared to declare that Butler will beat Tennessee! Oh my! This regional is starting to sniff like the 2007 preseason NIT with Butler, North Carolina and Tennessee. But let's not crown them just yet :)

The last three games, shown all together on one TV set, will feature Memphis winning comfortably over Mississippi State, North Carolina getting an early scare from the energetic Arkansas Razorbacks before making a run around the 8 minute mark of the second half, and getting a relatively un-close close win. So onto the Sweet 16 for UNC! And the last game? We predict overtime for the Oklahoma vs Louisville game, with lots of battles in the paint, and Terence Farley being a factor, but ultimately Rick Pitino wins in overtime.

To check what's on the old-school YouTube, be sure to check our March Madness TV listings.

By the way, kudos to CBS for switching to the very close Purdue vs Xavier game during the TV timeouts of the Marquette vs Stanford game, instead of running the usual commercials. Because they work for viewers like you ;-)

If you missed any games, or you want to rewatch them, or if your team lost and you want to relive some great wins from the past, the whole NCAA library (allegedly) has been posted at NCAA.com. You can also watch NCAA tourney games there outside your region. Or something like that :)