Blue Ribbon and the Sweet 16

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SelectionSunday

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Factoids to chew on as we approach the regional semis and finals. Here's what Blue Ribbon Yearbook thought of the Sweet 16 squads prior to the season:

1. Baylor: picked 9th in Big 12
2. Butler: #11 in the nation, picked to win Horizon League
3. Cornell: picked to win Ivy League
4. Duke: #9 in the nation, picked 2nd in ACC
5. K-State: picked 5th in Big 12
6. Kentucky: #7 in the nation, picked to win SEC East
7. Michigan State: #2 in the nation, picked to win Big 10
8. Northern Iowa: picked to win Missouri Valley
9. Ohio State: #16 in the nation, picked 4th in Big 10
10. Purdue: #6 in the nation, picked 2nd in Big 10
11. St. Mary's: picked 4th in WCC
12. Syracuse: #15 in the nation, picked 3rd in Big East
13. Tennessee: #10 in the nation, picked 2nd in SEC East
14. Washington: #23 in the nation, picked 2nd in Pac 10
15. West Virginia: #12 in the nation, picked 2nd in Big East
16. Xavier: picked 2nd in A-10

That's not too bad. Blue Ribbon correctly projected 9 of the final 16 teams standing.

These teams from their preseason top 16 did not make it to the second weekend:

#1 Kansas
#3 Texas
#4 Villanova
#5 North Carolina
#8 Cal
#13 Georgia Tech
#14 GOPHERS (picked 3rd in Big 10)
 


Not braggin' and there's no way for anyone on the board to verify this, but I'm at 11 of 16. St. Mary's and Tennessee have been my surprise workhorses. Not a lot of sophistication on the picks - just needed some upsets to differentiate my bracket. I'm sharing a $40 sub-pot with another bracketer so far. I'm probably done now though as I had Kansas winning it all against the Lobos (sigh).
 

Baylor lost a lot of talent last year.

Baylor was ranked low as they lost 4 solid players. The suprise for them was Udoh, the 6'10" beast who transferred in from Michigan. I think he averaged 6 pts 5reb and 3 blocks as a sophmore there. As a Junior at Baylor he is averaging: 14pts, 10reb, 2.4 assists, and 3.8 blocks per game and is now mentioned as a lottery pick.

Makes you wonder if Trevor could have been here. He is not 6'10", but progress for an athlete like these two can come by leaps and bounds. Remember Rodney didn't have the best vertical on the team...Trevor did.

When you play a 2-3 zone and can funnel the shooters to a shot blocker like Udoh it can do wonders for the defense.
 

I saw a study once of pre-season predictions and I remember Blue Ribbon was best, edging out Lindy's. This was over several years of data. And dead last, by a large margin, was Sports Illustrated, even though they have the benefit of making their picks closest to the season starting.
 


Baylor is a fun team to watch, I hopped on their bandwagon a couple weeks ago when they destroyed Texas before the conference tournaments.
 






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