For Curt Runger...

Clemson is the most overrated school on the planet...if anyone wants to win some money find Curt Runger and make him a bet he will undoubtedly accept.

Let the Madness Begin...

This year's March Madness will be one of the craziest in years past in my opinion. I do not think there is any team besides the 15 and 16 seeds that can't win a game.

Questions entering the tournament:

Can Pitt FINALLY make that deep run? Can Duke toughen up enough to get past the first weekend? How will Ty Lawson's absence affect the heels and for how long? Will Memphis use its snubbing of a 1 seed as motivation and make it to its 4th straight elite eight? How will Louisville play after its remarkable run through the Big East Tournament? Will Clemson play like the Clemson of last year in March? Which 10-14 seed will surprise people? Can the 40 minutes of hell really make a deep run through Marquette and Memphis? Will the Big East play well with all the pressure on the conference? Will the SEC win a first round game?

Best First Round Matchups:
-Eric Maynor vs. Darren Collison
-Dionte Christmas vs. James Harden
-Grevis Vasquez vs. Brian Randle
-Sherron Collins vs. Ben Woodside
-Jeff Teague vs. Cedric Jackson
-Tyrese Rice vs. Daniel Hackett
-John Brockman vs. Jarvis Varnado

Although I predict this could be a wacky tournament, I still feel like the big boys will be there in the end competing in the final four. I am taking off work tomorrow to watch the games. I hope I don't miss a minute of the competition as I will be competing with myself to stay awake and continue filling my body with gross bar food and cheap beer. Wish me luck and enjoy Day 1.

Tourney Time

To find out all my thoughts on the way the brackets shaped out, please come back to Bernieball on the eve of the tournament. I will not give my predictions on winners specifically because I can't give away my picks as I will be in many pools, but I will breakdown certain matchups and what could arise.

Heading into the Second Season

Simply put, this has been an awesome year for college basketball. It seems like every time a new team was ranked No. 1 they lost. However, there were some things that people expected that ended the way it should:

-North Carolina stumbled a little because of its defense, but ended up winning the ACC conference as everyone predicted.

-Memphis went undefeated in Conference USA and inevitably will earn a No. 1 or No. 2 seed going into March Madness. They also have the clear cut number 1 recruiting class in the nation after getting a commitment from big man Demarcus Cousins.

-Louisville won the Big East which might surprise a few, but Pitt and Uconn will still get the number 1 seeds in the tournament...how is that for some irony.

-Gonzaga went undefeated in the WCC and after a shaky mid-season start, got their act together and seem to be hitting their stride at the right time.

-Duke again seems like it is not tough enough to make a serious run, although inserting Elliot Williams into the starting lineup has made a very big impact.

-The Pac 10 and SEC were down this year without a clear dominant team. Both need to pick it up in recruiting or they will continue to struggle in post-season play.

I was very surprised at the teams that struggled during the second half of the year. These teams have loads of talent and just couldn't string anything together when they got deep into conference play.

-Notre Dame, Tennessee, Baylor, Georgetown and Texas. Only Texas and Tennessee will make the dance simply because of the conferences being down this season. Texas, however, did string some nice wins together in UCLA and Villanova. Mike Brey keeps coaching, but I am wondering when ND will cut its losses and try and find a proven winner.

The conference tournaments should be fun this week and I'm hoping to get out to the Big East tournament either Wednesday or Thursday night. Bubble teams are rooting hard for schools like Memphis, Gonzaga, Xavier and others to win so a random teams like Southern Miss, San Francisco and St. Joe's doesn't steal an automatic bid.

Let the fun begin.

2nd Half of the College Basketball Season

Well folks, it has been a while and I am sure I have lost some of my loyal readers because of my lack of posts, but I assure you....I have been watching A LOT of college basketball.

I am making it my goal to give a final post before conference tournaments begin and then of course you will get ALL of my thoughts on how the brackets shaped out and who I think got snubbed as well as who shouldn't have gotten in.

First Half of the Season...

Ahhh, the first half of the college basketball season is finally over and we are now into conference play. There are many things that stand out in my mind right now as I have watched HUNDREDS, yes, HUNDREDS of games throughout the first 2.5 months of the year.

North Carolina has the most talent in the country, period....however, THEY DO NOT DEFEND. They will not win the national championship if they continue to defend the way they are defending right now. Ty lawson and Wayne Ellington just can't stop penetration and has cost them two games....they are really missing Marcus Ginyard.

The Big East is by far the best conference as everyone has predicted and the depth in that conference is simply amazing. Syracuse, Pitt, Georgetown, Louisville, Notre Dame and Connecticut are all LEGITIMATE final four contenders with Villanova, Marquette and West Virginia as solid mid-level teams.

Stephen Curry has been all he has been talked up to be and so has Blake Griffin, but the surprise player in the country right now has to Jodie Meeks who just dropped 54 points on Tennessee while hitting 10/15 three's. Meeks is capable of taking Kentucky far in the tournament because Billy Gillespie teams always get better when March rolls around.

Memphis is not as good as last season which we already knew, but what we didn't know was who was going to play point guard and the Tigers have found their answer. Tyreke Evans has been phenomenal at the point and continues to make strides as the season gets older. Memphis beat Tulsa last night on an Antonio Anderson buzzer beater (the kid is straight clutch) and this was after shooting 11-25 from the free throw line (44%). How many teams would shoot 44% from the line and still win the basketball game? Not many is the answer.

Tennessee is really struggling right now and I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Now maybe those Tennessee fans will quit thinking they are a top 10 team and just shut up and watch them derail. Bruce Pearl has loads of talent and is continually finding ways to get blown out on the road and at home. He is a poor man's John Calipari and will never make it as far. His organized chaos will not work in the NCAA tournament over a 4 game stretch. Teams are not going to turn the ball over 20 times 4 games in a row. You have to play defense if you want to win in March and this is something UT refuses to do and they will keep losing if this continues.

It should be a very exciting conference season and I will give a mid-conference update in 2-3 weeks. My pick to win the NCAA tournament is still the University of North Carolina, however, if they do not pick up their defense I will be completely wrong.

College Basketball is finally back

I have really been slacking on my blog as of late, but that is due to me being ridiculously busy the last month or so...but no worries, I have seen a ton of college basketball games and I will share with everyone my thoughts after the first few weeks of the season.

North Carolina is by far and away the best team in college basketball and they might not lose a single game this year, but I don't think they should be allowed to with all the talent they have coming back.  Still, the last image I have in my head from last year was seeing them losing 40-12 to Kansas and wondering how the hell they could let that happen, but we'll see if this year is any different.  They have the most talent in the nation by a longshot, but who knows what team will show up in March...i'd bet um to win it all though as Vegas has them at 2/1 (the fewest odds ever given to a team entering the year).

The Big e\East is looking strong as ever.  They are the best conference yet again and I hope all the ACC homers will not be idiots and try to argue with that.  

Wake forest is this year's Purdue of 07-8.  Very young, very tough and very talented.  I think they can make a 2nd weekend run at the NCAA tournament, but ultimately they won't have enough experience to take the next step.

Conference USA is going to be stronger.  UAB and UTEP are both playing really well early.  I just watched UTEP go toe to toe with Wake Forest and the Miners could be a scary team come late February.  UAB has played some tough competition early as well as they beat Arizona and Old Dominion, two very good wins to start the year.  They also went basket for basket with Oklahoma who Fran Frischilla just called the best team in the nation.  

The Pac 10 is going to be mediocre top to bottom.  UCLA is not what they have been the last 3 years and Arizona, Washington, Washington State, Oregon and Stanford are all going to slightly above average.  I like ASU to win the Pac 10 and get a pretty high seed for the tournament.

Duke is going to get over the hump this season.  They have the talent, depth and leadership they have been lacking the past few seasons and I am excited for Elliot Williams to shine as a dukie.

Memphis is not going to be able to win games and not make free throws like last year.  They had the talent to win games even if they were horrible from the line, but we don't have the offensive fire power we had last season.  It could be a year of high's and low's but I still think this team has sweet sixteen, elite eight potential.  It doesn't even matter because if Memphis brings in John Wall to go with Xavier Henry, Nolan Dennis, Darnell Dodson and Will Coleman, it'll be the best freshman class since CDR and co in 2005-2006.  

My sleepers for this seasons are Wake Forest, Michigan and Oklahoma State.  Those are three teams who I think are undervalued and will be a very tough team to beat come the end of conference season.

My All America team is as follows:

-Tyler Hansbrough, UNC

-Blake Griffin, Oklahoma

-Stephen Curry, Davidson

-Luke Harangody, Notre Dame

-Ty Rice, Boston College

My All Defensive Team:

-Antonio Anderson, Memphis

-Darren Collison, UCLA

-Jon Brockman, Washington

-Jordan Hill, Arizona

-Marcus Ginyard, UNC

All Freshman Team:

-Willie Warren, Oklahoma

-Samardo Samuels, Louisville

-Greg Monroe, Georgetown

-Tyreke Evans, Memphis

-Jrue Holliday, UCLA

All Underrated Team:

-Stefon Jackson, UTEP

-Alfred Aboya, UCLA

-Jeremy Hazell, Seton Hall

-Jack McClinton, Miami

-A.J. Abrams

Top 5 Impact Transfers:

-Kareem Cooper, Memphis to UTEP

-Trevon Willis, Memphis to UNLV

-Alex Legion, Kentucky to Illinois

-Chamberlin Oguchi, Oregon to Illinois State

-Reginald Delk, Mississippi State to Louisville

That's all for now, check for more updates in the coming weeks.