NCAA 2024 - First 4 game preview

 OK.  I think most of the hard work is done.  I have entered all the brackets people sent to me.  My goal this year was to get over 250 entries.  I said last year that I would pay out 5 places if I could hit that number and we came up just a little bit short.  This year, we cleared that pretty easily.  We wound up with 271.  That’s a lot of brackets to enter.  So many, in fact, that I have yet to watch even a minute of the first games.  We do have them all on here though….

Here are the stats for the first 4 games of the day:

Michigan State v Mississippi State

Vegas Line: Michigan State -1

Picks for Michigan State: 166

Picks for Mississippi State: 105

I have two thoughts about this game.  First, as someone that has to enter a lot of team names into a giant spreadsheet, I hate this game.  Some of them, I have to hand enter.  Excel has this nice autofill feature if there are common entries in the same common.  For teams like Houston or Connecticut I just have to enter “H” or “C”, and they fill in.  I can’t do that here, and it makes things run just that much slower.  I wind up having to type “MIC” or “MIS” before anything fills in.  Nobody cares about this, but it’s my blog so I am taking this space as a moment of privilege to complain.

I also think there is a lot of good feeling about Michigan State still lingering.  For years, you could count on them making a good run to the Final 4.  There are a lot of teams that have a reputation for, let’s say, underperforming in the tournament.  Except for one year where they lost to Middle Tennessee State as #2 seed, they are one of the few teams people like to overperform.  I think that tips the pick distribution in their favor, especially in an 8/9 game.

I also like that they are starting with an 8/9 game.  Better to destroy ½ the fields hopes of a perfect bracket right away.  Just rip off the band-aid.  Nobody is going to go 63/63.  The last 2 years, the winner of this pool only got about 2/3 of all points.  Besides, you won’t know how important this game was until the end of the pool probably.  Just sit back and enjoy.

 

Game 2:

BYU v Duquesne

Vegas Line: BYU -9

Picks for BYU: 215

Picks for Duquesne: 56

What the…  This was supposed to be easy points for BYU fans, but they are currently losing at half time.  Ouch….  I actually love this BYU team, as they are mostly a bunch of tall, white guys that shoot a lot of 3s.  As a short, white guy who tends to shoot a lot, I feel like I can at least somewhat relate.

Besides, I’m going to guess that 2/3 of the people that entered this pool not only don’t know where Duquesne University is, but can’t pronounce “Duquesne”.  I do have a Duquesne story.  I am a Detroit Tigers fan, so I wear a hat with the old school D on it.  I was in Rochester for work once, and someone there asked if I went to Duquesne because the D in their logo looks similar.  The guy that asked went there and was kind of excited about the possibility of meeting a fellow alum.  I get this all the time, given I have a t-shirt for about 98% of all D1 College basketball teams.  At least I could explain the Tigers connection.  It’s a little harder when someone from Louisiana-Monroe sees me wearing one of their t-shirts.

PS – Duquesne is in Pittsburgh, and it’s pronounced “Doo-Kane”.

 

Game 3:

Creighton v Akron

Vegas Line: Creighton -12.5

Picks for Creighton: 252

Picks for Akron: 19

Creighton chokes.  Let me just throw that out there.  Remember earlier how I said that Michigan State had a good reputation?  Creighton has the opposite reputation.  They did make it to the Elite 8 last  year, but I think they beat a #15 seed in the Sweet 16 to get there.  They always seem like a team that lets you down.  However, in this region, the 1 seed is Purdue and the 2 seed is Tennessee.  Both of those teams choke as well, so someone has to win it.  I will say the computers love the Blue Jays.  My wife will never forgive them for losing in the first round during the “Douggy McBuckets” era.  I can’t blame her.

As for Akron, this seems like a huge amount of disrespect from the group.  Really?  Only 19 picks?  OK, I’m looking at the other 14 seeds, and people really hate them this year.  19 is actually more than Oakland or Colgate got.  Morehead State got the most with 25.  I swear to go, one of these teams is going to win.  I don’t know which one, but one of them will.  The basketball gods are very fickle.  Also, every year, I say that I am contractually obligated to pick the MAC champion to win a game because I graduated from Western Michigan.  They don’t win very often, but I always root for them.

 

Game 4:

Arizona v Long Beach State

Vegas Line: Arizona -20.5

Picks for Arizona: 264

Picks for Long Beach State: 7

Let the Dan Monson farewell tour begin!!!!  For those that don’t know, the head coach at Long Beach State agreed with the university to step down after the season.  They decided to do that before the Big West Conference Tournament.  Then, he won the tournament.  So, whenever he loses, he’s done at LBSU.

OK, I only went to 2 basketball games this season, and both of them were at UCSD.  UCSD only joined D1 a few years ago, so they were ineligible to play in the tournament, but they finished 2^nd in the Big West.  They were absolutely good enough to play in the NCAA tournament.  I have zero idea what the purpose of the waiting period is.  The teams aren’t infants.  If they are good enough, they should be allowed to play.  Rant over….

Arizona is good again, and a somewhat trendy pick to get out of this region.  There were about 3 really good teams all season (Purdue, UConn, Houston).  Since there is 4 regions, this one looks like the weakest of the 4.  Then again, there is always that one bracket that is total chaos.  Typically, if you get the most points in that region, you are in good shape.  I think last year, there were 3 regions like that.  I can’t even predict what is going to happen this year.

Ok, I’ll be back in a bit when games start to finish.  Sparty is looking pretty good.  Woo Hoo!!  Maybe our first upset!!!

 

See everyone soon.