definitely can't say you're biased (maybe a little pessimistic even)
i think the unc boys will do their part. mich-unc should be a good game, regardless. unc wins if they're hitting their deep stuff, period. on the other hand, pool A has three straight games, so unc might get worn down, and michigan has a deep bench (and coach jb, although who knows where his allegiances lie). i'm pretty sure colorado will let mich, wash, and unc score a bunch of points, but they'll get it done in the end. washington seems to have more bigtime games (and wins) than either mich or unc, so they'll probably take second. it seems like colorado is going to have a tough road in spite of their 1 seed.
but texas over brown??? and carleton over brown??? wow, that'd be pretty nuts. for what it's worth, brown traditionally plays carleton well. i have no idea what that means. maybe we'd have a big tie, but i can't see brown losing two games on friday. they're too well-coached, too disciplined. more likely is the boring brown, carleton, texas, msu, msu giving everyone 15-13,12,11 games. if msu has some energy left, they might surprise texas at the end of the day, but i think texas is fairly deep, and msu plays a tight rotation. carleton plays tight with everyone, can't beat brown, but wins the rest.
pool b. harvard or queens one way or the other. wisconsin over stanford seems very possible, if not likely. this seems like the most disproportionate pool...wisconsin is dangerously low at 7 (if they win their region they're a 2 or 3 seed). the winner of A doesn't get a nice ride into the semis, most likely facing stanford or wisconsin. quite a reward for the tournament 1 seed. best pool play game is wisconsin-stanford. let's say wisconsin wins, stanford takes number 2. this isn't the best pool for queens to show whether they're the real deal, as both stanford and wisconsin are finals-capable teams. queens could impress, but i doubt they'll pull an upset.
pool d looks right. depends on which uga team shows up. uga certainly can beat ubc, but ubc has been more consistent (even though uga won a 1 point game at stanford). i'd expect ubc to win that pool, but the game with uga should be great.
that leaves:
colorado, wisconsin, brown, ubc in the quarters
wash-ucsd (pick ucsd based on experience) unc-uga (ouch strength bid) (should be closer than regionals) stanford-texas (tough crossover for the (overdue) south strength bid) queens-carleton
let's guess:
colorado-stanford (wow this should be a nice game) wisconsin-ucsd brown-uga ubc-carleton
semis colorado (very close call) wisconsin brown carleton (experience wins, i guess)
then, who knows.
mark
On Tue, 17 May 2005 blacklightnewmedia@hotmail.com wrote:
Pool A ----> bottom 3 seeds very even/similar ... despite prediction, all 3 are> capable of beating #1 seed>
1 Colorado (3-0)> 2 Washington (1-2)> 3 Michigan (1-2)> 4 North Carolina (1-2)>
Pool B ----> big difference between top two seeds and bottom two seeds>
