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The 2009 NCAA Basketball Championship has come down to two teams, North Carolina and Michigan State, who will play for the National Championship on Monday, April 6.  It’s hard to believe the season is almost over, but it has been a very exciting one with many upsets.  There is only one question left to be answered, can Michigan State upset North Carolina for the National Championship or will North Carolina hold on to win the title that I’m sure they feel they deserve.

Michigan State has had an outstanding year, but I believe they will need a big lift from the home crowd if they are going to upset North Carolina in the title game.  They will definitely be the crowd favorite, playing just 90 miles from their campus, but I think they will need every bit of extra cheering the can get to manage this upset.  It should be quite a battle in the paint with Hansbrough going against Suton, but Hansbrough is only one of many weapons that North Carolina brings to the game.  Although Michigan State is playing very well right now, I think Michigan State will have to play the best game they have played all year to claim the 2009 NCAA Basketball Championship.

North Carolina’s senior basketball players have been pointing toward this day for four years, the day they would win a National Championship.  For them to fall short of their goal would make this whole year, as good as it’s been, seem like a failure.  Along with Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina also has the ever dangerous Ty Lawson, as well as Danny Green and Wayne Ellington.  With this much fire power, it is very difficult to stop the Tar Heels.

I am looking forward to a good, hard fought game, but I believe it will be difficult for Michigan State to pull off the upset if they fall behind North Carolina early in the game.  Michigan State has played great throughout this tournament, but North Carolina has played consistently better than any other team, winning each game in the tournament by at least 12 points.  For Michigan State to win this game they will need to keep it close and hope they can pull out the victory at the end.  With the talent the North Carolina has, I don’t think the Spartans will be able to come from behind for the win.

There are only 3 games left, 2 games on Saturday April 4th and one game on Monday April 6th, before we will crown the 2009 NCAA Basketball Champion.  This year has been extremely interesting, with multiple upsets throughout the regular season, with the upsets continuing into the conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament.  The field of 64, 65 is you count the play in game, has been whittled down to the Final Four remaining teams.  Two No. 1 seeds, Connecticut and North Carolina, one No. 2 seed, Michigan State, and one No. 3 seed, Villanova, are the teams left to fight it out for the coveted National Championship.  There were some good basketball games when the Elite 8 met to determine the Final Four, but there was only one real “nail biter” with Villanova pulling off the last second victory over Pittsburg.

Game No. 1 - No. 1 Connecticut 82 vs No. 3 Missouri 75

Missouri gave Connecticut all they could handle, but Connecticut was able to come away with an 82-75 victory.  Missouri had the lead at 50-49 with just over 13 minutes left in the game but then went cold from the field over the next 5 minutes.  The only thing that kept them in the game was Connecticut wasn’t scoring either.  Connecticut eventually pulled out to an eight point lead at 67-59 with 4:15 left in the game.  Missouri was able to cut the lead to 3 points but couldn’t put enough of a run together to pull off the upset and go to the Final Four for the first time in school history.  The Missouri players and their fans should be proud of their teams effort this year because when the season started nobody thought they would have this kind of year.  They finished the year with a record of 31-7, the first Missouri team to ever have 30 victories in one season.

Game No. 2 - No. 1 Pittsburg 76 vs No. 3Villanova 78

Villanova was coming off a huge victory over Duke with a score of 77-54 while Pittsburg was able to pull out a squeaker against Xavier at 60-55.  I said last week that if Pittsburg didn’t start playing better we would see Villanova in the Final Four.  This game was not so much that Pittsburg didn’t play well, it was just that Villanova was able hit a shot with less than one second left in the game to pull off the 2 point victory.  Is this going to be a repeat of 1985?  The Villanova team in 1985 was a No. 8 seed where this years team is a No. 3 seed, so it won’t be as much of an upset if they win this year as it was in 1985 when they upset Georgetown in the championship game.

Game No. 3 - No. 1 Louisville 52 vs No. 2 Michigan State 64

What happened to Louisville?  They scored 103 points against Arizona and can only manage 52 against Michigan State.  Michigan State fans will probably say it was because Michigan States defense was much tougher than Arizonas.  That could be part of it, but when I was watching the game, it looked like Louisville was going at about half speed.  I know there are days when you just seem to be a half step behind everybody on the floor, but it just didn’t look like Louisville was putting in the effort required to win the game.  I don’t want to take anything away from Michigan State, because they did play an excellent basketball game and it could very well be that their defense had Louisville somewhat confused which could make it look like they weren’t trying their best.  Let’s see if Michigan State can put together the same effort against Connecticut on Saturday.

Game No. 4 - No. 1 North Carolina 72 vs Oklahoma 60

I was somewhat surprised that this game didn’t end up being a higher scoring game than it was.  Both teams are capable of scoring a lot of points, but both teams are also capable of keeping their opponents from scoring a lot of points.  North Carolina was able to shut down Blake Griffin for most of the first half by double teaming him every time he got the ball down low, and no one else on the Oklahoma team could hit an outside shot to force North Carolina to change their defensive strategy.  Even though Griffin scored the last seven points of the first half for Oklahoma, North Carolina still held a 9 point lead at halftime at 32-23.  After North Carolina had built the lead to 21 points at 61-40, it appeared that Oklahoma didn’t have a chance, but as happens in so many of these games, Oklahoma went on a 9 point run and cut North Carolinas lead to 12 at 61-49.  That was as close as they would come though and North Carolina would hold on for the 12 point victory.

The Final Four match ups are as follows:

No. 1 Connecticut vs No. 2 Michigan State - 4/04/09 at 6:06 ET

Michigan State has been playing well in this tournament, but so has Connecticut, so I think it will take a major effort on Michigan States part to come out of this game with a win and advance to the championship game.

No. 1 North Carolina vs No. 3 Villanova - 4/04/09 at 8:47 ET

North Carolina is playing some very steady basketball, as it has all year long, but they are going up against a team that is playing inspired.  Is Villanova a team of destiny similar to the 1985 team that won the National Championship?  It doesn’t matter whether we think they are or not, it only matters whether they think they are.  If they believe they are a team of destiny, it could be the edge they need to knock off a very good North Carolina team, but having seen Roy Williams teams play for several years, I have no doubt that he will have them ready for whatever Villanova throws at them.

I expect all 4 teams in these 2 basketball games to play hard and give everything they have to try to come away with a victory so they can move on to the championship game.  Will these games be close games?  I don’t know.  It will depend on how well the teams are shooting the ball.  With the pressure of the Final Four, some teams may be a little tight to start the game, which can lead to poor shooting.  We’ll just have to wait and see how each of the teams handles the pressure, but I’m sure we’ll see some good games.

This has been a wild year, but the 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament is down to the Elite 8.  With all the upsets we had throughout the year, and in the first round of this tournament, I thought we might have a couple of the lower seeded teams still playing, but of the remaining teams there is no one that is lower than a No. 3 seed.  All four of the No. 1 seeds with two No. 2 seeds and 2 No. 3 seeds have survived three rounds of the tournament to make it into the round of the  Elite 8.

Louisville 103 - Arizona 64

After a hard fought 2nd round game against Siena, Louisville finally showed up and played the kind of game everyone knew they could defeating Arizona by 39 points.

Michigan State 67 - Kansas 62

At one point in the game Kansas held a 13 point lead, but turnovers at the wrong time helped Michigan State come back to win the game by 5 points.

Connecticut 72 - Purdue 60

Connecticut and Purdue had a good game with Connecticut pulling away to a 12 point victory.  Connecticut has been playing as well as any team in the tournament.

Missouri 102 - Memphis 91

For me, this was the surprise game of the round of Sweet 16.  I thought if Missouri played well they would have a chance to win the game, but I never thought they would be able to dominate the game the way they did.  Before Memphis mounted a valiant comeback, Missouri held a 24 point lead at 64-40 with 16 minutes left in the game.  Memphis was able to cut that lead to 6 points at 89-83 and again at 96-90, but Missouri was able to hit their free throws late in the game to hold on to an 11 point victory.

Pittsburg 60 - Xavier 55

Although Pittsburg is the No. 1 seed in the East Regional, they haven’t played like they deserved it, struggling in each of their first three games.  If they don’t play better in their next game, you will see Villanova in the Final Four, because they are playing some really good basketball right now.

Villanova 77 - Duke 54

This is another game that was a surprise to me.  I knew Villanova was a good team, but I was surprised at how they dominated the game.  It looked like they had Duke on their heels the whole game.

North Carolina 98 - Gonzaga 77

North Carolina is definitely playing like a No. 1 seed, but they will have their hands full with Oklahoma.

Oklahoma 84 - Syracuse 71

Blake Griffin led Oklahoma with 30 points in an impressive win against a Syracuse team that has played some great basketball in the last month.  I think if they hadn’t needed 6 overtimes against Connecticut in their conference tournament, they would have probably beaten Louisville in their conference championship game.

The schedule for the games in the Elite 8 are as follows:

Connecticut vs Missouri - Saturday, 3/28/09 at 4:40 PM ET

Pittsburg vs Villanova - Saturday, 3/28/09 at 7:05 PM ET

Louisville vs Michigan State - Sunday, 3/29/09 at 2:20 PM ET

North Carolina vs Oklahoma - Sunday, 3/29/09 at 5:05 PM ET

We’re winding down to what appears to be a great finish to a great basketball season.  I look for the remaining games to be hard fought and very exciting.

After several upsets in the first round, the 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament has returned to what appears to be a more normal tournament.  Out of the 16 teams remaining, only 2 teams were seeded below No. 4 when the tournament began, No 12 Arizona and No. 5 Purdue.

The following teams have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen:

East Regional:

(1) Pittsburg

(2) Duke

(3) Villanova

(4) Xavier

South Regional:

(1) North Carolina

(2) Oklahoma

(3) Syracuse

(4) Gonzaga

Midwest Regional:

(1) Louisville

(2) Michigan State

(3) Kansas

(12) Arizona

West Regional:

(1) Connecticutt

(2) Memphis

(3) Missouri

(5) Purdue

Although there were no major upsets in the second round of this basketball tournament, there were some very close calls.  Three of the No. 2 seeds had to struggle to pull out victories in their games.  Oklahoma (2) had all they could handle from Michigan (10) for most of the game before pulling away for a 10 point victory.  Duke (2) also had a fight to the finish with Texas (2), but was able to secure a 5 point victory.  The same can be said for Michigan State (2) against USC (10), with Michigan State also holding on for a 5 point victory.  Memphis (2) was the only No. 2 seed to have a relatively easy game defeating Maryland (10) by 19 points.

Three of the 4 No. 3 seeds had relatively easy times getting to the Sweet Sixteen with Syracuse (3) defeating Arizona State (6) by 11 points, Villanova (3) defeating UCLA (6) by 20 points, and Kansas (3) defeating Dayton(11) by 17 points.  The only No. 3 seed that had to work extremely hard for their victory was Missouri (3) who was able to pull out a 4 point victory against Marquette (6).  Missouri had a 16 point lead with just over 2 minutes remaining in the first half only to see the lead gone and the game tied with just over 6 minutes left in the game.  With just under 2 minutes remaining, Missouri found themselves trailing by 4 points.  They managed to get the game tied and, with 5.5 seconds left on the clock, J.T. Tiller for Missouri was fouled while driving to the basket.  Tiller was injured on the play and Missouri had to bring in a substitute, freshman Kim English, to shoot the free throws.  English was able to make both free throws to give Missouri a 2 point lead 81-79.  On the ensuing play Marquette’s Lazar Hayward stepped on the baseline while attempting to inbound the ball, turning the ball over to Missouri.  On Missouri’s inbound pass, Marquette was forced to foul Leo Lyons giving him 2 free throws.  Lyons put the game out of reach when he made both free throws, giving Missouri the win at 83-79.

Three of the No. 1 seeds also had to fight harder than they had hoped for to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.  North Carolina (1) was involved in a very tight game until the last few minutes when they were able to pull away from LSU (8) for a 14 point win.  Even though Pittsburg (1) defeated Oklahoma State (8) by 8 points, the game was much closer with Pittsburg pulling away in the last couple of minutes.  The biggest near upset in the second round came when Louisville (1) took on Siena (9).  Siena had a 4 point lead late in the game at 63 - 59 before Louisville went on a 9 point run to take the lead for good.

When you look at the brackets for the Sweet Sixteen, you’ll notice that the East Regional and the South Regional each have their top 4 seeds remaining.  The West Regional has its top 3 seeds and the No. 5 seed left, and the Midwest Regional has its top 3 seeds and the No. 12 seed remaining.  I’m sure it has happended several times before, but I don’t remember when 14 of the top 16 teams made it to the Sweet Sixteen.  With so many of the top teams still in the tournament, the next round should provide some very good basketball games.  I know I’m looking forward to it.

The NCAA Basketball Tournament, better known as March Madness, started off just like the regular season ended, with upset after upset.  There were 32 games in the first round of the tournament, with 10 lower seeded teams winning against higher seeded teams.  There were 2 No. 9 seeds, 3 No. 10 seeds, 1 No. 11 seed, 3 No. 12 seeds, and 1 No. 13 seed that upset higher seeded teams in the first round of this years tournament.  I don’t consider it much of an upset when a No. 9 wins against a No. 8 or a No. 10 wins against a No.7.  The teams that received a No. 7 to a No. 10 seed are often quite close in talent.

Although it seems to be a big upset, it shouldn’t really surprise anyone when a No. 12 seed wins against a No. 5 seed, since this has happened at least once in 8 out of the last 9 years, but it is definitely an upset when a No. 13 upset a No. 4.

This year it was not good to be a No. 5 seed or a No. 7 seed, since 3 out of the 4 teams that were seeded No. 5 lost their first round game.  The same can be said about the No. 7 seeds, 3 out of the 4 lost in the opening round.

Along with these upsets there were also a few close calls.  Memphis (2) trailed in the second half of their game against CS Northridge (15) before escaping with an 11 point victory.  Louisville (1) held a 2 point lead at halftime against Morehead State (16), but was able to pull away for a 20 point victory.  East Tennessee State (16) was tied with Pittsburg (1) late in the game, but couldn’t pull off the upset, eventually losing by 10 points.

With so many upsets, the second round has brought us one game that has 2 lower seeded teams playing against one another, No. 12 Arizona and No. 13 Cleveland State.  You would think, because of playing a tougher schedule and having more experience, that Arizona would have an advantage in this game, but I wouldn’t be so sure.  Cleveland State not only won against fourth seeded Wake Forest in the first round, they won by 15 points, which shows they aren’t going to be intimidated by anyone.  They are playing with a lot of confidence and I look for this to be a very good basketball game.

I’m not going to make any predictions for the second round, because once you get past the first round of the tournament, anyone can win, but I would be surprised to see any of the No. 1 seeds fall in the second round.  I don’t expect to see any of the No. 2 seeds having too much trouble in the second round either, except, I think Memphis had better play well, because Maryland is a team that can play with anybody.  Earlier in the year they upset North Carolina.  Even though Maryland could give Memphis a good game, I look for the close call Memphis had in the first round to be their “wake up call”, and I expect them to come out and play the way they are capable of.

This should be an interesting second round of this years NCAA basketball tournament, and I’m looking forward to see where the next big upset wll come, because you know it’s going to happen.  I’ll be back to recap the second round in a couple of days.

When the Baylor basketball team took the floor against Missouri in the championship game of the Big 12 tournament, you had to wonder how much energy they had left.  They had already played games on 3 consecutive days, with the last 2 games being extremely physical and emotional.  Their first game was a relatively easy win against Nebraska.  Game 2 was against Kansas, where Baylor built up a 17 point lead only to see Kansas come back to tie the game, before Baylor was able to pull away to a 7 point victory.  Game 3 was against Texas, a team they had lost to in their last 24 meetings.  This was a very close game all the way and Baylor didn’t seal up the victory until sometime in the last minute of the game.

For the No. 9 seed to upset the No. 1 seed, it takes a lot of energy, both physically and emotionally.  Then to follow that game up be defeating a team that you have not beaten in your last 24 attempts, also takes a lot of energy, both physically and emotionally.  When you add the fact that Missouri plays a very up-tempo game, you had to wonder if Baylor would have the legs left to stay with them.

As you might expect, in the first half of the game, Baylor not only stayed with Missouri, but at one time they had a 7 point lead.  Missouri then went on a 15-1 run to take the lead at 27-20.  Even though Baylor was able to keep it close for a while, by the time it was mid-way through the second half, it looked they were running out of gas and  Missouri’s relentless pressure finally started taking its toll.  Missouri would pull away to a 73-60 victory.

The Baylor basketball team and all of the Baylor fans should be proud of the effort that was put forth in this tournament.  Their coach did a great job of coaching and their players performed admirably.  It’s hard to say whether they would have beaten Missouri if they had been more rested, but the way it was, they gave Missouri all they could handle.

Congratulations to the Missouri Tigers.  This is their first Big 12 tournament championship, although, when they were in the Big 8, they won 6 tournament championships.  It has been a great year for them and hopefully they can carry their good play into the NCAA tournament and represent the Big 12 well.

There were a lot of firsts in this basketball tournament, such as: the first time 3 of the top 4 seeds lost their first game, the first time a No. 1 seed lost its first game, and the first time a No. 9 seed made it to the championship game. The one thing that didn’t change: no team outside the top 3 seeds has ever won the Big 12 tournament championship.

This was a great basketball tournament, but the fun is just getting started.  In less than a week the NCAA basketball championship will get under way.  Later today the NCAA tournament committee will make their selections and put out the tournament brackets.  It’s always interesting to see who made it in, who was left out, and who are the No. 1 seeds.

Once the brackets are published, I will be back to make my first round predictions.  I hope they are better than my Big 12 predictions were.  The one thing that seems to happen every year is that a No. 12 seed will upset a No. 5 seed.  Will it happen again this year and, if so, which No. 12 seed will it be?

I am really looking forward to this years NCAA basketball tournament.  I think it may possibly be one of the most memorable in recent history.  There have been so many great games this year with so many upsets, and I look for it to continue in the tournament.

I’ll see you in a few days.

This has been the most unusual Big 12 basketball tournament in history, with 3 of the top 4 seeds being eliminated in their first game.  No. 1 Kansas was upset by No. 9 Baylor, No. 5 Texas defeated No. 4 Kansas State, and No. 7 Oklahoma State was able to hold on for a 1 point victory over No. 3 Oklahoma.  I thought the Texas - Kansas State game would be a close one, so I don’t consider that an upset.  In fact, they were tied at 9-7 in the conference this year with the tie-breaker giving the No. 4 seed to Kansas State.  Oklahoma had defeated Oklahoma State twice already this year, but both games were by less than 10 points.  It’s hard to beat a good team 3 times in one year, so I don’t consider this one an upset either.  No. 3 Missouri was the only one of the top 4 seeds to be able to pull out a victory on their opening game, and they had to put on an 18-2 run in the second half to pull away from No. 11 Texas Tech.

The semi-finals have No. 5 Texas facing No. 9 Baylor and No. 3 Missouri going up against No. 7 Oklahoma State.  Texas had won 24 straight games against Baylor, so it looked like they had Baylor’s number, so to speak.  Missouri looked to have the better team, at least on paper, but Oklahoma State was playing a home game, more or less.  I really thought Texas would be able to win easily and I thought the home crowd would carry Oklahoma State to victory.  Well, I was wrong on both counts.

The Texas - Baylor game was a close, hard fought game, but Baylor was able to out play Texas in the last 2 minutes of the game to come away with a 76-70 victory.  This will be the first time in the history of the Big 12 basketball tournament that a No. 9 seed has made it to the championship game.  If they are able to win the championship game they will be the first team every to do so that was not one of the top 3 seeds.

When Missouri faced Oklahoma State on Friday in the semi-finals of the Big 12 championship you would think it would be a high scoring game, since both teams are among the nation’s highest-scoring offenses.  It didn’t turn out that way, since both teams were having trouble shooting the ball.  It’s not unusual to see teams start the game a little tight and not shoot well early in the game, but the shooting woes for both teams lasted well into the second half.  Oklahoma State started 0 for 17 from outside the 3-point line and ended up hitting just 4 of 24.  Missouri didn’t fair much better hitting 6 of 31 3-point attempts for the game.  Missouri was able to hit a couple of their 3-point shots late in the game that carried them past Oklahoma State by a score of 67-59.

No. 3 Missouri will now face No. 9 Baylor in the Big 12 championship game to be played Saturday March 14, 2009.  As I said earlier, this marks the first time a No. 9 seed has ever played for the Big 12 tournament championship.  The first year of the Big 12 tournament, Missouri made it to the championship game as a No. 10 seed, but were blown out by Kansas.  No other team has made it to the championship game that was lower than a No. 5 seed.

The way this tournament has gone so far, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Baylor win, although it would be a huge upset.  The one thing Baylor has going against them is the fact that they will be playing their 4th game in 4 days, while Missouri is only playing their 3rd game in 3 days.  It doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but it is.  It seems like your legs hold up for 3 games, but when you go into that 4th game, your legs are noticeably tired.  I look for Missouri to have more energy than Baylor, which could result in a lot of turnovers and when Missouri gets a lot of turnovers they are hard to beat.

My predictions, so far, in this basketball tournament have not been very good, I have gotten 5 right and 5 wrong, but with so many upsets, it’s hard to make good predictions.  Let’s see if Missouri can bring home the championship, or will there be one more first in a basketball tournament that has been full of firsts.

Well, my second round predictions were no better than my first round.  I didn’t figure on any major upsets in the second round but there were 3, Missouri being the only top seed to survive.  At halftime, I wasn’t sure about them.  This is the first time in the history of the Big 12 basketball tournament that 3 of the top 4 teams were knocked out in their first game.

Here’s a recap of the second round.

Game 5: Kansas vs Baylor

Kansas came back from 17 points down to tie the game, but Baylor was able to hold on to upset the No. 1 seed.  This the first time in Big 12 tournament history that the No. 1 team lost its first game.

My prediction: Kansas 72 - Nebraska 58 (I predicted Nebraska would beat Baylor)

Actual Score: Baylor 71 - Kansas 64

Game 6: Kansas State vs Texas

This was a very close game from the start to the finish, but Texas was able to squeak out a 3 point victory.  I think this game should show people that Kansas State is for real and I would like to see them get a chance to play in the NCAA, but I don’t know if the Selection Committee will give the Big 12 7 teams.

My prediction: Texas 79 - Kansas State 72

Actual Score: Texas 61 - Kansas State 58

Game 7: Oklahoma vs Oklahoma State

It is hard to beat a good team 3 times in one year, and now Oklahoma knows that all too well.  This was a close game all the way, with neither team ever having a double digit lead.  I did think it was unusual for the official to call a foul with less than 3 seconds left in the game when everyone was fighting for the ball.  Most of the time, late in the game, they will let a lot of that stuff go.  Of course, then you had the clock not start when Oklahoma threw the ball in on the last play of the game.  It was probably a good thing the Oklahoma player wasn’t able to tip in the ball after the Blake Griffin miss.  I don’t know how the officials would have been able to tell if he got the shot off before time ran out, since the clock didn’t start running until after he tipped the ball.  I’m sure that would have caused some controversy.

My prediction: Oklahoma 83 - Oklahoma State 76

Actual Score: Oklahoma State 71 - Oklahoma 70

Game 8: Missouri vs Texas A&M

You had to wonder, after their huge come from behind win against Texas A&M in the first round, if Texas Tech would be able to give Missouri much of a game in round 2.  If you only looked at the final score you may think they didn’t, but they were leading by 2 points early in the second half.  Then Missouri did what they have been doing a lot this year, they stepped up the pressure and started creating turn overs. At one point they went on an 18-2 run to open things up, and Texas Tech just couldn’t recover.  Missouri will need to play the whole game the way they played the second half in this one if they expect to defeat Oklahoma State in the third round.  Oklahoma State is playing very well right now, and this as close to a home game for them as you can get without playing on your own court.  I think Missouri has the better team, but it will be tough for them to win this one.

My prediction: Missouri 88 - Texas A&M 76 (I predicted Texas A&M would beat Texas Tech)

Actual Score: Missouri 81 - Texas Tech 60

My original predictions had Texas going against Oklahoma in the finals, but since Oklahoma is out, that game won’t take place.  Texas could have a time with Baylor, but I’m still going to pick them to be in the finals, but will it be against Missouri or Oklahoma.  No team has ever come from out of the top 4 to win the Big 12 tournament.  If Oklahoma State beats Missouri, we will have a No. 5 seed going against a No. 7 seed.

Even though I think Missouri should win, I’m going to pick Oklahoma State.  I think they will be pumped after beating Oklahoma, and with the crowd being so much behind them, I think it will carry them to victory.

If my memory serves me correctly, there is an interesting twist to this game.  Travis Ford, Oklahoma State’s head basketball coach, played for Missouri several years ago, before he transferred to Kentucky.

Well, I didn’t do so good in my first round predictions for the Big 12 basketball tournament.  I got 2 right and 2 wrong, although Texas Tech had to come from 21 points down in the second half to pull out the victory against Texas A&M.  That’s why they play 40 minutes, you never know what might happen.

Game 1: Nebraska vs Baylor

Originally, I said it was a toss-up between Baylor and Nebraska, but I gave the edge to Nebraska.  It turned out that Baylor played like they did early in the year and Nebraska had one of those poor shooting games they sometimes have.

My prediction: Nebraska 62 - Baylor 59

Actual score: Baylor 65 - Nebraska 49

Game 2: Texas vs Colorado

Even though Colorado took Texas to overtime in their only other meeting this year, I thought Texas would have a much easier time with Colorado this time, and they did. They didn’t run away with the game, but they had around a 10 point lead for most of the game.

My prediction: Texas 84 - Colorado 66

Actual score: Texas 67 - Colorado 56

Game 3: Oklahoma State vs Iowa State

Oklahoma State struggled in the first half of this basketball game, but only trailed by 3 points at halftime.  In the second half they came out and took over the game, winning by 14 points.

My prediction: Oklahoma State 84 - Iowa State 68

Actual score: Oklahoma State 81 - Iowa State 67

Game 4: Texas A&M vs Texas Tech

I was right when I said this would be a tough game.  Texas A&M went out to a 21 point lead early in the second half, only to see it evaporate into thin air before eventually losing to Texas Tech by 5 points.  Mike Singletary, almost single-handedly, brought Texas Tech back from this huge deficit.  He scored 43 points in the game with 35 of those points coming in the second half.  This the second consecutive game that Texas A&M has blown a big lead.  They built up a 26 point lead against Missouri in the last game of the regular season, only to have Missouri cut it to 7 points.  They held on to win against Missouri by 10 points.

My prediction: Texas A&M 81 - Texas Tech 73

Actual score: Texas A&M 83 - Texas Tech 88

We’ll have to see if my predictions for the second round go any better than they did for my first round.  There’s still a lot of basketball to be played and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the tournament.