Blogging with the Devils

It’s 15 minutes before the start of Weekend No. 2 of March Madness (No other sporting event gets within a whiff of the NCAA Tournament), and there are two regional semifinal games at US Airways Center in Phoenix.

I like Xavier. As good and unexpected a season (and story) as West Virginia has become in Bob Huggins’ first season, I have a man-crush on Sean Miller. Plus, the Musketeers are so balanced on offense and most players have been through this tournament a few times before.

Joe Alexander hasn’t shot well this tournament for the Mountaineers, and since backcourts win this time of year, I like B.J. Raymond, Drew Lavender and Stanley Burrell from Xavier.

Hard to go against UCLA in the second game. The Bruins have come perilously close to defeat a few times this March, which some are chalking up to pure luck.

It may be true, but every tournament champion has luck on its side. I can’t see Western Kentucky being able to match up with Kevin Love inside or Darren Collison/Russell Westbrook combo in the backcourt. It’ll be close, mostly because the Bruins will need to slow the game down and avoid the break-neck transition game the Hilltoppers love to play. The Bruins’ defense is too good.

Xavier-UCLA matchup on Saturday. I can live with that.

Enjoy the Madness!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Men's Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.