Texas A&M. Once again, best defense in the region, they have great guards and some upperclassmen leadership.
Confidence factor: 75%
Ohio State
Memphis
Texas A&M
Virginia
Tennessee
Louisville
Nevada
BYU
Xavier
Other (specify in your post)
Do the poll thing and then post your reply.
Texas A&M. Once again, best defense in the region, they have great guards and some upperclassmen leadership.
Confidence factor: 75%
It depends. Will Ohio State pass Oden the ball? Or will it make him try to dunk in their misses (as happened several times down the stretch against Wisco)? For all the talk of the chemistry between he and Conley, and with Matta as Big 10 COY, I don't see them utilizing Oden very effectively.
Going into the weekend, I didn't intend to be picking OSU to the F4, but I don't see anyone here who is likely to beat them - specifically, I don't think there's a single team in this bracket that can possibly score enough to win (possible exceptions - Tennessee, who I don't trust at all, but played OSU well already, and Nevada, who I think loses to Creighton).
I may be biased being from Ohio, but I really like the way the Buckeyes are playing right now. It is troublesome that they don't get it to Oden as often as they should, but they have a lot of weapons and go 9-10 deep. Plus they can go very large when needed with Othello Hunter alongside Oden. The only possible problem is inexperience. My darkhorse is Louisville-if you can call them a darkhorse.
speed, confidence, can jump out of the gym and from Calipari down they have a very relaxed attitude showing tournament expeience
Greg Oden is a dominating force who has an extremely talented supporting cast assembled around him.
Bob Green
Yokosuka, Japan
Bump-- please vote!
Count me among the A&M supporters as well. Lost in tOSU hype is the fact that a solid defensive team can beat them (see: UNC, Florida, Wisconsin), and the Aggies have the 8th best defense in the country (Pomeroy) to go along with a top ten offense as well. Acie Law IV can take over a game, and I don't see anyone else in the bottom half of that bracket staying with them.
I like A&M as well but too much is bing made of OSU's losses to Florida and UNC. One was without Oden and the other just after his return. They are on a great roll and have one of the best players in the nation.
I am from Ohio and after the Blue Devils, my allegiance is to the Buckeyes, but I just love Acie Law IV. I think he has a charisma about him that is going to carry this team past Ohio State. You have a veteran upperclassmen crew between Law, Joseph Jones and Kavaliauskas, and a defensive minded coach in Gillespie. I also like that no conference had more games decided in the last minute than the Big 12, A&M being involved in many of them. That experience is something to be appreciated as we get to the point where almost every game is going to be close after Friday.
Also, the Big 10 is not as strong as some might think. I was never really sold on Wisconsin. To date, they don't have one big road win. They lost at Ohio State, at Michigan State, and at Indiana, the 3 other best teams in the league. Thus, OSU's only other big games have been against UNC (w/o Oden), Tennessee (almost lost at home) and Florida (they were embarrassed). So if you look at what happened to OSU when they stepped out of conference, I have to believe they will struggle and eventually stumble between the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.
jason, your best bet is to pick unc over florida in the championship. that way, when your bracket busts you'll be ecstatic.