Dead or Alive March 11

Only a measly 12 games on the schedule tonight.  But five of them brought AUTO bids to the table and one of those brought us our second ZOMBIE team of the year.  We now have ten teams in the tourney and two that are probably in, but they could be dead and we just don't know it yet.  Their lives depend on others that are trying to steal bids in their tourneys later in the week.  Here is who filled the categories on Monday...

DEAD:
MEAC - MARYLAND-EASTERN SHORE, SOUTH CAROLINA STATE
MAC - CENTRAL MICHIGAN, NORTHERN ILLINOIS, BOWLING GREEN
Southern - CHARLESTON
Sun Belt - FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL
Summit - IPFW, WESTERN ILLINOIS
Colonial - NORTHEASTERN
MAAC - MANHATTAN



AUTO:
Colonial - JAMES MADISON (Mild upset.  Record isn't too good.  Depending on how the other tourneys go, could find themselves in Dayton.)
Southern - DAVIDSON (Finished off another outstanding season.  Another team no one wants to see in the tourney.)
Sun Belt - WESTERN KENTUCKY (Another First Four Dayton possibility.)
West Coast - GONZAGA (Yeah, these guys pass the eye test.  Best team in the nation?  Maybe not, but one of the top five for sure.)
MAAC - IONA (Momo Jones can score it up, could be a tough out for someone.)

ZOMBIE:
West Coast - ST. MARY'S
Personally, I think they are in.  Hard to see them get left out over a bad Big 12 or Big 10 team, but would I be super surprised if they didn't make it?  Not really.  One top 50 win, three top 100 wins, only one of those on the road.  They beat Creighton and BYU, but that SOS of 111 is scary.  So are they dead?  No.  But are they truly alive?  Not sure.  Guess we'll have to wait and see on this one.


STANDINGS:
TEAMS               347
DEAD                 159                                     
AUTO                   10                                                
LOCK                     1               
ZOMBIE                 2
ALIVE                188

Three more title games on Tuesday night.  Here are the matchups and my picks.

Northeast - Mount St. Mary's vs. LIU-Brooklyn
I picked Long Island before the tourney started, I'm sticking with them.  Like I said, watched them play earlier in the year and they have some ballers.

Horizon - Wright State vs. Valparaiso
Wright State knocked off a really good Detroit team so I have respect for them, but Valpo is really good this year.  Although, they needed a buzzer beater to make it to the final. I think it'll be a good game, but I'll take Valpo.

Summit - South Dakota State vs. North Dakota State
Back to my statement on how I always take the team with the best individual player.  Wolters for SDSU is that guy.  I'll take the Jackrabbits.

Three more conferences start their tourneys on Tuesday.  Here they are, and here's who I like...

Big East - I'll take Louisville.  They seem to be the only team in the Big East that can score some points when they need to.  Cuse, G'town, Notre Dame all struggle to score.  Maybe Marquette could steal it, but I'm going with the Cardinals.

Mountain West - This is going to be a good one.  Looks like more than half of the league is going to make the dance, crazy.  This one is never chalk.  I'll take UNLV to pull it out in Vegas.

WAC - I'm a Denver Broncos fan, so I'll take Denver.  It's as much of a breakdown as I can come up with in this conference.

6 days until Selection Sunday.

Do you have MTSU and St. Mary's in the dance?  Both of them?  Why or why not?

Til next time, thanks for reading.

Curt

This guy played at Georgetown...