Group Semifinal Predictions in Groups I, III and Non-Public A, Conference Tournament Predictions

I bounced back from a bad night two days ago going 6-3 in last night's state games. Tonight the field goes from 23-18 teams and are now played at neutral locations. The individual section games besides the 2 games in Non-Public A are now done, so the matchups in the Public brackets are now the winnr of North I plays the winner of North II and the winner of the Central plays the winner of the South. Whoever are the 8 teams left standing after the group semifinals will meet at Rutgers on Sunday for the Group I,II,III,and IV Championship games. Here's my record through last night.

43-16 in Group I games
51-9 in Group II games
42-18 in Group III games
44-16 in Group IV games
16-7 in Non-Public A games
18-3 in Non-Public B games
6-3 in last nights games
214-69 overall

Here are my predictions for tonight.

North I vs. North II, Group I
#1 University-15.5 over #2 Cresskill

Central vs. South, Group I
#1 Woodbury-8.5 over #3 Asbury Park

North I vs. North II, Group III
#1 Mendham-2.5 over #2 Old Tappan

Central vs. South, Group III
#5 Lakewood+4 over #1 Kingsway

Non-Public A South
#1 Camden Catholic-10.5 over #7 St, Augustine

There's 2 championships decided tonight in the Northeast Tournament and the Big Sky Tournament. I may actually decide to make the 2 hour ride up to Connecticut to see Robert Morris take on Quinnipiac for the NEC Title. Monmouth plays in the NEC. There's also plenty of other games going on with the second round of the Big East Tournament, the First Round of the Big 12, and more. Here's my record so far.

5-1 America East(Up to Semis)
4-3 Atlantic Sun
2-2 Atlantic 10 First Round
2-2 Big East First Round
2-2 Big Sky(Up to Semis)
4-3 Big South
8-3 Colonial Athletic Association
5-4 Horizon League
7-2 Metro Atlantic
4-0 Mid-American First Round
2-0 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference First Round
6-3 Missouri Valley
4-2 Northeast(Up to Semis)
4-3 Ohio Valley
5-1 Patriot League(Up to Semis)
9-2 Southern Conference
7-0 Summit League
8-4 Sun Belt
5-2 West Coast
10-5 in last nights games
93-39 Overall

Now onto my predictions for today.

Big East Second Round
#8 Georgetown over #9 South Florida
#5 Marquette over #13 St. John's
#10 Seton Hall over #7 Notre Dame
#6 Louisville over #11 Cincinnati

Big Sky Championship
#1 Weber State over #4 Montana-Weber State finished 3 games better than Montana in Conference play. They score 7 more points per game than Montana, but also let up 9 points more than Montana on average. They also have very balanced scoring whihc is why I think they'll be tough to stop. They have Damian Lillard averaging 20 a game, but then have Steve Panos and Franklin Session who also average 11. Then they have 3 more players who average 9,9 and 8. So they have several guys capable of stepping up in a big spot. I expect Weber States prolific offense to make a difference this game and think they'll be going dancing for the first time in a while.

Big 12 First Round
#9 Texas Tech over #8 Colorado
#5 Missouri over #12 Nebraska
#7 Oklahoma State over #10 Oklahoma
#6 Texas over #11 Iowa State

Big West First Round
#5 Cal State Fullerton over #8 Cal State Northridge
#6 Cal Poly over #7 UC Irvine

Conference USA First Round
#7 Houston over #10 East Carolina
#6 Southern Miss over #11 Tulane
#5 Tulsa over #12 Rice
#9 UCF over #8 Southern Methodist

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference First Round/Quarterfinals
#6 Maryland-Eastern Shore over #11 Coppin State
#1 Morgan State over #9 North Carolina A&T
#2 Delaware State over #7 Bethune-Cookman

Mountain West First Round
#8 Wyoming over #9 Air Force

Northeast Conference Championship
#1 Quinnipiac over #2 Robert Morris-As someone who follows this league pretty closely, Quinnipiac to me clearly seems like a better team than Robert Morris. Between Justin Rutty James Feldeine and James Johnson, they have about 45 points of scoring just there alone. To me, as shown in last year's NEC Championship in which RMU won 50-48, they look offensively challenged at times and look compalcent. I've noticed too that they get off to sluggish starts and come on strong in the second half. Quinnipiac can't allow that to happen tonight. While I like Robert Morris's defense a lot, I suspect that they will have trouble scoring in big spots while Quinnipiac will be able to rely on one of those 3 players I mentioned to help carry the team. They've been the best team in the NEC pretty much all season long. They are an undefeated 14-0 at home. It's really really hard to go against them in this spot. They haven't played particularly great over the last 2 games and still got by even with Monmouth giving them their best shot as well as LIU giving them a hell of a game too. I think they win a 5 point game or so tonight.

Pac-10 First Round
#8 Oregon over #9 Washington State

Southland Conference First Round
#2 Stephen F. Austin over #7 Texas-Arlington
#3 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi over #6 Texas-San Antonio
#1 Sam Houston State over #8 Nicholls State
#5 Texas State over #4 Southeastern-Louisiana

SWAC Tournament First Round
#2 Arkansas Pine-Bluff over #7 Mississippi Valley State
#1 Jackson State over #8 Grambling

Those are all my predictions for today. If you read yesterday's blog, obviously today there's a considerable amount more of games. These first round of games are alright but my favorite round really start tomorrow, particularly in the Big East. Tomorrow we could have Georgetown-Syracuse, Marquette-Villanova, Pittsburgh-Notre Dame, and Louisville-West Virginia, so there's some really great matchups up ahead in the near future. We'll have to see who advances first today before we start talking about tomorrow's games, but on paper they all look promising. I'll be back tomorrow to give my picks for more sectional finals games, including St. Anthony's-Paterson Catholic as well as more conference tournament picks.