Shooter's 3/16 CBB

Shooter's 3/16 CBB PLAY-IN GAME (Not Opening Round, Play-In Game b/c that's what it is): 567/568 Ark-Pine Bluff/Winthrop OV 112' Pine Bluff played awesome defense in the SWAC Tournament to get in the field of 65. Well now they are in (same with Winthrop). I don't expect the defense will be as good here. NIT: 570 Connecticut (-7) (-107) Contrarian favorite here. I respect the job that Northeastern has done and they have a lot of seniors. I know UConn laid a major egg in the Big East Tournament against St. John's. I think the price has gone low enough to bite on UConn. We know certain teams are disappointed to be in the NIT. However, UConn does have 3 seniors that want to go out better than they did in the BE Tournament. Since they have gone to the seeding, a lot of the "disappointed" teams have covered and gone deep in the NIT draw. 571/572 NC State/South Florida OV 127 572 South Florida (-3') (-104) USF obviously wanted to go to the NCAA's, but they haven't been to the postseason in forever, 8 years in fact. There is a sense that the USF program is on the move. NC State may be a little out of gas from their deep ACC Tourney run. Sidney Lowe clearly gets them up for the ACC Tournament. Letdown here for NC State. 574 UAB (-11) (-105) Coastal Carolina has 26 wins and won the Big South reg season, but their best win is over Indiana State on a neutral. Coastal has a guard Joe Harris who almost transferred to UAB but decided to stay at CC at the last minute. UAB has much better athletes here and the talent gap will show. 575 Texas Tech (+9) Seton Hall is one of the only teams who I think will give a half-assed effort b/c they didn't make the NCAAs. Bobby Gonzalez kicked Robert "Stix" Mitchell off the team for things he said in the press. He said (correctly) that it's hard to be more of a consistent player when the coach isn't consistent. Gonzalez has changed lineups constantly and they haven't gotten any consistency at all. Texas Tech played well in the B12 Tournament. I just think Texas Tech is the more motivated team here and the coach will have them better prepared. 577/578 William & Mary/North Carolina UN 134 This game is in the old Carmichael Auditorium (where UNC played pre Dean Dome). W & M can slow this game down. Plus, UNC have struggled to score in halfcourt, which is what this game will be. 582 Arizona State (-14') (-109) I know the Pac-10 is down blah blah blah. Jacksonville may not have right frame of mind here. They won the A-Sun and had to play on a higher seed's home floor (Mercer). This could be a woodshed here. CBI 589/590 VCU/GW OV 139 CIT 597 Fairfield (+1') Mason is still very young and were a little overrated during the season. 600 Marshall (-11) (-108) Marshall hasn't been in the postseason in a while either.