Okay, so now its my turn to play Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas real quick. I really can’t fathom South Alabama making this tournament. Sure they have the nice win over Mississippi St., but shouldn’t they have at least made the finals of a conference tournament played on their home court? Especially when that conference is the lowly Sun Belt (RPI 15). I definitely would have given that spot to I ...  read more

Analysis for top half of the bracket is by Erik Scheponik (ESI) and Matty Baiungo (Matty B Sports). Analysis on bottom half, and future rounds is entirely Erik Scheponik's (ESI). Enjoy and realize that line movement and further analysis can change/strenghten our opinion by game day.

UCLA (1) vs. Mississippi Valley St. (16)

Ben Howland has taken the Bruins to back- ...  read more

Another Bracket Buster Weekend has come and gone, and handicappers should use what they learned this weekend as an aid for the postseason handicapping that lies just around the corner. Of course, as is the case with handicapping any other basketball game, the key is not just in charting the results, but interpreting why those results happened from a situational and fundamental point of view. ...  read more

To quote Lou Brown from the movie Major League “It’s all starting to come together” for the 3 NCAA and 1 NBA teams that Erik has circled to make some major noise down the stretch and into the postseason.

Louisville- Sometimes you can take coach’s interviews as mere coachspeak and other times there’s something to be learned. All you had to do is watch Rick Piti ...  read more

Northwestern- (Big 10) This team went through some growing pains last season after the tragic loss of HC Randy Walker, and some bad luck with the injury bug. However, I believe that new HC Pat Fitzgerald made the best of a bad situation in his first year at the helm at only 34 years of age. I think Fitzgerald has the makings of a very good head coach, and improvement was apparent o ...  read more

Last season in the NFL, teams that committed less (forced more) turnovers than their opponent logged an impressive 173-38 (82%)record on the field (SU), going 166-40-4 (81%) against the pointspread (ATS). Very impressive yes, but only slightly above the norm. In 2005, the numbers were 124-44 (74%) SU, and a 131-33 mark (80%) against the pointspread (ATS). In '04 these turnover winners logged ...  read more

Cleveland at Detroit Play CLEVELAND +285 or better

From a value standpoint there is only one way to bet this series as the Pistons were just -180 against Chicago, and now are laying nearly double that against a team that is better than the Bulls. Last year's series went a hard fought 7 games, and although if I had to make a play at even money, or a cold prediction, it would ...  read more

New Jersey/Toronto:

Miami at Chicago- Rematch from last year's opening round series won by Miami in 6. The Heat are almost impossible to handicap from a statistical sense because Shaq and Wade have only played 18 games together THE ENTIRE SEASON! The rest of the key pieces are back in place from last year's championship run, and Eddie Jones has also been added and is playing well at both e ...  read more

Florida vs. UCLA: The Rematch

The Bruins have finally gotten their wish and that is a chance at redemption against these Florida Gators, the team that outclassed them 73-57 in last year's NCAA championship. Both teams have handled the BULL'S EYE placed on their backs in very tough conferences this season. The Pac 10's other Elite 8 contestant (only conference with more than 1 ...  read more

Going to Atlanta- I could be wrong, but I don't rate the North Carolina Tar Heels as one of the top 6 teams that can win this tournament. Now that's not saying I don't think they are one most talented because I do, and in all honesty...They are probably #7 on my list. I'm just not sure that the Tar Heels can win a knock down, drag-out, low scoring slugfest that a Georgetown or ...  read more

Atlanta Bound- I'm going to go with the chalk here and pick Florida as I really think that this is the weakest bracket at least in terms of the top seeds. The Gators seem to have regained their edge after 3 straight double digit road losses in February, and statistically this team is almost a mirror of last year: truly dominant ...  read more