Two weeks ago when people began filling out their brackets, Florida St. and VCU probably weren’t penciled into too many Sweet Sixteen’s. Yet one of the two will be moving on to the Elite Eight. This is the type of insanity college basketball fans had to deal with thus far during March Madness.My bracket, for instance, looks like a horrible treasure map. There are X’s scattered throughout, especially in the second round.
As we move onto the third (fourth) round, I can only hope I can cut my losses and still end up with a perfect Final Four. The most important lynch pin in my plan is BYU who plays a very good Florida team tonight.
As I have mentioned, I maliciously had the Gators losing to UCLA last round. In my poor excuse for a bracket I have BYU beating UCLA tonight. Since that game is voided I will lay out my predictions for the updated battle between the two and three seeds in the Southeast.
I know I will get hammered for breaking Rule 3 again, but I am going with BYU in this game. To be perfectly honest I don’t think I am breaking the rule because I actually have a reason why I think BYU will win. Now before I continue let me tell everyone…I like Jimmer. I do not love Jimmer.
Everyone I talk to is man-crushing hard on Fredette this season, but he is the same player he has always been. Why now is he just getting the recognition?
That being said, the reason I am picking BYU is because of Jimmer. Florida likes to run and gun, without an emphasis on transition defense. Jimmer likes to exploit teams that don’t find him on the fast break. The Gators will have to re-work their game plan to win this game. They do not want to get into a shootout with the best shooter in college basketball.
Now my usual quick picks for the remainder of Thursday’s games.
No. 2 San Diego St. vs. No. 3 Connecticut
UConn/History
No. 1 Duke vs. No. 5 Arizona
Duke/Breaking my short rule. You can hate Duke, but don’t be stupid. They won the National Championship last year with basically the same team, plus the future No. 1 NBA Draft pick.
No. 3 Wisconsin vs. No. 8 Butler
Butler/Destiny
For more predictions, check out our Sweet 16 picks stream.