Sportswriting

By Jake Posik

Get your bracket out, take a second look at it. Can you say upsets?

So many teams in this year’s NCAA tournament have a chance of doing damage to the top seeds because the field is more level than years passed. These Cinderellas-in-the-making also received a lot of help from North Carolina, UCLA, Arizona, and Connecticut, powerhouses that somehow found a way to lose enough games to miss the tournament this year.

Still have your bracket out?

Let’s start with the Midwest. Who sticks out to me? Not Kansas, not Ohio State. You know who sticks out? San Diego State. Bold statement, I know. Tennessee, their first round opponent, is in a sub-par conference at best and despite beating No. 1-ranked Kansas, Tennessee has been inconsistent all year. Sure, they have only 8 losses, but they have lost to teams who don’t have a player on their team I can name: USC and Georgia. San Diego can match up well and will win this game.

Move your eyes to the right and check out the East.

Let me put it this way. Big teams are going down. Who exactly? Five seeded Temple, and six seeded Marquette. Cornell and Washington are both teams you don’t want to match up against in the first round. Cornell’s leading scorer, forward Ryan Wittman, produces 17.5 points per game and has a 3-point shooting percentage of .420. I know, they play in the Ivy League. But once they hit one three, look out for 7 or 8 more to come. This team is sweet sixteen bound.

Guess what upset I have in the Sweet Sixteen in the West. UTEP.

UTEP? Let me give you some facts. Randy Culpepper, the Miners’ point guard, put up 18 points per game this year. Complimenting Culpepper under the basket for the Miners is a 6-foot-9-inch power forward by the name of Derek Caracter. I’ll say it, one of the best duos in this tournament, hands down. With Caracter inside pulling down boards and Culpepper hitting shots from the field, they’ve found a way to win 26 games. They’ll win two more before they’re out.

Finally the South. My Sweet Sixteen here consists of two teams I’m sure most do not have in their brackets: Siena and Notre Dame. Both teams are equally capable of taking down top-seeded Duke and Villanova.

Siena’s senior guard Edwin Ubiles is bound to go off at any moment. Maybe you recall his 360 dunk that made it to No. 1 on ESPN’s Top Ten Plays last week in the conference championships. Siena’s bunch is built on pure athleticism, and their players are as just as underrated as most 13 seeds. They charge hard to the basket and don’t commit turnovers. Watch for them to defeat a lifeless Purdue trying to cope with the loss of Robbie Hummel, and move on past Texas A&M into the Sweet Sixteen.

As for Notre Dame, they have an athlete by the name of Luke Harangody. His whole Notre Dame career has consisted of dominating Big East big men and lighting up shots all over the field on opponents. Harangody will continue this production in the tournament this year, and will beat Old Dominion and Baylor with the help of teammates Tim Abromaitis and Ben Hansbrough.

So what do you think?

The games haven’t started yet.

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