2012 March Madness Bracket Picks
Touthouse.com official predictions for the 2012 NCAA Tournament Bracket
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That’s right Touthouse collegiate hoops gamblers … March Madness is finally here – and the opportunities to cash in with potentially winning wagers are absolutely amazing!

Thanks to this in-depth 2012 March Madness Bracket Picks breakdown and my accompanying picks to advance all the way to the NCAA Tournament Final – devoted Touthouse college hardwood gamblers will be able to zero in on just which teams present the best chances of striking pay dirt by actually winning it all.

Okay, let’s get started in the South Bracket where No. 1 seeded Kentucky should have plenty of motivation after losing to Vanderbilt 72-64 in the SEC title game this past Sunday.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, college basketball bettors can expect the Wildcats to roll in their first two games, both of which will be in their back yard in Lexington. Yes, the Cats could meet UConn in the third round, but they should roll fairly easily over the defending national champs. I also like No. 4 Indiana to advance to the Sweet Sixteen and meet the Wildcats – where they will throw everything they can at John Calipari’s team before falling just short in a thriller.

In the bottom half of the bracket, I like No. 3 Baylor to advance all the way to the Sweet 16 opposite of No. 2 Duke. Now, while this matchup has all the makings of a tightly contested matchup between two ‘polar-opposite’ ballclubs, I like the underrated, up-tempo Baylor Bears to beat the Blue Devils and advance to the Elite Eight opposite of Kentucky.

While the Wildcats clearly have at least three first round draft picks on its roster including consensus No. 1 overall pick, Anthony Davis, something tells me the Bears are going to pull off a huge upset in this contest as they turn this matchup into a high-scoring track meet.

In the West bracket, I like Michigan State to advance to the Elite Eight by beating Long Island, Memphis and Louisville and I like them to face No. 2 Missouri, though I’ll be the first to admit that Mizzou will have its hands full with Marquette in the third round.

Missouri is one of the deepest teams in the country and can literally overwhelm their opponents with waves of speedy players that attack at both ends of the floor almost constantly.

Now, by my calculations, I have Missouri and Baylor meeting in one Final Four – and I am going to back the Tigers to advance all the way to the national championship title game.

No. let’s move on to the other side of the bracket and get started in what looks like a tightly contested East Region.

Top-seeded Syracuse will be without starting center Fab Melo and I think that fact will cause them to suffer an early round upset loss to Kansas State in the third round. Opposite the K-State Wildcats, I like the Vanderbilt Commodores to build on their impressive SEC title game win by beating both, Wisconsin and K-State to reach the Elite Eight.

I also like the red-hot Florida State Seminoles in the East bracket. The Seminoles could very well build on their ACC title game win over North Carolina by beating Cincinnati – and No. 2 Ohio State to reach the Elite Eight. The Seminoles are a lot better than most people know, so no matter how far they go in this year’s tourney, I won’t be very surprised.

In the Midwest bracket, North Carolina looks very safe through its first two games, but they’ll have their hands full in the third round with No. 5 Temple – a team that could very well pull off the huge upset and advance past the Tar Heels.

In the bottom half of the bracket, I like No. 3 Georgetown to advance out of the region by beating No. 6 San Diego State and No. 2 Kansas. Of course, I think it’s quite possible the Jayhawks will advance all the way out of the bracket, but I really like the Hoyas’ defensive mindset, so I’m sticking with John Thompson’s team here.

Now, as far as my Final Four picks are concerned, I have Florida State meeting the North Carolina Tar Heels – where they will beat their conference rivals for the third time this season and advance all the way to the NCAA Championship game.

Okay Touthouse NCAAB gamblers, that leaves us with just two teams – Missouri and Florida State – even if it’s not quite what you expected.

Both of these teams are deep and fast and come at you in waves that often remind me of the Showtime Lakers of Magic Johnson’s heyday. Both ballclubs also recorded solid ATS records this season with Florida State going 18-13 ATS and Missouri posting a bankroll-boosting 18-9-2 ATS mark.

Florida State (24-9) has won six straight games heading into the NCAA Tournament and used its swarming defense to limit its opponents to a paltry 38.1 percent field goal percentage to rank fifth in the nation.

The Seminoles also have two future NBA players on its roster in 6-5 junior shooting guard Michael Snaer (14.5 ppg) and athletic 6-10 sophomore forward Bernard James (10.5 ppg).

Missouri finished second to Kansas in the Big 12 but won the conference title by spanking Baylor 90-75 while cruising to its fifth straight win and eighth in its L/10 games. The high-scoring Tigers finished sixth in the nation in scoring (80.3 ppg) while nailing an incendiary 50.4 percent of its field goal attempts to finish third in the nation in shooting.

Sure, the Tigers don’t have a lot of size with just two players standing over 6-9, but what the Tigers do have is a bunch of speedy guards that can apparently shoot the lights out.

Missouri has five players that all average double figures in scoring, led by 6-3 senior combo guard Marcus Denmon and 6-6 senior sniper Kim English.

In the end, I’m going to go with the battle-tested Missouri Tigers, mostly because they’re a bit more experienced than the Seminoles, though I’ll be the first to admit that Florida State can literally beat any team in the nation after pulling off the rare feat of beating North Carolina and Duke – two times apiece this season.

2012 March Madness bracket picks are courtesy of Eric Williams, a professional sports handicapper featured on Touthouse.com

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The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament is one of the most popular times of the year for sports bettors; even those not custom to tackling the daily grind of investing in sports like to get in on all the action. With this year’s field wide open, a number of lesser known teams have shots at becoming the next George Mason and coming from out of nowhere to blow up the betting public’s brackets. Here’s a look at three teams that Touthouse.com believes is capable of stringing together a couple of upsets. 2010 March Madness 1st Round Upset Picks

1) Murray State Racers – When sifting through the brackets and taking a gander at teams from lesser known conferences, it’s imperative to see just how well that team fared against its conference foes. In the case of the Racers, they dominated going 20-1 SU and, and they avenged the lone loss in the OVC Tournament Championship Game by taking out Morehead State 62-51 as four-point favorites. This team covered easily against its only NCAA Tourney qualifier when it went into Berkeley and easily covered the 13.5-point spread falling 75-70 at Cal. This club is highly efficient offensively (#3 at 50.3%) and plays lock down defense evidenced by it allowing an average of 60.5 PPG (#21) and opponents to shoot just 38.6 percent (#11) this season. Unfortunately, the betting public is well aware of this clubs abilities as they currently stand as three-point underdogs after opening up as 4.5-point pups.

2) New Mexico State Aggies – The Aggies punched their ticket to the dance with a solid run in the WAC Tournament that saw them upend Utah State 69-63 as 10-point underdogs in the championship game. While this club lacks much of anything at the defensive end of the court, it can flat out score and shoot form a high percentage from the field. Five players average double-digits in scoring with guards Jahmar Young and Jonathan Gibson setting the pace with 20.5 and 17.5 PPG respectively. Michigan State has proven to be a much lesser from than from years past. Though it closed out the year with wins in 5 of its L/7 games, all those victories came against B10 teams that aren’t going to any tournaments this season. If their shots and the Aggies compete on the glass, the Spartans could be the victims of yet another 12/5 upset.

3) Utah State Aggies – Many players from last year’s team that suffered a heartbreaking 58-57 Round 1 loss at the hands of the Marquette Golden Eagles are back looking to advance the Aggies into the second round for the first time since the 2000-2001 season. Though they’ll be taking on a gritty Texas A&M club on Friday, Head Coach Stew Morrill’s kids have as good a shot as any of the other 12 seeds to ruin many a bracket this tournament. Saturday night’s loss to the Aggies in the QAC Championship game was the first defeat incurred by this club since January 4th. That’s right! USU won 17 games in a row before ultimately losing, and they went a $$$-making 13-4 ATS during that stretch. This club is highly efficient (#7 at 49.1%) and can flat out stroke it from beyond the arc (#3 at 41.9%). Oh yeah, they also play stellar defense evidenced by its 59.6 PPG allowed on the year (#11). A&M is prone to going into scoring droughts, and if they do so in this spot, the Aggies can turn this one into a laugher!

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The 2010 NCAA Tournament is so wide open making it just as hard predicting who might win these Round 1 match-ups let alone predicting who will cut the nets down in April. The folks on ESPN’s Bracketology program all seem to be enamored with either Kansas or Kentucky, but we at Touthouse.com believe a handful of other squads are fully capable of pulling off the feat. Here’s a look at some of the less popular selections to shock the March Madness betting public. Who will win the 2010 NCAA Tournament?

1) Ohio State Buckeyes (+1200 Click here to Bet) – The Big 10 Tournament champs head into the NCAA Tournament off a sensational 90-61 beat down of the Minnesota Golden Gophers as short 3.5-point favorites. The victory was the teams seventh in a row, and they went 4-3 ATS during that stretch. Head Coach Thad Matta’s club isn’t the deepest in the country, but what it does boast is the nation’s best player in the form of Evan Turner. His 20.3 points per game paced the Buckeyes offensively who rank 5th in FG percentage (49.6%) and 62nd in points scored (74.2 PPG). They’re also very solid defensively allowing an average of just 61.2 points per game, while limiting foes to just 41.1 percent from the field (#68). This club lost most of its games this season when Turner was out with an injury. Since he returned to action, the Buckeyes won 17 of their L/20 games. Look for this #2 seed to make some noise in the Midwest bracket.

2) Kansas State Wildcats (+2000 Click here to Bet) – Yes, the Wildcats came up short once again against in-state rival Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament Championship Game, but don’t let that loss fool you. Head Coach Frank Martin has a very solid squad at his disposal that clearly has the weapons at hand to make a deep run into this tournament. If you subtract the three losses incurred against the Jayhawks, Kansas State went 26-4 SU on the year. This club was placed in a wide open bracket where we expect a number of crazy things to occur over the next couple weeks. They’re led by a pair of gamers in guard’s Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente, and they have the “Bigs” that can match up with some of the best in the country. The gritty Mean Green will fight them to the end, and BYU could present a major task in Round 2, but if they get passed those two we really like their chances against anyone they’ll meet in the Sweet 16 and beyond.

3) Georgetown Hoyas (>+2000 Click here to bet) – All we see is green when looking at the return on Head Coach John Thompson III’s Hoyas! I’ll take what I see to be one of the best teams in the entire field at 20/1 any day of the week! This club was just a couple seconds away from knocking off South Florida, Syracuse, Marquette, and West Virginia in one of the toughest conference’s tournaments this past weekend. The club is highly efficient at the offensive end of the court coming in ranked 4th in FG percentage (49.8%), and it surrenders an average of just 65.1 PPG defensively (#88). With G Austin Freeman leading the scoring charge (16.7 PPG), G Chris Wright chiming in with 14+ and four assists per game, and C Greg Monroe hauling down 9.5 rebounds per game and dominating the paint (1.5 blocks per game), the Hoyas certainly have the recipe to succeed in this Dance.

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Are you betting on this year’s March Madness NCAA Tournament games but don’t have the time to research every team? Touthouse.com professional sports handicappers are experts in providing winning college basketball betting selections and are comprised of the best NCAA basketball handicappers. If you need this year’s March Madness bracket predictions and “Against the Spread” 2010 NCAA Tournament picks look no further. Click here for winning college basketball predictions

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Need Winning 2010 Bracket Predictions?
Touthouse.com is doing the work for you this year as we are providing all of our weekly newsletter subscribers with winning 2010 march madness bracket picks. To receive our FREE OFFICIAL 2010 WINNING BRACKET sign-up for our newsletter above and it will be mailed to you as soon as we finalize our straight-up predictions for this year’s NCAA basketball tournament.

Please Note: We do not recommend betting on our bracket selections as they are not selected against the point spread. To get winning “against-the-spread” tournament betting selections, please visit our homepage at Touthouse.com and purchase one of experts daily pick packages.

Article Courtesy of Ted Sevransky, An award-winning professional college basketball handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are betting this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, be sure to visit Touthouse.com and buy Ted Sevransky’s expert March Madness Betting Picks

When March Madness rolls around, no one is immune to the itch to get in on the action, whether it’s laying down a bet or simply competing in an office pool. Teddy shares his Top 10 NCAA tournament betting strategies in this article.

1) Fade the public teams
While teams in the Top 25 often pique the interest of Joe Public, the smart bettor looks for good spots to bet against favorites. Fading overvalued clubs can make a big difference to your bottom line. You should especially look to go against teams that went all out to win their conference tournament, like Syracuse and Mississippi State this year.

2) Ride the hot, fade the cold
Pay attention to streaks, particularly early in the tournament. When betting on a hot team to continue winning you can profit many times before the streak ends. Betting against streaks, you can only win once.

3) Winning your office pool requires luck
When filling out brackets, the single most important thing is to pick the eventual champion correctly, since the final game is weighted the most. Many office pool players work too much on picking the early round upsets and not enough on their Final Four teams. The vast majority of Final Four teams are top seeded teams; #1, #2 or #3 seeds.

4) Defense, defense, defense
While a flashy offense looks great, defense wins championships. Shooting percentage allowed is a key stat, a far better indicator of defensive intensity than points per game. Look for underdogs that play championship level defense.

5) Free throws cover pointspreads
Free throws given up and attempted is another key statistic. When one team gets to the free throw line far more often than their opponents, it means that they play fundamentally sound defense and are aggressive on offense. Remember, an eight point favorite that is winning by two can cover the spread in the final thirty seconds of the game if they are capable of hitting their free throws.

6) Don’t forget rebounding
Rebounding differential is crucial to examine. The better rebounding teams tend to dominate the paint, getting easy looks while their opponents are relegated to shooting jumpers from the outside. The extra possessions that good rebounding teams are able to get can have a huge impact on their results.

7) Look at the guard play
Veteran leadership in the backcourt is one common denominator among championship caliber teams. Strong guard play results in fewer turnovers and extra assists – more easy buckets and less wasted possessions.

8.) Throw out the records that don’t matter
When teams play in the NCAA tournament, they are facing top notch competition away from home. Looking at their records and stats against weaklings, particularly at home, is utterly irrelevant from a handicapping perspective. Look at how teams performed against upper echelon foes away from home for a clearer indicator of their potential.

9) Be aware of home court advantages
While the NCAA tournament is purportedly played on neutral floors, the selection committee gives relatively friendly trips to a handful of teams. Ohio State, North Dakota State, Washington, Duke, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Villanova Oklahoma, Louisville and Utah State will all enjoy some sort of a home court advantage in the first round of the tourney this year.

10) Follow the lead of the pros
In the NCAA tournament, many amateurs enter the betting world for the first time all season. These square bettors tend to back favorites and overlook schools from smaller conferences. Professional bettors are far more knowledgeable about smaller conferences and that gives them an edge when analyzing on-court match-ups.

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Who will win the 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament?
Article courtesy of Ted Sevransky, a professional college basketball handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are looking for winning 2009 march madness picks, be sure to buy Teddy Covers march madness picks at Touthouse.com

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In Part 1 and Part 2 of this article, I used a variety of statistical and historical considerations to narrow down the field of potential NCAA tournament champions to seven legitimate contenders: North Carolina, Wake Forest, Oklahoma, UConn, Pitt, Villanova and Michigan State. Today, I’ll narrow that list even further, settling on the team that I’m picking to cut down the nets in Detroit on the first Monday of April.

The next step is to analyze the point guard play from those seven squads, using assist-to-turnover ratio as the primary method of determining greatness. My formula here is simple – I’m looking for a minimum of a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio from the primary point guard or point guards. If a player/team doesn’t have that ratio at the point, they get bounced right here.

Ty Lawson at North Carolina dishes 6.5 assists and commits only 2.0 turnovers per game. Michigan State does well in the ‘dual point guard’ department, with Kalin Lucas and Travis Walton combining for a 7.9- 3.3 ratio. Oklahoma’s Austin Johnson has solid numbers, with a 3.9-1.5 ratio. Pitt’s Levance Fields might not have much of an NBA future, but he’s got the best assist-to-turnover ratio of the entire ‘short list’ group, dishing out 7.6 dimes per game, while committing only 1.9 turnovers.

UConn hasn’t been the same team since Jerome Dyson got hurt, a team that lacks a perimeter shooting touch (not to mention lacking depth). AJ Price’s numbers at the point reflect those shooting woes: 4.6 assists to 2.5 turnovers. Craig Austrie and Kemba Walker also get time at the point, but their numbers don’t pass the test either: 4.7 assists, 2.6 turnovers between them.

Wake Forest has Jeff Teague, a great scorer but not a great assist man or ballhandler, as evidenced by his 3.6 assist to 3.3 turnovers ratio. Ish Smith coming off the bench is more of a true point guard for the Demon Deacons, but his 3.5 assist to 2.0 turnover ratio doesn’t wow me either.

Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher both get time at the point for Villanova. Reynolds has a 3.7 assist to 2.6 turnover ratio. Fisher’s ratio is 2.8-1.9. A third distributor for the Wildcats, Reggie Redding, averages 3.0 assists to 1.8 turnovers. Not one of the three passes the 2:1 test. Villanova, Wake Forest and UConn all get bounced from my ‘short list’ here. We’re down to our Final Four already

Teams with at least two NBA first round picks in their lineup tend to do well come tournament time. Last year, we saw Kansas get three players drafted, including Brandon Rush in the lottery, Darrel Arthur later in the first round and Mario Chalmers at the beginning of the second round. The year before Florida had three lottery picks – Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah.

Oklahoma’s got a pair of likely lottery picks in Blake Griffin and Willie Warren. North Carolina can’t match those two expected lottery picks, but they’ve got their entire starting five in action. Ty Lawson is a surefire mid first rounder. Tyler Hansbrough is a late first rounder/early second rounder and Danny Green could potentially join him that high. Both Wayne Ellington and Deon Thompson are on the NBA’s radar screen for the second round, and frosh Ed Davis will be an NBA-er whenever he decides to go pro. Pitt has late lottery pick DeJuan Blair and late first round/early second rounder Sam Young. Michigan State, however, comes up short in this department. Kalin Lucas, Raymar Morgan and Durrell Summers aren’t projected first rounders from any of the mock drafts that I have seen. We’ll send the Spartans packing here.

I know that Michigan’s Fab Five made it all the way to the national title game back in 1992, with five true freshmen in their starting lineup. But let’s not forget that the Wolverines lost to Duke by 20 in that championship game; their youth and inexperience showing up in a big way as they got blown out in the second half. And when the all-sophomore Wolverines made it back to the title game against North Carolina the next year, they didn’t come away with the title either.

A couple of key freshmen contributors is a good thing. A team that relies almost exclusively on underclassmen is a problem. Oklahoma’s best two players – Griffin and Warren – are both underclassmen. That’s 36.7 points, 16.3 rebounds and 5.5 assists from a frosh and sophomore star, with nobody else on the team averaging more than nine points or six boards per game. I’ll send Oklahoma home here.

We’re down to the last two teams standing –North Carolina and Pitt; the two best teams from the two best conferences. They are currently ranked #1 and #2 in the polls and in the RPI, and deserve to be ranked where they are – how boring. I didn’t plan it this way – I have no preconceived notions when I start this article; I just run through the criteria one by one, eliminating one team after the next, until I reach my final two. And even here, the hard numbers make all the difference in terms of which team I’m going to pick to win it all.

I’m calling for the North Carolina Tar Heels to beat the Pitt Panthers in my championship game, although these two teams could hook up in the national semifinals should both reach the Final Four (as I expect they will). There are two reasons why I’m picking Roy Williams over Jamie Dixon this time around.

First is free throw shooting. Anyone who doubts the importance of closing out games at the charity stripe needs to review some video of last year’s national title game, when Memphis was unable to close out Kansas at the line, allowing the Jayhawks to, quite literally, steal the Tigers title away from them. Free throw shooting was the difference in that ballgame – nothing more, nothing less. Memphis couldn’t hit the shots when they counted the most and it cost them dearly.

North Carolina hit their free throws at a 76% clip this year, the eleventh best free throw shooting team in the country. Pitt shot 67% from the charity stripe, ranking 235th out of 343 teams. Advantage: Tar Heels.

The second factor here is depth, particularly in the frontcourt. Every time Pitt’s Dejuan Blair or Tyrell Biggs gets in foul trouble, the Panthers have no suitable replacement coming off the bench. Gary McGhee only gets seven minutes of playing time per game, and he’s no Blair or Biggs just yet. This is where the injury to prize recruit Austin Wallace finally hurts the Panthers.

All three of Pitt’s losses this year – Louisville, Villanova and Providence — came in games when Blair got into foul trouble. They almost lost to Rutgers when Blair was limited to eight minutes with foul trouble. This past weekend, when Blair left the game after picking up his third foul against UConn, the Huskies immediately went on a 10-0 run before Blair came back into the game. The irreplaceable frontcourt player is a big problem for a team that is looking to win it all, and Blair is that player.

So, that leaves us, by process of elimination, with North Carolina as our national champ this year. The Tar Heels have all the factors that we look for. They are from a major conference. They are going to be seeded at #3 or higher. They’ve been winning away from home all year. They have a great point guard. They have great depth. They rebound. They play defense. They hit free throws. They have balance. They can win slow down games using their half court offense and uptempo games where they’ll run and gun. There’s no surprise here – North Carolina has ranked among the top two or three teams in the country all year, and I’ll call for them to finish as the #1 team when the final buzzer sounds four weeks from today.

Who will win the 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament?
Article courtesy of Ted Sevransky, a professional college basketball handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are looking for winning 2009 march madness picks, be sure to buy Teddy Covers march madness picks at Touthouse.com

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In Part 1 of this article, I took a hard look at the statistical profile of the past dozen NCAA champions. From the very basics of that profile, I was able to make a ‘short list’ of potential champs in 2009, consisting of the following 14 teams: North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Clemson, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, UConn, Louisville, Pitt, Marquette, Villanova, Michigan State and LSU.

I’ll wager dollars to donuts that the 2009 champion is one of these teams. The next step, of course, is to eliminate teams one by one, slowly but surely working our way towards the eventual national champ.

Our first step in the elimination process is to look at the team’s records away from home. In most years, we’ll find a sub .500 road record or two, an instant elimination. This year, we have so sub .500 road records in this group, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be bouncing three teams based on their road results right here, right now.

Kansas has a grand total of one quality road win all year – last week, on national TV, at Oklahoma, when the Sooners were playing without National Player of the Year candidate Blake Griffin. The other five road wins all came against squads that aren’t going to the Big Dance this year. The Jayhawks are 6-4 SU on the highway, but the four losses tell a big story: at Syracuse, Arizona, Michigan State and Missouri. It’s a similar story with Missouri, a team with only one quality road win all year, at Texas. The Tigers lost at Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska and Xavier. Road wins against the likes of Fairfield, Georgia and Iowa State don’t count for much in March.

I’m going to bounce Marquette here as well. The season ending injury to star senior guard Dominic James is nothing short of devastating for a team that relied almost exclusively on their backcourt trio. The loss of James leaves the Golden Eagles without the necessary depth to compete for a title. Impressive early season road wins at Northern Iowa, Providence and Notre Dame (impressive at the time, at least) are now overshadowed by recent road losses at South Florida, Villanova and Louisville. Marquette is a ten point underdog at Pitt tonight. If they pull the upset, I’m willing to reconsider, but the moneyline says otherwise – Marquette is nearly a 5:1 underdog to win this game outright.

Next, we move to defensive acumen, based on the most under-rated stat in all of college basketball – defensive field goal percentage allowed. UConn, Wake Forest, Louisville and Oklahoma all rank in the Top 25 nationally in this key stat. LSU, Villanova, North Carolina, Pitt and Michigan State aren’t far behind. Clemson ranks #107 in the country. Duke ranks #149. Thos are not national championship type numbers – a champion’s defense has to be able to carry the team on a night when their shots are not falling. The Tigers and Blue Devils get eliminated from contention right here.

LSU gets bounced next, for their likely seeding. The Tigers played a very weak non-conference schedule. Their only game against a likely NCAA foe in non-conference play was a 30 point loss at Utah. They also lost their second toughest game, at Texas A&M. The SEC is way down this year, leaving them looking at a schedule ranked in the high 90’s, even their stellar run through the conference. The Tigers are going to be a #4 seed or higher, even if they win every game from now until the SEC Tournament is through. The eventual champion has been seeded no lower than #3 in every year dating back to 1997. 16 of the last 19 national champions have been #1 or #2 seeds. I like this LSU team a lot, but I play no favorites in this column – the stats and hard numbers do my work for me.

As we continue with the statistical profile of a champion, interior play is next on the list. The statistic that we’ll use is rebounding margin. Pitt, UConn and Michigan State rank 1-2-3 in the nation in rebounding. North Carolina ranks #7. Wake ranks #23. Oklahoma ranks #24. Villanova ranks #35. Clearly this is a stat worth paying attention to. Inside/outside balance is key to making a run in March – teams that don’t control the paint don’t win national championships. This is where Louisville falls short, ranked #86 nationally in rebounding.

OK, we’re down to seven serious contenders: North Carolina, Wake Forest, Oklahoma, UConn, Pitt, Villanova and Michigan State. Check back later in the week for the conclusion of this article, as I narrow down this list even further, to settle on the eventual champion.