2010 NCAA Tournament Bracket: East Region Basketball Preview

2010 NCAA Basketball Tournament

The NCAA Tournament is just around the corner, the field is full, some teams have been ignored and some slippery teams got in. Is there a Cinderella out there? Here’s a little preview of the East Bracket.

East (Syracuse)

No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 16 East Tennessee State
No. 8 Texas vs. No. 9 Wake Forest
No. 5 Temple vs. No. 12 Cornell
No. 4 Wisconsin vs. No. 13 Wofford
No. 6 Marquette vs. No. 11 Washington
No. 3 New Mexico vs. No. 14 Montana
No. 7 Clemson vs. No. 10 Missouri
No. 2 West Virginia vs. No. 15 Morgan State

Kentucky has a tough second round match-up but I wouldn’t be too worried about them beating their competition in the Sweet 16. Temple and Wisconsin just don’t scare me enough, and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if one of those 4/5 seeds lost right off the bat. Cornell is good enough. Wisconsin plays in low scoring games, and in low scoring tourney games, you never know.

Marquette is going to get by Washington. The Dogs are certainly athletic enough, and they’ve been crushing Pac-10 competition over the last month or so, winning 10 of 12 I believe, including the Pac 10 tournament. But they don’t play smart enough, and Marquette is a tough customer. New Mexico should walk by Montana – the Lobos are solid. I like New Mexico to get by Marquette in the Round of 32 as well.

Clemson can be a tough team to deal with, and I don’t see Booker letting them lose right off the bat. They’ll have a tough game against Missouri, but I think they’ll pull that out. Even though I don’t see too much from the ACC this year. West Virginia will walk past all three of these teams without much of a fight. The Mountaineers are too tough.

New Mexico might be just enough for West Virginia, with the spread I’d probably definitely take New Mexico in that match-up, but for the win, it’s tough to go against the Mountaineers. They just won the toughest conference tournament in college basketball. That’s good enough for me to give them the edge here. Kentucky and West Virginia, basic toss up, so just to get some extra upset points, I’m taking the Mountaineers!