BRACKETOLOGY: Go West Young Man

No one can make the claim that I have a West Coast bias (In spite of North Carolina knocking Arizona's jacket off). After watching Stanford upset UCLA, the marquee games for this upcoming week were cemented.

Wednesday, the Cardinal host the Gonzaga Bulldogs in a rare late-season out-of-conference showdown. Trent Johnson has done an outstanding job with Stanford this year and has the program going in the right direction. Gonzaga really could use a big road win to cement it's at-large status after suffering a four-game losing streak earlier in the year. Both teams have talented frontcourts so expect a war in the paint.

Oregon is on it's Southern California road trip this week with games at UCLA on Thursday and at USC on Saturday. If Oregon is able to come away with 2 wins...then they are a legitimate title contender and may get a #1 seed come tournament time. A split is probably more realistic. If they lose both...then the jury is still out on who really is the second best team in the Pac-10.

Bracket Buster games-which pits the top Mid-Major schools against each other-were announced today and I'm very excited about some of the matchups. We're really going to see how good some of these teams are.

My favorites happen to be

Winthrop vs. Missouri State
Southern Illinois vs. Butler
Appalachian State vs. Wichita State
Drexel vs. Creighton (The KING)

February 16 & 17 tune in to check those and other games out on the "ESPN Family of Networks."

On to the bracket:
Had a lot of teams in the 3-7 seed range who had bad weeks last week so you see a lot of movement this week. I expect things to settle down by the middle of February.

LSU is blowing its season. The Tigers have ample opportunity to turn it around, but right now they're not in and really aren't all that close.

Georgia and Virginia made HUGE moves this past week. Key wins took them from out of the bracket to being in the bracket comfortably (at least for this week).

Yes, you can count, NINE teams from the ACC. That's %75 of the conference. That's what happens when you're the best conference in the country.

Last Four In: Northern Iowa, BYU, Georgia Tech, Florida State
Last Four Out: Missouri State, Syracuse, West Virginia, Michigan

This bracket is good for games through Sunday January 28, 2007.

East
1.North Carolina16.Delaware St Winston-Salem, NC
8.UNLV9.Notre Dame
5.Kentucky12.Northern Iowa Spokane, WA
4.Nevada13.Holy Cross
6.Indiana11.Florida St New Orleans, LA
3.Texas A&M14.Penn
7.Vanderbilt10.USC Buffalo, NY
2.Pittsburgh15.Austin Peay
Midwest
1.Wisconsin16.Jackson St Chicago, IL
8.Georgia9.Virginia
5.Stanford12.George Washington Sacramento, CA
4.Butler13.Oral Roberts
6.Arkansas11.Maryland Columbus, OH
3.Marquette14.Texas A&M-CC
7.Washington St10.Creighton Chicago, IL
2.Kansas15.East Tennessee St
West
1.UCLA16.Weber St Sacramento, CA
8.Air Force9.Alabama
5.Texas12.Virginia Commonwealth Buffalo, NY
4.Virginia Tech13.Davidson
6.Tennessee11.Georgia Tech Lexington, KY
3.Oklahoma St14.Toledo
7.Southern Illinois10.Villanova Lexington, KY
2.Ohio St15.South Alabama
South
1.Florida16.Loyola (MD)/Central Connecticut New Orleans, LA
8.Arizona9.Clemson
5.Texas Tech12.Gonzaga Columbus, OH
4.Memphis13.Winthrop
6.Georgetonwn11.BYU Winston Salem, NC
3.Duke14.Vermont
7.Michigan St10.Boston College Spokane, WA
2.Oregon15.Cal St Fullerton