NCAA Tournament Crystal Ball
by Dan Hauptman and Michael Protos
Feb. 2, 2007
Once the first Monday of February rolls around, the sports world’s attention rightfully goes away from the oblong-shaped pigskin ball that is carried on mostly unnatural surfaces and is placed squarely on the leather roundball that is dribbled on shiny hardwood floors. Football season, amateur and pro, ends just as basketball gears up for post-season fun.
The NCAA Tournament is just six weeks away, and the nation’s eyes have turned to hoops. Who will be the No. 1 seeds? Which teams are overrated? Who will be this year’s George Mason? Which player will play his way to the top of the NBA draft? Can the Gators repeat?
Those questions and many more will dominate conversations during the next two months, and the results will reveal themselves once the Big Dance begins. Here at Hoopville, Dan Hauptman and Michael Protos have exclusive access to their Crystal Basketballs, and every Friday, the fortune-telling duo will unveil the answers to the mysteries swirling in every college basketball fan’s head.
For the first time this season, Hauptman and Protos are beginning to see slightly different visions for the top teams. Protos no longer places Wisconsin as a No. 1 seed. Instead, he favors Big Ten rival Ohio State because the Buckeyes’ collective losses to Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin – all on the road – are more forgivable than the Badgers’ losses to Missouri State and Indiana. Hauptman has Ohio State nipping at Wisconsin as the top No. 2 seed, but he’s giving the nod to the Badgers until Ohio State proves it is better by winning the rematch in Columbus Feb. 25.
The other noteworthy difference at the top is Washington State. Hauptman loves him some Cougars, and he hands Washington State a No. 2 seed. Protos continues to move the Cougars up the chart, but they only reach No. 4 this week. He gives more props to Kelvin Sampson’s Hoosiers, who leap from No. 6 to No. 3 in Protos’ bracket. Hauptman still wants to see more consistency on the road before raising Indiana from the No. 6 spot.
Give Sampson credit for stepping into a pressure-cooker and immediately making Indiana competitive with the Big Ten’s heavyweights and turning what had appeared to be a two-horse race into a three-headed monster. Indiana is the epitome of a team in the midst of a reloading year – as more commentators are apt to say these days – after losing Mike Davis and a couple of other players from last year’s team. The difference between reloading and rebuilding seems subtle, but so many commentators are reluctant to use the more drastic-sounding term rebuilding when speaking about high-profile programs that quickly bounce back after suffering personnel losses.
But we digress. At the bottom of the brackets, Hauptman and Protos once again differ on four teams. Hauptman’s predictions smile upon mid-majors, as he likes BYU and Bradley to join Georgia and Syracuse in the field. On the other hand, Protos prefers Vanderbilt, Maryland, Providence and Illinois. Almost all of those teams are a good win or bad loss away from finding themselves on the other side of the bubble.
Let’s take a look at the rest of this week’s outlook for March Madness.
| Hauptman’s Hoops Horoscope | Protos’ Prognostications |
|---|---|
 Florida North Carolina UCLA Wisconsin |
North Carolina Florida UCLA Ohio State |
 Ohio State Kansas Pittsburgh Washington State |
Wisconsin Kansas Oregon Pittsburgh |
 Oklahoma State Memphis Oregon Texas A&M |
Texas A&M Memphis Indiana Oklahoma State |
 Nevada Butler Southern Illinois Kentucky |
Butler Marquette Nevada Washington State |
 Air Force Marquette Duke UNLV |
Duke Air Force Virginia Tech Kentucky |
 Virginia Tech Indiana Arizona Notre Dame |
Southern Illinois Texas Clemson UNLV |
 Texas Creighton Georgetown Texas Tech |
Notre Dame Georgetown Arizona Tennessee |
 Clemson Gonzaga Tennessee Boston College |
Texas Tech Gonzaga Villanova USC |
 Missouri State Georgia Stanford Florida State |
Arkansas Creighton Stanford Boston College |
 West Virginia Alabama USC Michigan State |
Virginia Vanderbilt Florida State Alabama |
 Villanova Hofstra BYU Arkansas |
Michigan State Missouri State Maryland VCU |
 Bradley Virginia Syracuse Massachusetts |
West Virginia Providence Illinois Davidson |
 Akron Appalachian State Holy Cross Cal State Fullerton |
Winthrop Western Kentucky George Washington Holy Cross |
 Winthrop Western Kentucky Oral Roberts Penn |
Penn Texas A&M – Corpus Christi Akron Oral Roberts |
 Vermont Austin Peay Weber State Manhattan |
Vermont Delaware State Austin Peay Central Connecticut State |
 Texas A&M – Corpus Christi Central Connecticut State East Tennessee State Delaware State Jackson State |
Cal State Fullerton East Tennessee State Jackson State Weber State Loyola MD |
 Last 4 In:Arkansas Bradley Virginia Syracuse |
Last 4 In: West Virginia Providence Maryland Illinois |
| Last 4 Out: Vanderbilt Maryland Georgia Tech Illinois |
Last 4 Out: LSU Georgia Tech Purdue Northern Iowa |
| Shooting Stars: Washington State Indiana Virginia Stanford |
Shooting Stars: Indiana Stanford Virginia Washington State |
| Sinking Ships: Arizona Bradley Syracuse Tennessee |
Sinking Ships: LSU Maryland Clemson Arizona |
| Conference Breakdown: ACC: 7 Big East: 7 Pac-10: 6 SEC: 6 Big 12: 5 Big Ten: 4 Missouri Valley: 4 Mountain West: 3 23 one-bid conferences |
Conference Breakdown: ACC: 8 Big East: 7 SEC: 6 Pac-10: 6 Big 12: 5 Big Ten: 5 Missouri Valley: 3 Mountain West: 2 23 one-bid conferences |
Whose field looks more accurate to you? Or are both Hauptman and Protos off target? E-mail us your comments on the Crystal Basketball or give us your own NCAA Tournament prognostications. Then check back throughout the next two months, as Hauptman’s and Protos’ visions for the Big Dance become clearer as the days until Selection Sunday count down. The calendar reads February. In this shortened month, Cinderella has less time to pick out her dancing slippers.
