Is All Hope Lost?

I didn't get a chance to touch on it yesterday, but Memphis' loss to Missouri was incredibly heartbreaking for Rise and Fire's leader. I had Memphis winning my main bracket in five of six pools, a nice futures bet on them at 30-1 from January, and the other futures listed as fund plays. I've got slim chances of winning money in those pools now with that bracket, but a good chance at winning other pools with secondary entries.

Missouri's aggressive defense was never going to be an easy task for Memphis, but the way Missouri's offense cut up the formidable Memphis defense was the real killer. You have to tip your hat to Missouri for playing about as well as they could have. In another Sweet 16 games, Gonzaga fell flat on their face as expected. They were never a blog favorite and proved why in last night's embarrassment. The quality of the Sweet 16 games as a whole haven't been that high. Only two games have been competitive and numerous teams put in a disappointing effort.

In Saturday's first Elite 8 contest Connecticut will look to ride the dominant wave that has carried them so far. Missouri's press shouldn't affect UConn as much as it affected Memphis because the Huskies have three natural ball handlers in Price, Walker, and Austrie. Robinson can help out as well which is why I like UConn -5.5 vs. Missouri. The second game presents a Big East slugfest between Villanova and Pittsburgh. Nova has been playing over their heads a bit as I expected them to win, but not be this dominant. Pitt needs to get scoring from other players besides the big three of Fields, Young, and Blair and I expect they will as I play one unit on Pittsburgh -2 vs. Villanova.

Record: 87-88 on units (71-70-1 on selections)
Bank: $161.67

Mr. T's basketball fund started with an imaginary $200 and each unit represents $5 of action for every game he picks.