The best news of the day is that this week's Bracketology has arrived, which means I can actually analyze something instead of just posting stories all day.
Joe Lunardi apparently has a nasty headache from having spent so much time breaking down the ACC, but the rest of us should be in a good mood because Villanova, Penn and Drexel are all in this week's field. Joe, I'll give you some Advil or something at the Big 5 Hall of Fame dinner tomorrow night if your headache hasn't cleared yet.
As I started scrolling through the bracket, the first thing I saw was that Notre Dame was in the field. This made me immediately demand to my computer monitor that Villanova be included too, lest something get thrown in the trash can. They are, and Wildcats should be pretty happy what they see.
Lunardi has 'Nova as a 9-seed against Tennessee in Winston-Salem. There'll be a lot of Volunteers fans in the house for that one, because it's only about 4 1/2 hours from Knoxville, but the winner gets a glamor game against North Carolina. Yep, that team which knocked Villanova out two years ago in the Sweet 16 thanks to what may or may not have been a traveling call on Allan Ray. But the winner of that pod goes to East Rutherford, N.J., and what a scene that would be if 'Nova pulled off the upset.
The Volunteers have a very good guard in Chris Lofton and the nation's coolest coach in Bruce Pearl. I'm already salivating over the prospect of Pearl in his blindingly orange blazer squaring off with Jay Wright's finely-tailored four-piece. But as for the game itself, the Volunteers are a full 18 places behind Villanova in the Pomeroy ratings and are 189th in effective field goal percentage. They're worse at defending two-point shots than three-point shots, which should suit Villanova's ffrontcourt just fine. Tennessee's offensive efficiency is 53rd in the country, but Villanova's is 30th. So that should be a very good game.
Penn gets a 13-seed in frigid Buffalo against Clemson. The Tigers are impressing a lot of people with their 18-2 record, and they're 24th in defensive efficiency, but that's a bit deceiving. Clemson's defense is 205th in 2-point FG percentage given up and 119th in 3-point percentage given up. We all know Penn can score a lot of points. And because Clemson hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1998, the Quakers will have an experience advantage on the big stage. Plus, you have to like Penn's odds against any team nicknamed Tigers.
The winner of that game gets the winner of a game that is a mid-major fan's dream: No. 5 Nevada against No. 12 VCU, the first-place in the CAA right now and thus projected to take the CAA's automatic bid. Both those teams are very good, but not outstanding -- 64 and 66 in Pomeroy. Penn's at 90, but given how they did against Drexel, they won't be afraid of either of those teams.
Drexel is a wonderful example of just how good the CAA is this year. Though the Dragons have two losses in conference, they get a higher seed than VCU -- an 11, against No. 6 Boston College in Columbus. Which is somewhat funny, because two years ago Penn played BC in Cleveland. The winner gets Marquette or Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the projected winners of the Southland. In part because of a win over Kent State, the Islanders have a decent Pomeroy of 104.
But Marquette is very, very good: 29th in Pomeroy and the 13th-best defensive efficiency in the country. Then again, Drexel is 22nd in defensive efficiency. In other words, that could be a tight, physical, low-scoring game -- and any Philly team has plenty of experience with those.
I think that's it from me for the day. See you at the Palestra tonight.
