Before I start, I am honored to be able to say I've hit the Blinq-Attytood exacta. Not bad for the first week.
So let's see if Joe Lunardi still reads me after I give my thoughts on his Bracketology column for the week, because he paints a pretty bleak picture for the local teams. Granted, it came out before the Villanova-Notre Dame game, but the Wildcats aren't in this week's bracket. Beating the Irish should do the trick at least for now. Beating Texas will do even more. Yeah, 'Nova could lose a ton of games the rest of the way, but I have a hard time believing that will happen.
The two City Six representatives this week are Penn and Drexel. The Dragons get an at-large bid, as Lunardi projects that Virginia Commonwealth will win the CAA. But Drexel gets a higher seed -- a 10, compared to VCU's 12 -- which shows the power of those wins against Villanova and Syracuse, though Lunardi claims that the Dragons actually belong at an 11-seed on his S-Curve.
The matchup is against No. 7 Marquette in Chicago as part of the Midwest (St. Louis) regional. I'd certainly take that game if I was a Drexel fan, as the Golden Eagles' offense ranks below 150 in a whopping nine categories. Given the Dragons' strong defense, that's a very winnable matchup. From there, it's either No. 2 Kansas or No. 15 Cal State-Fullerton... and we all know Kansas' recent history in the tournament, right?
Across Market Street, the news is pretty bleak for No. 13 Penn -- a game against high-flying No. 4 Virginia Tech in Buffalo as part of the West (San Jose) regional. It's bad enough to have to deal with the miserable weather in upstate New York in March. The real problem will be dealing with the Hokies' defense, which is ranked in the top 65 in eight categories.
If Penn pulls that one out, they'd face the winner of a 5-12 game between Notre Dame and Massachussetts. Given the teams' current form (and UMass' big men), I'd give the Quakers a better chance against the Irish than the Minutemen -- but I'd give UMass a very good chance of advancing.
