First Round: Gonzaga!

The Zags are always dangerous in the tourney, and in fact eliminated the Hoosiers in last years' tourney. I do think IU will beat them this year (altho the Zags could pull it out, fer sure).

A lot of noise is being made about the three-point contest that'll happen tonight, but my guess is Sampson will see how Rod, Armon, & AJ are shooting (and possibly Lance Stemler, who'll match-up well against the Zags' mobile fours) in the first half. At some point, Kelvin's going to point the way to DJ, who should terrorize the Zags in the paint. With Josh Heytvelt out, this is not the same squad who stuffed Psycho T & the flying Heels back in the Preseason NIT. Kuso and Mallon will throw their weight around, but off the bench, Mark Few only has guards (Pendergraph & Downs are good rebounding guards, to be sure). I don't care how much they're talking about playing better basketball without him, you've got to have an inside presence on both ends of the floor, even if you don't use it, to get to the tourney's second weekend. And the Hoosiers are a much better bet to get to the Sweet 16 than Gonzaga. Of course, UCLA will have something to say either way, but that's a conversation for tomorrow.

It should be a good game, but down the last eight minutes, I'd look for IU to pull away to a 7-10 point victory.

Go Hoosiers!