Pun City: Now In Vindication

A bunch of things to get to tonight. First off, check this out. Mark Fox vindicated Pun City by saying "We were a reflection of the coach. We were awful. I didn't do a very good job tonight."

Secondly, nice work for Wisconsin basketball being #1 in the AP poll this week. Maybe not the greatest result in history tonight, but hopefully they bounce back on Sunday in Columbus.

Here's the rest of the random conference auto-bid predictions to follow up from last week:

Sun Belt - Western Kentucky is what Pun City's picking. They feature one of the nation's coolest mascots, Big Red, play in a great arena, E.A. Diddle Arena, and lost in the conference final last year. Hopefully they get over the hump this year. Backup: Last year's champ South Alabama.

Colonial - Virginia Commonwealth. Led by former Florida assistant Anthony Grant, the Rams are doing pretty awesome this year. This and playing in Richmond for their conference tournament means that we could be seeing quite a Rampage come March for the first-year Head Coach. Backup: George Mason! It would be awesome to see a second act of last year's improbable postseason run. The Patriots didn't even make the conference final last year, so maybe they're due.

Patriot - Holy Cross. Bucknell has carried the Patriot League torch the last few years, but Holy Cross pushed them pretty hard last year and the Crusaders bring back most of their arsenal from last year. In the meantime, the Bison aren't as stocked as last season, so this blog is going with Holy Cross. Backup: Bucknell, mainly because there's usually a team that makes it into the tournament a year after they really should, and everyone picks them to win because they think they've still got last year's team. Bucknell would fit right in to that role.

Big Sky - Idaho State just about beat Marquette this year, and probably should have beaten them if not for some questionable calls late in the game. Additionally, the Bengals have an offense that the rest of the conference can't seem to figure out, so this blog projects them into the NCAAs with the auto-bid. Backup: Eastern Washington. Mainly because this blog would like to see Rodney Stuckey, a potential 1st-round pick next year, in the NCAA tournament.

Atlantic 10 - Xavier. The Musketeers have done everything right this year, except for losing their rivalry game versus Cincinnati. This blog thinks they won't just make the tournament, they'll probably advance 1 or 2 rounds once they're in. A backup would be Massachusetts, which combines a great shot-blocker in Stephane Lasme and a great coach in Travis Ford.

Pac-10 - Washington State, despite not having the best "conference-tournament-style" team, this blog saw them win 3 games in 3 days earlier this year, so this blog thinks they can win in Los Angeles. If they don't, this blog is going to select everyone else's pick, UCLA.

Southern - Appalachian State. They've led most of the season, got a big BracketBusters win at Wichita State, and represent the great state of Appalachian. This blog selects Davidson as a backup, since they almost took down Ohio State in last year's tournament and are leading the other division in the SoCon.

Big XII - Texas A & M, since Acie Law IV is a pretty good player and everyone's extremely high on Billy Gillespie as a coach. This blog doesn't see what the big deal is, Texas A & M has beaten Kansas in Lawrence, but that's the only marquee win for the Aggies so far. Well, this blog projects A&M winning the weak Big XII's tournament and giving a lot of pundits a chance to toot their horn, only to collapse when in the NCAAs. Backup - Texas Tech, it'd be awesome to see Bob Knight win their way into the NCAAs and get a week's worth of Knight jabbing with reporters.

Northeast - Central Connecticut State. This is another chance to get a super-long team name and screw up the font on everyone's bracket. If CCSU fails, then this blog thinks Fairleigh Dickinson would fill this role well also.

SEC - Florida. Defending champs, probably wanting to get on a roll entering the big dance, this blog thinks they're up to the challenge. Plus they won last year's SEC tournament when the league was significantly better than this year, so they're probably in good shape for this one. Backup is Kentucky, a team with a surprisingly high RPI (8th in the country) for a team without too much hoopla. Surprisingly low hoopla for a traditional powerhouse also.

ACC - North Carolina. This blog thinks the Tar Heels have a much more athletic team than Duke this year, and also some "spurtability" to go on a run and dominate this tournament. They could also dominate the NCAA tournament, but this blog thinks they're too young to do that this year. Backup: Oof, Duke? This blog only picks them based on Mike Krzyzewski's track record. This blog doesn't trust this year's version of Duke further than Pun City can throw them.

Ohio Valley - Samford. They seem to lead that conference a lot, then fall short in the tournament. Susan Lucci eventually won a Daytime Emmy, so this blog is going with Samford. Backup: Son. Oh wait, um, Austin Peay. Let's Go Peay!

Metro Atlantic - Siena. This would set up a lame NCAA headline of something like "Duke burnt Siena today...." Backup: Marist, this blog thinks they won it last year. Whatever, it's the MAAC.

Mountain West - UNLV. Home cooking, baby! The Runnin' Rebels have the MWC tournament back on their home floor after a few years of playing in Denver. While the omelets might not be as good in Las Vegas, the crowds will be better and definitely more Rebellious. Another good chance to come through: Air Force, one of the best teams that no one talks about. Especially having the dud season they've gotten from Nick Welch, the most underwhelming comeback this side of Curtis Sumpter.

SWAC - Texas Southern, because then we get the "Whoa, there's 5 teams from Texas in the tournament!" "story" to listen to. Every hyperbole is bigger in Texas. Backup: Jackson State.

Western Athletic - Nevada. New Mexico State and Utah State have remote chances at at-large bids this season, but this blog isn't buying that marshland. This blog is buying Nick Fazekas willing his team through a few rounds of the NCAAs, inspite of Mark Fox's less-than-stellar coaching.