Yesterday on Steve Believes, I made predictions for the first half of the First Round matchups. And as to how I did with those predictions, well I went 11-5, with incorrect predictions for the following: Yale, New Mexico State. Belmont, Marquette and Syracuse.
And now that they’re settled, it’s time to make my predictions for Day 2 of the First Round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The matchups are listed via the bullet points below and are each accompanied by a brief yet detailed description:
- #10 Iowa Hawkeyes Vs. #7 Cincinnati Bearcats-Cincinnati is getting hot at the right time and for that reason, I’m picking them to win this game.
- #9 Oklahoma Sooners Vs. #8 Ole Miss Rebels-I like Ole Miss in this one, because they are the better team heading into this game.
- #14 Northern Kentucky Norse Vs. #3 Texas Tech Red Raiders-Texas Tech will build off last year’s deep run with a win in this game.
- #13 UC Irvine Anteaters Vs. #4 Kansas State Wildcats-Kansas State isn’t exactly at full strength with their all-world center, Dean Wade, hobbled by a foot injury, thus my reason why UC Irvine will pull off the upset.
- #15 Colgate Raiders Vs. #2 Tennessee Volunteers-Look for Rick Barnes’ bunch to regain their focus just in time to win this game.
- #16 Gardner-Webb Bulldogs Vs. #1 Virginia Cavaliers-Virginia was on the wrong side of history last season against the UMBC Retrievers. However, history won’t repeat itself this time around.
- #11 Arizona State Sun Devils Vs. #6 Buffalo Bulls-Buffalo knocked out Arizona State’s in-state rival, the Arizona Wildcats, as an underdog last season. They’re favored this time around, but they’ll repeat history with a second consecutive First Round win against a PAC-12 school.
- #12 Oregon Ducks Vs. #5 Wisconsin Badgers-The PAC-12 Conference Tournament winners are getting hot at the right time and that will carry over into this game, as I see them upsetting Wisconsin.
- #9 Washington Huskies Vs. #8 Utah State Aggies-Utah State is also getting hot at the right and just like Oregon, they will also prevail.
- #16 North Dakota State Bison Vs. #1 Duke Blue Devils-This is as far as North Dakota State will go, because I expect Duke to run them out of the building.
- #14 Georgia State Panthers Vs. #3 Houston Cougars-Georgia State will play Houston tough, but I don’t see an upset in this game.
- #12 Liberty Flames Vs. #5 Mississippi State Bulldogs-Mississippi State is shaky heading into this game, so I’ll go with an upset here.
- #16 Iona Gaels Vs. #1 North Carolina Tarheels-North Carolina has been one of the best teams all year, and that will continue in this game.
- #9 UCF Knights Vs. #8 VCU Rams-VCU is a perennial sleeper team and they’ll live up to that reputation in this game.
- #11 Ohio State Buckeyes Vs. #6 Iowa State Cyclones-Look for Iowa State to build off their Big 12 Conference Tournament championship win with a win in this game.
- #13 Saint Louis Billikens Vs. #4 Virginia Tech Hokies-Virginia Tech has been one of the best teams all season and that will continue in this game.
Well, that’s it for today’s edition of Steve Believes: The 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Tune in tomorrow, as I will make my predictions for Day 1 of the Second Round matchups. So until then, so long everybody!