The next three weekends are MASSIVE couch weekends for me. Well, almost every weekend is a massive couch weekend for me, but over the next three my ass will wage war against my upholstery. Tournament time is when Booth shines.

Now that NextRound 1.0 is finally starting to make an appearance, Maske wants me to initiate some creative marketing schemes to get everyone excited about the launch. What’s the first thing I came up with? You guessed it…

NextRound’s 1st Annual Tournament Challenge: Booth v. All

Starting Monday, we’ll be running a tournament pool, NextRound style. I’ll post my bracket and whoever beats me will win a NextRound t-shirt. The overall winner will win a sweet set of steak knives (they exist, swear).

To make sure everyone out there has a fair shot at those knives today’s column is dedicated to imparting a little knowledge on teams that have no shot at making the Final Four but could possibly get as far as the Elite 8 (or suck balls and get upset in the first round). Making the right decisions on these teams could mean the difference between you rocking a money NextRound T that will definitely lead to you taking home a young lady friend with questionable morals, or you spending another Friday night eating takeout with plastic silverware.

Of course, being the true marketing director I am, I plan to dominate this pool and take home the knives myself. Big Macs are WAY better when cut into fours. Besides, mailing t-shirts sounds like a lot of work.

The Moderately Good Breakdown

Here are a team or two from all the major conferences that we know right now will be in the NCAA tournament. All the following teams have question marks. I plan to use the conference tournaments to get a better feel for whether or not I’m comfortable backing them in the NCAAs.

Big Ten.

This is the most intriguing conference tournament. Not because any of the teams are any good, but because four teams from the Big Ten will definitely make the dance and all have the potential to go down early or make a deep run.

1) Wisconsin. The Badgers are going to be seeded WAY too high going into the NCAAs. Probably a 2 seed if they can win the Big Ten tourney. Don’t get fooled into thinking they will cruise into the Sweet 16; they could easily go down in the 2^nd round. Wisconsin only has 4-6 seed talent.

2) Purdue. I like the way this team plays. But traditionally young teams falter in the tourney. Keep this in mind when you make them your sleeper.

3) Indiana. The Hoosiers have sucked donkey nuts since their coach decided he hated himself. Do you think they will pull it together? How well these guys play this weekend will really influence how I feel about the in my bracket.

4) Michigan State. Everyone likes to back Izzo in the tourney because of his back to back to back Final Four runs, but this team has been Jekyll & Hyde all year. Be wary of expecting the Spartans to play well 3 games in a row.

Pac Ten

3) Washington State. The Cougars were ranked as high as #4 going into their first matchup with UCLA. They like to slow it down and grind you out in the half court. Historically in the tournament teams that play this style frustrate their opponents into poor shot selection. Depending on their matchups, Washington State could put together a solid three game winning streak in the NCAAs. Then again they could run into a run and gun team and get outscored by 30.

ACC

2) Duke. How good do you think Duke really is this year? They live and die by the three ball so if they have a bad shooting night they will could go down early. Before you jump off Duke’s bandwagon though, remember the Devils went down to VCU in the first round last year; Duke players have a ton of pride and they will be ready to play this year.

SEC

2) Mississippi State. The Bulldogs have quietly put together a really solid year. Did you have any idea that won the SEC West? They are balanced on offense and have a serious inside presence on defense. What I find particularly intriguing is that Charles Rhodes, their center who averages 17 pts. & 8 rbs., is a senior. Seniors tend to do great things in NCAA tourney, especially when they’re thinking about getting paid on the next level.

Big East

2) Louisville. The Cardinals have been flat out balling since January 1^st. They were beat up in the beginning of the year but now they are healthy and playing extremely well. Here is an interesting stat: Louisville has lost four games since 1/1/2008 (1 point loss to Cincinnati, 2 point loss @ Connecticut, 3 point loss @ Georgetown, and a bad 10 point loss to Seton Hall). Before losing to Georgetown last Saturday they had won nine straight. This is the only team I’ve mentioned so far that I think actually has Final Four potential.

Big 12.

Nobody outside of Kansas and Texas is a lock to make the NCAAs. Here is my quick take on two teams I think are in.

4) Kansas State. They have this guy named Michael Beasley. Don’t know if you’ve heard of him. He’s pretty good. The only question is how far can one man take this team.

5) Baylor. I guess these guys are in. They’re a feel good story after one player killed another player a couple of years ago and the coach tried to cover it up. That sort of thing is usually a program killer. It would be great for Baylor to put together a run, but talent wise they are definitely going to be significantly over-matched by round two.

Those are my thoughts going into the conference tournaments. The pool and my bracket will be available for everyone’s perusal on Monday. I look forward to handing out an inordinate amount of ass-whoopings starting next Thursday.

Previous Editions of Turf Toe:

• Booth’s Thoughts on NFL Free Agency
• Hansbrough Eats Dong
• How Shaq and Tim Almost Ruined the NBA
• Super Bowl Prop Bet Extravaganza
• NFL Water Cooler Prep

“Wicked Case of Turf Toe” is Booth’s weekly column dedicated to passing judgment on the world of sports. Click here for the archives.

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