Truely,
Utah St's being snubbed by the NCAA I saw could hamper Utah St's play a bit, but Hawaii still would need to do their part as well, and just because of Utah St's snub it was not going to guarantee a victory for the Warriors. The Warriors still had to handle a bit of their own issues like losing the last 4 games, and all the traveling , put altitude, weather change, etc... their were to many intangibles involved for me to simply make this call any higher than a 4 unit play. For me to make it a 7 or a 10, all them ducks need to be in line and no questionable things will exist for me. In the 3, 4, and 6 unit plays, some questions do exist, but the side I select still do in my opinions have a majority of pluses on their side overwhelming the uncertainties.
In tournament time, I take things one day at a time and one game at a time, because of the fact that we are not in Conf play, so to me it is alittle harder and not easier to determine and come out with the winners. There is alot more things to handicap, alot more things are thrown into the mix. For ex, the differences of SOS, the earlier Nov and Dec non-conference opponents, which teams will be playing in close proximity to their home venue and thus have the home crowd, do any of the matchups present a revenge situation?, Did the teams close the season hot or cold? How the teams ended their own Tournaments? Also, checking for teams with at least 3 upper-class returning starters and at least 6 returning players overall which were either knocked out in the prior season's first round, only made the NIT the previous season or underachieved the prior season and have something to prove. All these things and then some all lead to an idea of how a team will enter the NCAA Tournament in added motivations. Not to mention, after all this , I need to look and compare the lines that Vegas puts out and see where I have an advantage. I do not simply use mathematically or numbers spit out to come up with my selections. Nope never have and never will. For me, numbers dont fully tell me the whole story as every game presents a different situation and thus should be handled this way.
So for me, this is a harder time , simply because their is alot more things to consider and look at. Conference play is alot easier, but when you mix it up and mix up the best and middle best of the Conferences up with the other Conferences, as the Tournaments go on, the shit gets even harder and you need to restart the whole process again. This is the effort I put into it and hopefully it will pay off me and those that follow me. GL and Aloha CC.
