Wednesday's Picks: Northeast and Big Sky Championships

This is not Northern Arizona's mascot... but, somehow it's close.

Because the best way to feign actual knowledge on a subject is an accurate prediction, I introduce The Picks. Every weekday, Monday-Thursday (hopefully) I will pick the televised games of the night, against the spread of course, and follow the results to see if I actually know something about basketball. The results should be both entertaining (for readers) and soul-crushing (for me). And if I'm wrong, I'll just do what all the TV "experts" do: never bring it up again and avoid all accountability. And since I won't be betting actual money (that often), I win every time!

I'll also be occasionally picking against one of my roommates, Craig, so we can have a rational method of settling all disputes involving rent, household matters, etc.

Last Night: Well, for awhile there it looked like I had jinxed Butler the same way I did Gonzaga by picking against them, but thankfully they kept the Bubble in tact by holding against Cleveland State and pulling away to cover the 8.5 point spread. (Of course with Syracuse losing today, I really shouldn't care about the Bubble anymore). It broke up my perfect Championship Week streak, but whatever, it's worth the Earth returning to its axis. I also lost the Oral Roberts-Ooey Pooey pick, with ORU (-3) looking like a solid first-round upset pick ("Indiana Gets a Bitter Taste From Oral" will rule blogpost titles). Western Kentucky blew out Middle Tennessee State, as I suspected, as the Hilltoppers somehow are in the NCAAs with South Alabama in trouble.

Northeast, Mount St. Mary's at Sacred Heart (-2)- I'm not going to pretend to know anything about these teams besides what's on paper. It's the No. 3 vs. No. 4 seeds in the league after both teams knocked off Wagner and Robert Morris respectively in the semis. The winner will be a No. 16 seed or even play-in game participant. The game is at Sacred Heart, which won the only regular season meeting on the Mountaineers home court. It looks like there will be a pretty good battle at point between MSM's Jeremy Goode and Sacred Heart's Drew Shubik, who are 2 and 3 in the league in assists. In the teams' only brushes with decent teams, Sacred Heart lost to both Providence and Boston College by five this year while MSM actually beat Winthrop, lost to Oregon by eight and were destroyed by Oklahoma. Both teams play pretty quick so it shouldn't be all bad. I'll go for the Mountaineers due to beating an actual tournament team before.
The Pick: Mount St. Mary's

Big Sky, Northern Arizona at Portland State (-4.5)- Portland State earned the right to host this game by winning the regular season fairly easily. Arizona State placed second, but was swept by the Vikings in the regular season. It would appear the winner gets the right to be hammered by UCLA, but PSU actually played the Bruins this season, so they can't be matched up with them. The Vikings lost that game by 21 but held UCLA to 69 points, so that's something I suppose. They are also one of the better three-point shooting teams in the country, with 10 players having hit at least 10 this season. The Lumberjacks (real nickname) shoot it well too, but without nearly as many attempts and have beaten Western Kentucky this season, played Arizona tough and have Kyle Landry, the league's second leading scorer and third leading rebounder. Landry still finished behind PSU's Jeremiah Dominguez for POY however. The transfer guard is averaging 20 over the last four. I'll take the home team in this one and not give a shit if I'm right.
The Pick: Portland State

Championship Week Record: 9-2
Overall Record: 64-46-4
Regular Season Record: 55-44-4

ACC: 6-10
Big 12: 6-10-2
Big East: 17-6-1
Big Ten: 8-7
SEC: 5-4
Pac-10: 1-0
Missouri Valley: 2-0
West Coast: 6-1
Big West: 0-1
CAA: 0-1
Horizon: 0-0-1
A-10: 2-3
SoCon: 1-0
MAC: 0-1
Non-Conf: 1-0