NCAA Tournament Preview-First Four

All games in Dayton, OH. All Times EDT. TV:TRUtv

• Tuesday
• 16S Albany(NEC Champ) vs. 16S Mt. St. Mary's(America East Champ)-6:40
• All this game will be is a fight to determine who will get slaughtered by 40 points on Thursday. These two are evenly matched with MSM tending to get involved in more high-scoring affairs while Albany is used to playing small ball. My Prediction:Albany 72-70
• 12MW North Carolina State (ACC At-Large) vs. 12MW Xavier (Big East At-Large)-9:10
• NC State was most likely the last team in as their resume was not nearly as strong as the consensus first team out, SMU (who likely got snubbed based on a very weak non-conference schedule). Xavier suffered two seperate three-game skids including one late in conference play and needs to take advantage of their strong assist game. My Prediction:Xavier 71-69
• Wednesday
• 16MW Cal Poly(Big West Champ) vs. 16MW Texas Southern(SWAC Champ)-6:40
• Cal Poly was 13-19 and only got in on a hot streak during their conference tourney. My Prediction:TSU 70-68
• 11MW Iowa (Big 10 At-Large) vs. 11MW Tennessee (SEC At-Large)-9:10
• They saved the best for last as these two teams could have easily gone straight to second round without a stop in Dayton. Iowa got bounced from the B1G tourney in the first round after dropping their last two regular season games.They need to put that behind them or the Vols will throttle them. Tennessee was in a nose dive but managed to right the ship just in time to go deep in the SEC tourney and slide in to the big dance. My Prediction:Tennessee 72-71 (OT)