Virginia Cavaliers (29-3) is seeded at #2 in the East Region and will face #15 Belmont (22-10) in Charlotte, North Carolina this coming Friday. Belmont got in after winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.
Belmont has a player who transferred from Virginia after his freshman season. He did not get to play a lot as a freshman so he bolted to Belmont for more playing time. Name? Taylor Barnette who is averaging 10.7 points per game including the winning basket for Belmont in the OVC Finals.
Barnette is not the only former Virginia player who transferred to other school in East Region. Paul Jesperson went to Northern Iowa after playing two years at Virginia. Northern Iowa Panthers is seeded #5 playing #12 Wyoming Cowboys. Jesperson is averaging 5.4 points per game for his team which went 30-3 for the season.
Virginia must not overlook Belmont in the first game - take care of Belmont, then the fans can hope for a revenge as Virginia may get to play Michigan State, the same team that upsets Virginia, 61-59 last year in Sweet Sixteen appearance. Oddly, the way I look at the bracket, the first two games are tough for Virginia Cavaliers but the next two games en route to the Final Four seems to be easy drive. Virginia may have to play Oklahoma Sooners (22-10) if they did not lose to Providence Friars (22-11). If Virginia took care of them, the next opponent could be Villanova (32-2), Northern Iowa (30-3) or Louisville (24-8).
Cheers,
R-
No comments:
Post a Comment