CRYSTAL BALL

• CRYSTAL BALL
  

  The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, no matter what he does.--C. S. Lewis

  With only 10 or 12 games remaining on each teams regular season schedule it is now possible to make some reasonable predictions as to the outcome of the rest of the season prior to the start of conference tournaments and the invites for the BIG Dance

  Barring further injury or academic/behavioral loss we've seen what the teams are capable of doing. Given the schedules and hopeful that there are no more games with glaring discrepancies in fouls called we can weight the home court advantages and the strenghts of the current teams and make a fairly educated gusss as to the outcome

  So here's a shot at prognostication

  1) TENNESSEE - 28-1 (Duke in Durham is the biggest obstacle and the Blue Devils have improved but I think not enough to handle the Lady Vols - the next biggest test is LSU but that game is at TBA where two fairly evenly matched teams give UT the benefit of home court advantage

  2) MARYLAND 29-2 (UNC in Chapel Hill coming up should be the last loss of the season for the excellent Terrapins who also play Duke in Durham with much the same outcome as Tennessee

  3/4) Connecticut 27-2 ( Predicting UConn to lose at the RAC on Feb 5 and the PMAC on Feb 25 after managing a close win at ND and at home with RU.

  3/4) Baylor 27-2 (The toughest conference to predict is the Big 12 but since Baylor handled Oklahoma in Norman I expect they will do the same in Waco but there are 4/5 teams in the Big 12 that can play well enough on any given night to beat any other team
  Baylor could easily lose 2 or 3 more. Baylor is a strange team losing by 24 to Stanford and beating Oklahoma in Norman by 11 and Cal by 15. But A&M & Texas seem to be falling apart and they handled Oklahoma. Seems like OK State is the only real threat so I'm going with Baylor to win out barely with several squeakers.

  5) ODU 27-3 (No way ODU is the 5th best in the country - they aren't even top 12 but their record will be 27-3 and they could easily end up ranked here above a few teams with four losses like:
  5A) LSU 25-4 (Will run the table except for their trip to TBA)
  5B) Rutgers 25-4(Will lose at TBA and in Hartford or Storrs to UConn)
  5C) Stanford 23-4 (Will win both games with CAL)
  5D) UNC 25-4 (Loses to MD and Duke on the road)
  9) CAL 25-4 (Drops two to Stanford)
  10,11) Wyoming, George Washington (Wy may have a 1 loss record GW only 4 losses)
  12-19) WVA, ND, UGA, Vandy, Okla State, Oklahoma, Duke all end up with 6 or 7 losses

  NCAA Tournament seeds
  1 Tennessee vs 8 Stanford - New Orleans
  2 Maryland vs 7 Rutgers - Greensboro
  3 UConn vs 6 LSU - Oklahoma City
  4 Baylor vs 5 UNC - Spokane

  3 seeds
  CAL, ODU, Oklahoma, WVA
  4 seeds
  Wyoming, GW, WVA, OK State

  Final Four
  UT over Stanford
  Maryland over Rutgers
  LSU over UConn
  UNC over some lower seeded team that eliminates Baylor like CAL or Wyoming or ODU

  LSU over Maryland
  Tennessee over UNC

  LSU VS TENNESSEE for the National Championship