Tip-Off Marathon sanity check preview post

Let's look at these games and go on a scale from 1 to 5 Bill Waltons on how enthused you need to be to watch each game.

All times eastern, because the east coast rules the world:

7:30 PM Virginia at George Washington - GWU isn't the easiest out, but a road win Virginia should get.  Mild upset alert.  2 Waltons.  

9:30 PM San Diego St at Utah - Now here we go.  MWC #1 at Pac-12 #3.  We saw the Mountain West fade last year; these games will fix a lot of seed problems that come with playing in the MWC.  As for Utah, a simple chance at a quality win.  4 Waltons.

11:30 PM Baylor at Oregon - Even though it's a road game, Baylor should roll.  1 Waltons.  

1:45 AM BYU at Long Beach St - LBSU schedules up like crazy every year, but won't matter in the at-large picture.  A big game for BYU, though.  A bubble team needs to win games like this, especially on the road, which the committee likes to see.  A loss isn't devastating, but the margin of error is smaller in the WCC.  2 Waltons.  

4:00 AM Nevada at Hawaii - Naptime.  0 Waltons.

6:00 AM Green Bay at East Tennessee St - Neither are favorites in their league, so I'm going with 0 Waltons too.  This is reminiscent of those old BracketBuster games, of which this would be, say, a decent matchup.

8:00 AM Stephen F Austin at Northern Iowa - This looked a lot better before SFA got BTFO'd by Baylor, and UNI lost a bad one to Colorado St.  1 Waltons.  Because the loser of this game will be in desperation mode for their at-large chances.  

10:00 AM Valparaiso at Rhode Island - 5 Waltons!  EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE, is on the Valpo bandwagon.  And URI is your A-10 favorite.  This will be a quality win for whoever wins, and if it's Valpo, they can begin to think at-large bid.  This is the one you can't afford to miss.  Sleep through the earlier ones if you have to.  

1:00 PM Alabama at Dayton - Dayton should cruise.  1 Walton.  

3:00 PM Colorado at Auburn - Nah, take a mid-day nap.  You'll need it by this point.  1 Walton.  

5:00 PM Oklahoma at Memphis - OU is a bonafide team, and Memphis is regressing.  I can't talk myself into believing anything Memphis is selling this year.  2 Waltons, only because it's a road game for OU and you never know.  

7:30 PM Kentucky vs. Duke (Chicago)

10:00 PM Kansas vs. Michigan St (Chicago) - all the Waltons.  

9:00 PM Georgetown at Maryland - This looked a lot better before G'town gakked one to Radford.  3 Waltons.