Maui Bracket

The Maui bracket is officially out and I must say Duke, like Marquette, have the most favorable paths to the championship game. Duke will play Princeton in the opener and let's face it, if they don't get past the Tigers, you think they were a laughing stock last year, just wait and see if they lose the opener to Princeton. In years past, Princeton has always been a tough out but let's be real here, Gus Johnson isn't doing the game and this isn't the Pete Carrill team that upset UCLA 43-41 in 1996.

Marquette will play Chaminade in the opener and unless this game involves Ralph Sampson, this will be a blowout. To me, there are five teams in this tourney that can legitimately win it: Duke, Illinois, Ok State, LSU, and Marquette. Ok State will play LSU in the opener so one of those two will, at best, finish in 5th place. Illinois could have their hands full with Herb Sendek, former Dukie Eric Boateng and company from Arizona State but they should move on to play Duke in the semifinal.

I would love to see Duke v. Illinois, given the feud Weber and K have been having since the Jon Sheyer recruiting battle. Bruce, stop crying, you sound like Kermit the frog, you couldn't even recruit a guy who was coached by your brother in high school, you took Bill Self's players to the title game not your own so shut up. I would love K and Duke to smack him around and call him Susie for a while.

LSU and Ok State is a toss up considering both teams lost big contributors in Big Baby for LSU and JamesOn Curry and Mario Boggans for Ok State. I will give the edge to LSU because of their athleticism. Either way, I think Marquette's superior guard play will be enough to land them in the finals against Duke.

If so, this would be a rematch of last years preseason tourney championship in Kansas City that Marquette won when Dominic James took over the last 5 minutes. My prediction is Duke prevails because of, get this, their superior depth. When's the last time I was able to say that? Last year, James abused the lack of speed that Paulus and Sheyer have but this time around, Nolan Smith will be the guy to stop James and lead them to a title.