BC GETS A 7 SEED, AND A DATE WITH USC

I was expecting Boston College to get an 8 or 9 seed, so this is a nice little surprise. BC will travel to Minneapolis for the opening round, and will face 10th seeded Southern Cal. BC is in the Midwest Region (Indianapolis), and if they can beat USC, will play either Michigan State or Robert Morris.

USC was 21-12, and surprisingly won the Pac-10 tournament. They were 5th in their Conference, so this is a solid 1st round selection for BC. They should beat this team. Michigan State is tough, but BC is fortunate not to have to face a 1 seed in the 2nd round.

The only other "New England" school to get into the tourney was UConn. The Huskies got a 1 seed, despite losing their opening game in the Big East Tournament. UConn gets to start off in Philadelphia, but they're part of the West region, so they'll have to go to Arizona to make the Final Four.

The TD BankNorth Garden will host the East Regionals. Pittsburgh is the #1 seed in the East bracket, and Duke is the #2. Here are the 14 other schools who might invade The Hub:

#3 Villanova
#4 Xavier
#5 Florida State
#6 UCLA
#7 Texas
#8 Oklahoma State
#9 Tennessee
#10 Minnesota
#11 Virginia Commonwealth
#12 Wisconsin
#13 Portland State
#14 American
#15 Binghamton
#16 East Tennessee

Boston College was one of 7 ACC teams to get in. The Big East and Big Ten were the other Conferences with 7 teams in. Here are the other teams to get in:

#1 North Carolina
#2 Duke
#4 Wake Forest
#5 Florida State
#7 Boston College
#7 Clemson
#10 Maryland

The tournament starts Thursday, and BC plays Friday.

BRUINS STILL CAN'T BEAT GOOD TEAMS

After compiling 2 wins in a row (for the first time since February 26th), the Bruins headed into Pittsburgh, had a 3-2 lead going into the final period, and were outscored 4-1. It only took the Penguins 61 seconds of sloppy Bruins' hockey to turn a 3-2 lead into a 4-3 deficit.

Apparently, 60 minutes of hockey is too much for the Bruins. To be fair, they had 5 penalties to kill. The refs called much too tight of a game, against both teams. Lots of nit-picky hooking, holding, and interference calls.

Since February 7th, the Bruins are 2-6-2 (6 points) against teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended right now. That's abysmal. In the 10 games against playoff teams before that, the Bruins were 8-1-1 (17 points). 10 games against playoff teams before THAT? 8-1-1.

Before February 7th, the Bruins were 18-3-4 against playoff teams. That's 40 points, or 1.6 points per game. In the last 10 games, it's been 0.6 points per game. Horrible. Dreadful. Shitty. Tragic.

The Bruins will win the Northeast division, but securing the 1 seed or the 2 seed is looking less and less likely. There are 12 games left, folks. 6 at home, 6 on the road. 4 against playoff teams, 8 against non-playoff teams.

The big games to gauge whether or not the Bruins are out of this extended funk:
3/22 vs. New Jersey
3/29 @ Philly
4/9 vs. Montreal

How the Bruins perform in these games will tell us if they're destined for a first round exit, or if they can go deep into the playoffs.

The B's have a few days off to sit in the corner and think about what they've done. They host the hapless Kings Thursday night.



Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar