#1 St. Thomas vs. DePaul
The defending National Champions will be taking on a new comer to the National Tournament in DePaul. I have a feeling that this game is going to be a lot closer than a lot of people might think. Although I believe St. Thomas will win the game, I think that DePaul will give them more of fight that the Tommies are used to getting in the first round.
St. Thomas beats DePaul by 5
#8 Sam Houston St. vs. United States Coast Guard Academy
Just like the D1 8-9 game I think that the lower seeded team will pull off an upset over the high seed. A lot of people will be saying how can you make this call when Sam Houston has Michael Mann and Travis Tabb, who have 98 and 80 points respectively. What I think is that Coast Guard has a better defense than Sam Houston and I think that the Bears will be able to shut down Mann and Tabb. This is also a game that could go either way but my gut tells me that the Coast Guard will be able to pull out a win.
US Coast Guard Academy beats Sam Houston St. by 3
#5 Concordia vs. Grove City
This game will be interesting because both teams are a lot alike and really neither one was, in my opinion, overly tested this year. I do believe that Concordia will win this game on the backs of Destin Seguin and Marcus Turner, both have 70+ points this season.
Concordia beats Grove City by 3
#4 Liberty vs. North Dakota St.
I’ve struggled with this game a lot, and actually it’s because I know more about these two teams than any of the other teams in D2 field. Liberty is probably the most exciting team in D2 MCLA right now. They only lost to Richmond and that was only by three, the rest of the games they played were won decisively. NDSU is a little more of a dark horse this year. They had an up and down season. The four teams that the Bison lost to this year are all seeded teams in the Tournament this year. I think the Bison will put up a fight but I don’t know if they have enough on defense to hold off the Flames offensive power.
Liberty beats NDSU by 3
#3 St. Johns vs. Western Oregon
St. Johns is once again one of the top three seed in the Tournament and has a gritty team that it need to get past in the first round. The Johnnies are one of the more storied programs in the MCLA and definitely has a good chance of getting back to the Finals which they haven’t done in 6 years. Western Oregon has an uphill battle in this game they are going up against arguably one of the best defenses in the country. But the Wolves will make it a game I just see them have the offensive power to take down the Johnnies in this one.
St. Johns beats Western Oregon 2
#6 Grand Valley St. vs. Savannah College of Art and Design
In this one I’ve Grand Valley over SCAD. I think Grand Valley has a better team and has the gritty it’s going to take win more than one game in May. Personally I don’t know if SCAD should be in the Tournament this year they lost a number of games that they really didn’t have the luxury of losing. I’m guessing the Selection Committee gave SCAD the benefit of the doubt since the made the SELC Championship game and only lost to Liberty by 4.
Grand Valley beats SCAD by 7
#7 Palm Beach Atlantic vs. Indiana Tech.
This game is hard for to play out for me both teams had pretty good years but both lost a few too many games for my liking. I think Indiana Tech got in by the skin of their teeth a lot like SCAD, but I also think that PBA may be a little over seeded at #7 but not by much.
Palm Beach Atlantic beats Indiana Tech by 4
#2 Westminster vs. Briarcliffe
This game is going to much along the same lines as St. Thomas- DePaul. If Briarcliffe travels like they did last year come tournament time I really don’t see any chance for them against a team who played most of the best teams in the country at both the D1 and D2 level, and played extremely well and only lost 4 games to the #1, #2 and #5 teams in D1 and #1 team in D2.
Westminster beats Briarcliffe by 7
