SPORTS POINT AND COUNTERPOINT

By Nick Freimuth DoorCountyDailyNews.com

If you are looking to win your office NCAA bracket pool, do not pick with your heart (ESPECIALLY THIS YEAR). The Wisconsin Badgers and Marquette Golden Eagles will not take us on the ride some may be expecting. The Badgers do not have a consistent big time scorer to rescue them against the run and gun teams of the PAC-10 and ACC. If defense truly wins championships, the Badgers would have won a National title under Dick Bennett. This year's Badgers squad has the best offensive balance Madison has seen in over a decade.

However, balance is not everything. When selecting your NCAA brackets pick teams with two three and even four potential NBA difference makers. Those teams are UCLA, UNC, Georgetown and Kansas. I believe the UCLA Bruins are best equipped to handle any style of play and will move on to a national championship.

The Badgers got the shaft with the number three seed, but snuck into a relatively light regional. The Midwest has two teams that have a legitimate chance of winning the national championship, Kansas and Georgetown. Not the Badgers.

I played little league baseball with Wisconsin center Brian Butch and have a routing interest. He was a great athlete then and is still ripping it up today, but I just don’t think there is enough around him to lift the Badgers to the Elite Eight.

Marquette is excessively inconsistent. Junior point guard Dominic James has proved one thing this season. It was the right decision to avoid the NBA draft last year and he should do the same again after this season. I would not be surprised to see the Golden Eagles go down in the first round against Kentucky. If they do escape their first round match up, it's lights out for them against Stanford.

Wisconsin and Marquette basketball fans don't buy into the hype Paul Schmitt will try to sell you. He is a salesman by profession, so I could understand if you do. Take it from the sports reporter, Wisconsin will be knocked out in the sweet 16 and Marquette falls early.

The Wisconsin Badgers will get to the final four and the Marquette Golden Eagles will make it to the sweet sixteen. That's my prediction as "March Madness" sweeps the nation. First, Marquette. The Golden Eagles might be the anti-badgers. They have wonderfully skilled athletes who love to run up and down the court. The frantic pace fits Marquette's coach Tom Crean's personality and approach. It's fun to watch, but unfortunately the sixth seeded Golden Eagles do not have the inside game to grind out victories deep into the tournament. Look for Marquette to upend Kentucky and slip past Stanford, before getting run out of gym by the Texas Longhorns.

Now the Badgers, Bo Ryan has brought a complete team concept to Madison, reminiscent of the Dick Bennett years. In fact, it was eight years ago when the Badgers, as an eighth seed, shocked the basketball world by making it to the final four. Wisconsin will play down and up to any level of competition, which is dangerous, but they always seems to find a way to win. That's a team that will go deep into the NCAA tournament. With six players averaging between 7.5 and 12.5 points per game, the Badgers have too many options for any team to shut down.

Maybe when they run into UCLA or North Carolina, the talent might be too good to overcome. But until then, look for Wisconsin to dominate Cal State-Fullerton, comeback and defeat a fast-paced USC team, out-muscle the Georgetown Hoyas, and then dismantle the surprising Vanderbilt Commodores in the Regional final. After a hard-fought defeat against North Carolina in the final four, the Badgers will finish 33-5, and that folks is a great season by anyone's account.

Side note: UCLA will beat Texas in the semi-finals before defeating North Carolina 87-82 in the finals. Get your brackets filled-in and let the madness begin!