Mo Cassara Picks the NCAA Tourney: East & South

This is PART 2, check out Coach Cassara's picks for the WEST & MIDWEST regions here.

Somehow, I convinced Boston College assistant coach Mo Cassara (aka @coach_cassara on Twitter) to make his NCAA tournament picks for the first two rounds on SCACCHoops.com.  He was kind enough to not only pick the opening round and second round games, but even give some insight on his picks.  Despite his busy schedule, Coach Cassara tells me he was able to still see 58 of the 65 teams (10 in person, 48 on game film or on TV) in the NCAA tournament in action.

Here's a little about Cassara from his bio on Boston College's website...

Mo Cassara is in his fourth season on the Boston College coaching staff. Cassara joined the Eagles in the spring of 2006 after serving the previous two years as head coach at Clark (Mass.) University.

Cassara came to Boston College with a resume that included head coaching experience at both the prep school and collegiate levels. Before arriving at BC, he was well known to BC fans as the former head coach at Worcester (Mass.) Academy, where he coached Craig Smith during the 2001-02 season. The Hilltoppers won a school-record 27 games that season.

Maybe, if we're nice he'll even come back next week and take us to the final four!

Enough with the intro, let's get to his picks for the East and South regions.

 

EAST

1 UK
16 ETSU

Winner: UK

Notes: UK!

8 TEX
9 WAKE

Winner: TX

Notes: Wake slide again…?

5 TEM
12 COR

Winner:  Temple

Notes: LOVE Cornell…Temple playing too well? Don’t be shocked to see Cornell win a few?

4 WIS
13 WOF

Winner: Wofford

Notes: Upset alert? Wisconsin away from home…well coached Wofford team!

6 MARQ
11 WASH

Winner: Washington

Notes: Pick-em – go with upset

3 UNM
14 MONT

Winner: UNM – upset alert here too?

Notes: Grizzlies do it again?

7 CLEM
10 MIZZ

Winner: Mizz

Notes: Could go either way?

2 WVU
15 MORG

Winner: WVU

Notes: No easy first round game with Morgan – but like WVU & they are playing well!

ROUND 2 WINNERS & NOTES

1. Loved TX early on…could they run out UK? Coach Cal takes Kentucky on…

2. Temple playing well…one of best coaches in country in Fran Dunphy

3. Like Marquette / Washington winner to advance

4. Huggins and crew advance with another big time player in Butler

 

 

SOUTH

1 DUKE
16 ARK PB

Winner: DUKE

Notes: over Winthrop … Blue devils better then many think!

8 CAL
9 LOU

Winner: Louisville

Notes: Not sold on Pac 10 this year

5 TA&M
12 USU

Winner:  USU

Notes: Go with upset here – USU something to prove

4 PUR
13 SIE

Winner: Purdue *(love this team – just not sure where they are w/out Hummell)

Notes: Upset alert – great Siena team – injured Purdue team

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