Mo Cassara Picks the NCAA Tourney: Sweet 16

Posted: 3/23/2010 8:26:47 AM

This is PART 3, check out Coach Cassara's picks for the WEST & MIDWEST regions here and picks for the East & South 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 sweet 16.

MIDWEST

9 UNI
5 Michigan St

Winner Northern Iowa
Notes Hard to not pick UNI – we played them this year, and I think they have all the pieces…MSU injury helps my decision…

6 Tennessee
2 Ohio St

Winner OSU
Notes Tough call, great game – Think the Star Player moves the Buckeyes on

WEST

1 Syracuse
5 Butler

Winner SU
Notes Too good, shooting the ball to well…

6 Xavier
2 Kansas St

Winner KSU
Notes I didn’t think X had enough this year, but they once again proved many wrong…wouldn’t shock me to see them in the Elite 8…