By Michael Pepin

With the Big East and Big Ten conference tournaments next week, many people are beginning to formulate their own predictions and opinions of how this month of madness will turn out.

“There are six teams in the Top 25 right now [in the Big East], more than any other conference, just beating the Big Ten, which has five.  I think that while U of L is vulnerable at any given time, they have what it takes to make win the Big East Conference,” said biology teacher  Kirk Moldenhauer, who believes that U of L will also win the NCAA Basketball tournament, barely triumphing over IU.

However others have different predictions about the two local teams.

“I think that U of L will make it to the finals in the Big East Conference and then lose to Georgetown, since their team is really good this year.  IU will only make it to the Elite Eight, if not just the Sweet 16,” said sophomore Harrison Rice.

Many agreed that the teams this year are very talented, though flawed.

“If (point guard Peyton) Siva doesn’t play well, the rest of the team doesn’t play well.  Sometimes he rushes the shots, and that costs the team points.  However the team this year is easily capable of making it to the finals,” said Rice.

The opinion remains generally the same even with fans of different teams.

“IU has the best team in college basketball, but sometimes when we turn it over, we don’t get as many possessions as we should.  Yet, even with that there is no doubt that the team will make it to the final four.  We are still ranked number 2 in the country,” said freshman Landon Receveur.

However, triumphing over the other teams in the NCAA basketball tournament requires more than a prestigious name or a good team and skillful players.

“Anybody can beat anybody these days; 15 years ago there were only a few good teams that stood a chance of winning.  In order to win the NCAA, even the best teams need a lot of luck,” said Moldenhauer.