By Thomas "LA" Lewis

With the first games kicking off tonight, I wanted to get my biggest preseason prognostications officially documented before it was too late to call them "preseason" predictions.  History tells me 5 of these will be spot on and 5 of them will so far off it will laughable at season's end.  But which 5 are the good ones?  Check back in on January 9th...

Two tickets have been punched to San Antonio.  Actually, you know what, I hate that phrase.  Let's just say that two teams have made it to the Final Four, and they did it in impression fashion.  First, UCLA absolutely dominated in their matchup with Xavier.  I had been betting against Xavier all tournament long, and as soon I switch to their favor, they burn me.  In the other matchup, North Carolina dominated, but had to hold off a 2nd half surge that brought an eleven point lead down to nothing.  Fortunately for them, Hansbrough stepped up again and took control.  The guy is already the second leading scorer in UNC history as a Junior!  Rumor has it he has already signed paperwork for his house for next year which means he'll come back for his senior year, but let's wait and see.  So, let's get on to today's matchups.

The four games yesterday had two blowouts, a nail biter, and a game that was both a blowout and a nail biter.  If you didn't happen to check out the UCLA vs. WKU game, then you missed out on one of the almost biggest comebacks in NCAA history, especially considering it was against a #1 seed.  The score ended up a 10 point win by UCLA, two shy of the magical spread number.  So...let's hope for 4 close games tonight... versus the spread of course.  On to the matchups...