Hawk Eye Bracketology

Zach Laufer, Staff Writer

March 20, 2014

Hawk Eye presents the 2014 version of the NCAA Tournament Bracketology from the perspectives of two sports writers, Zach Laufer and Luke Hatfield. We went through each of our own brackets and discussed numerous possibilities. We gave each of our ideas of how the tournament will play out, from the champ to the upsets.

Final Four predictions

Luke: Florida, Iowa State, Louisville, Arizona

Zach: Florida, Michigan State, Wichita State, Wisconsin

National Title Game

Luke: Florida 65 Louisville 61

Zach: Michigan State 65 Wisconsin 61

Road to the Championship

Luke: Florida wins in the Second Round over 16th seeded Albany to go play Pittsburgh in the Top 32. They win and move on and play fourth seeded UCLA in the Sweet 16 in a closely contested contest, and outplay Kansas to go to the Final Four. They beat Iowa State to go to National Championship and stop Louisville from repeating in National Title game.

Zach: Michigan State rides the momentum swing from their Big Ten Championship run, coasting past Delaware in the second round. They continue in their quest, led by coach Tom Izzo, winning comfortably over (5) Cincinnati. After that, they win a closely contested match-up with (1) Virginia in the Sweet Sixteen. In the Elite Eight, they win with relative ease against a very good Iowa State team. Beating overall 1 seed Florida in the Final Four, they are fairly unstoppable at that point. They carry that emotion from beating Florida into the Championship game, sliding past a suffocating defensive team in (2) Wisconsin.

Surprises

Luke: Providence will upset (6) UNC in round of 64 and defeat (3) Iowa State in the next round to make it to Sweet Sixteen. Stanford will defeat (7) UNM in the Round of 64 and put up a legitimate fight against Kansas. NC State who won in the First Round against Xavier will upset (5) Saint Louis in the Round of 64 and put up a good fight against Louisville but will lose.

Zach: 10 St. Joe’s will upset (7) UConn in the round of 64 then shock the nation by beating (2) Villanova, making it to the Sweet Sixteen. (12) North Dakota State will upset (5) Oklahoma in the second round, coming up just short to San Diego St in the round of 32. (12) NC State will march past a severely overrated (5) St. Louis team but fall to (4) Louisville in the next round.

About the Contributor

Zach Laufer, Staff Writer

Balancing work, academics, and extra curricular activities, Zach Laufer is a model student at BPHS. He has a part time job at Famous Footwear shoe store."It's a great job, let me tell you," Zach said. In addition to that, Zach is musically talented. He is in both the Symphonic Band as a percussionist and Bethel Park's Top 21. Zach is also in the Marching Band. In the Marching Band, Zach is a bus monitor and drum captain this year. He plays the quads, which he says is technically "a quint." "There's a little extra one right in the middle," Zach said. As far as athletics, Zach is on the tennis team. He has been on the tennis team since his junior year. Through Hawk Eye, Zach hopes to hone in on his writing skills before he leaves for college after this year. He hopes one day to pursue a career in sports journalism at either Penn State or Robert Morris University. One day he hopes to be a sports beat writer or radio DJ. "Sports is the only thing that interests me writing wise," Zach said. Zach is excited to become a part of the Hawk Eye and looks forward to making the newspaper better throughout his senior year. Written by Katie Zilcosky, Staff Writer