Six predictions

I can't wait to go to Princeton.

Most of you probably aren't saying that, but then again, most of you are probably spring breaking in a normal place like Florida. Meanwhile I'm sitting in latitudinally-challenged Albany, putting on layer-after-layer of clothing to go out and rescue my newspaper from this morning's 20-below wind chill.

So I'll go short and sweet today and not miss my train to Princeton. Predictions time.

Three things that WILL happen:

The Quakers WILL send a message to selection committee chair Gary Walters, whose side job is as Princeton A.D.
Penn pulls another double-digit win over the Tigers.

The Quakers WILL continue to get no love in conference tournaments, but still manage a 13-seed.
The difference: momentum. Last year, the Quakers lost twice on their second trip through the Ivy schedule. Not so this year, when they'll enter with the all-important 10-0 record in their last 10. A 13-seed it is.

The DP WILL blow its travel budget on a trip next week to Spokane.
The way I see it, as a 13-seed there could be a 67-percent chance of this happening on selection Sunday. There is nobody beyond Washington State, who has the resume to be a protected (1-4) seed from the Northwest. And the Coogs are the host institution, so they're out. Meaning the spot will probably go to four seeds. Among them could be Nevada or UNLV, or the odd-team out that loses out to two better teams for a nearby site (say Virginia or Maryland losing out on Winston-Salem to UNC and Georgetown). So it's likely two of the four No. 4 seeds in Spokane. How's that 67 percent? It's not, but one of the other 4s could very easily be Texas with a good run in the Big 12 tournament, and Penn can't play the Longhorns because they met in the Tournament last year. So start studying up.

Three things that WON'T happen:

Penn will NOT play a mid-major in the Tournament.
The selection committee has a history of under-seeding teams with weak schedules. They'll look for anything to hold against you. See Washington, George in 2006. I don't put GW in the category of "mid-major," which has somehow come to mean "low-major," but the 26-2 Colonials got hosed on the basis of not playing a power schedule and got dropped to an 8-seed. Butler is a possibility for Penn with a win tonight. Southern Illinois likely not with their loss to Creighton. Note: I don't count the WAC and Mountain West as mid-majors, because then I'd have to count the A-14 as one, which I'm not comfortable doing.

There will NOT be three Penn players on the All-Ivy first team.
Jaaber? Here. Zoller? Here. Grandieri? Grandieri? Not the PC thing to do. Without Brian, there's no way the Quakers will be 21-8, but Naeve and McAndrew are locks and Hughes or Flato is a definite possibility as a way to represent the league's second-best team. Strangely, Brian Cusworth is still tossed around as a possibility, even after missing the last month due to complications from graduation.

Speaking of PC, Harvard will NOT follow its own lead and hire a woman to replace fired men's basketball coach Frank Sullivan.
Thus saying that there are still innate differences somewhere. Anybody else smell faculty senate vote?