Chouette! We've avoided the Bracket de la mort!

Here are the matchups for the Women’s quarterfinals on Tuesday.  Handicap (point spreads) are in parentheses

Upper Bracket
Brazil vs. Norway (-1.5)
South Korea vs. Russia (-1.5)

Lower Bracket
Croatia (-.5) vs. Spain
Montenegro vs. France (-1.5)

Badminton tactics?: Conspiracy theorists are accusing Norway of some badminton-like tactics after their 25-20 loss to Spain in their final group play game.  A win would have placed Norway in 2nd place and set up a quarter final show down against Russia.  Norway and Russia have been the top two women’s teams in recent years and they were the oddsmaker’s top two pre-tournament favorites.  Norway’s loss, however, dropped them to fourth place and they will now play surprising Brazil.  Brazil has been playing well, though, so who’s to say whether that really is a better matchup.

Updated Odds: Here are the updated odds for the 8 remaining teams to win it all:

France:  2.5 to 1 (Pre-tournament odds: 6.5 to 1)
Norway: 2.75 to 1 (1.75 to 1)
Russia: 4.5 to 1 (3.5 to 1)
Brazil: 14 to 1 (50 to 1)
South Korea: 14 to 1 (50 to 1)
Montenegro: 19 to 1 (7.5 to 1)
Spain: 20 to 1 (34 to 1)
Croatia: 20 to 1 (75 to 1)

Worth noting:  France is the new favorite, partially due to their strong performance, but also due to a very favorable bracket.  The next four teams (Norway, Russia, Brazil and South Korea) will now battle each other in the “bracket of death”.

Link to NBC schedule of online games: http://www.nbcolympics.com/online-listings/sport=handball/index.html

(Note:  If you are time shifting, be careful not to scroll down to far if you want to avoid seeing who’s in the semifinals.)