Just for Sport

First, here’s how the first round shaped up for me:
1 – 26 wins, 6 losses. My previous first round best was 23-9.
2 – I had a perfect East bracket, and missed only 1 in the South.
3 – Most importantly, all 16 of my Sweet 16 teams are still in it.

Thoughts moving forward:
1 – I wish I would have drunk the Kool-Aid on Winthrop. I saw a couple of games early on in the season where I was impressed with Notre Dame’s big men, but it just didn’t translate. It’s kind of hard to play the whole second half in foul trouble, but the Eagles played a good game as well.
2 – I mentioned that all of my second round picks are still in, and I’m not flip-flopping on any of them. I don’t think any of the changed match-ups are very significant. I’m a little worried about Wisconsin against UNLV, but I think their first half dud against TAMUCC might have woken them up.
3 – I should have seen the Duke collapse coming. I picked them because A) It seemed like everybody was picking them to lose, and I didn’t want to get caught up in the hype, B) I overestimated Paulus, and C) I’m not that high on Virginia Commonwealth. Good win for them, but get ready for a letdown against Pitt.

My Second Round Upsets:
5 Virginia Tech over 4 Southern Illinois
9 Michigan State over 1 North Carolina
6 Vanderbilt over 3 Washington State
5 Tennessee over 4 Virginia
7 Nevada over 2 Memphis

Well, the tournament starts in about an hour, so it’s about time to reveal picks. I played it pretty safe this year; in years’ past I’ve been horrible at predicting upsets. Speaking of upsets, here are the first rounders that I picked:

9 Purdue over 8 Arizona
12 Old Dominion over 5 Butler
10 Georgia Tech over 7 UNLV
9 Villanova over 8 Kentucky
9 Michigan State over 8 Marquette

I actually picked no upsets in the South. This doesn’t usually happen, but it’s not like I’ve ever gotten an entire quarter of the bracket completely right anyway. Elite Eight:

Florida
Wisconsin
Kansas
UCLA
Texas
Georgetown
Ohio State
Texas A&M

I have Florida beating UCLA, and Georgetown beating Texas A&M. Florida repeats with a 79-73 win over the Hoyas.

I also made another bracket where I picked the most ridiculous scenarios I could think of, because heaven knows something is going to happen that nobody thought of. The final four from that bracket consists of Winthrop, Gonzaga, George Washington, and Long Beach State. If it looks like my bracket is going to be busted early, I’ll be rooting for these guys.