Bracket Blog - Day 1

Day one has provided two monumental blowouts, and a very limited dose of madness. So far, with four games to go tonight, Duke vs. VCU has been the only "down to the wire" finish. Out of the 12 games thus far, I've picked 10 correctly (which is much better than my usual ratio of success by this point in the tourny).

The day consisted of skipping my night class to watch games, signing my younger brother out of school at 12:00 so that he could watch games, and generally avoiding all of my daily responsibilities (so I could watch games, of course). As for day 2, I'll be glued to the games once again, and I'm expecting a little more drama for Friday's action.

March Madness Predictions

It's time for my tournament predictions. I have to mention this as a disclaimer: I absolutely suck at making picks in the "Big Dance". But you never know, maybe this is my year. And now onto the picks . . .

Sweet 16
Midwest
(1) Florida - Arizona or Purdue will be a dangerous 2nd round matchup
(4) Maryland - Davidson is a tough 1st round draw, if they get by them I see them in the round of 16
(6) Notre Dame - I can see them losing in the 1st round against Winthrop, so this is risky
(2) Wisconsin
West
(1) Kansas
(4) Southern Illinois - This is a team on the edge, they could easily lose either of their first two games
(3) Pittsburgh - It's going to take steady guard play to beat Pitt, Duke and Wright St. don't have it
(10) Gonzaga - Gonzaga is back to being a Cinderella team, time avenge last year's loss to UCLA
East
(1) North Carolina
(4) Texas
(11) George Washington - George Washington kinda sounds like George Mason . . .
(2) Georgetown
South
(1) Ohio State
(5) Tennessee - They need to take care of business against Long Beach St.
(3) Texas A&M
(2) Memphis

Elite 8
(4) Maryland - They've been hot as of late, and can sneak up on Florida
(6) Notre Dame - Wisconsin struggles to score and ND can shoot the lights out, upset special
(1) Kansas
(10) Gonzaga - They'll play focused, and play with discipline; this will be enough to beat Pitt
(1) North Carolina
(2) Georgetown
(1) Ohio State
(2) Memphis - Very tough game against Texas A&M

Final 4
(6) Notre Dame - the dream run ends here
(1) Kansas
(1) North Carolina - They've beaten Ohio State once, they'll beat them again
(1) Ohio State

National Championship
(1) Kansas 68
(1) North Carolina 76 - UNC is viewed as the weakest #1 seed in the field. I say, forget about the mask, UNC wins it all.