MARCH MADNESS - The Picks...

Let me first start off by saying that this was the first year in a while that I didn't have a clear cut favorite in mind to win it all. In my mind, there are 3 teams that have a very good chance to win it all: Kansas, UNC, and UCLA. After alot of deliberating, I came to the conclusion that Kansas will be the team that takes it this year. Injuries are what it came down to for me. UNC's talented point guard, Ty Lawson, still isn't 100% healed from a serious ankle sprain which affects his ability to drive to the basket and score. And I wouldn't be able to handle seeing Tyler Hansborough raising the trophy at the end of the tournament. He's the next Eric Montross... And while I think UCLA and Kansas are evenly matched, UCLA's Kevin Love is suffering from back spasms and there's talk that Luc Mbah a Moute, the glue that holds this team together, won't be back until the Elite 8. So what I foresee happening is that Luc-what's his name is going to come back early and try to play through the pain helping to lead the Bruins to the NCAA championship game...where they will fall to the Kansas Jayhawks. BAM!

As for Cinderella teams and major upsets, I really struggled in trying to pick the upsets. A lot of the teams who had been predicted to be upset specials like South Alabama and St. Mary's got bad draws so I don't foresee them going very far. My biggest upsets in my brackets reside in the West bracket. This is based soley on when you're comparing Mid-Majors to Major conferences and not their actual rankings in the brackets. West Virginia will upset Duke to get into the Sweet 16. I've also got the Drake Bulldogs going to the Sweet 16 and falling to UCLA and the closest thing I have to a Cinderella team is....(drum roll)... the Xavier Musketeers making it all the way to the Elite 8 falling once again to UCLA.

Keeping in mind that I will be in three different pools this year with three different entries, here are what I consider to be my best picks starting in the Round of 32:


ROUND OF 32
East
UNC over Arkansas; Notre Dame over Winthrop; Louisville over St. Joe's; Tennessee over Butler
Midwest
Kansas over UNLV; Clemson over Siena; Wisconsin over USC; Georgetown over Davidson
South
Memphis over Mississippi State; Pittsburgh over Temple; Stanford over Marquette; Texas over St. Mary's
West
UCLA over Texas A&M; Drake over San Diego; Xavier over Baylor; West Virginia over Duke

SWEET 16
East
UNC over Notre Dame; Tennessee over Louisville
Midwest
Kansas over Clemson; Wisconsin over Georgetown
South
Memphis over Pittsburgh; Texas over Stanford
West
UCLA over Drake; Xavier over West Virginia

ELITE 8
East
UNC over Tennessee
Midwest
Kansas over Wisconsin
South
Texas over Memphis
West
UCLA over Xavier

FINAL FOUR
Kansas over UNC; UCLA over Texas

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Kansas 75, UCLA 68