Its All About the Madness

March Madness of course. My bracket is all set, and I'm doing surprisingly well so far, granted we're not even through the first night of the first round yet. This is an epic time of year though if you ask me. Its the NCAA Basketball Tournament, its the biggest crap shoot that there is. Capable of making a complete novice look like an expert and vice versa. College basketball is the one sport where I actually am more novice than expert, at least in the major national sports. I only care about it if its March or later, but now I certainly care about it. My bracket is done, but I'm not playing for money in a pool, just pride. Its about to be an excite month of basketball though, hopefully full of upsets and quality games. There's already been a couple of overtime thrillers today to get things started, and an upset in Murray St.'s victory. Hopefully its a sign of things to come. But for now, here are a few notable things about the bracket I filled out:
Winner: Villanova, its all about Scottie Reynolds
Runner-up: Ohio St., Turner almost outduels Reynolds
Final 4: OSU, Syracuse, Kentucky, Nova
Surprising Elite 8 teams: Maryland (defeat Houston, MSU, and Kansas) Xavier (defeat Minnesota, Pitt, and Kansas St.), and Purdue (defeat Siena, Tex A&M, and Cal)
Surprising Sweet 16 teams: San Diego St. (defeat Tennessee and Ohio), Murray St. (defeat Vandy and Butler), Xavier, Temple (defeat Cornell and Wiscansin), California (defeat Louisville and Duke), Purdue, and Notre Dame (defeat Old Dominion and Baylor)
biggest upset: #14 Ohio over #3 Georgetown, don't underestimate the power of a team getting hot at the right time.
Admittedly, I went more with my heart than my head this year. I played favorites, and made Ohio teams go deeper than they should, but this is the NCAA tournament. Its about hopes and dreams, and its about making bold predictions and either looking like a genius or idiot afterward. I'm going for genius this year. I was a genius in 2004 when I correctly predicted a Connecticut vs Georgia Tech championship game, only to pick GT over UConn and ultimately lose. I haven't gotten close to being that close to right since, but this is my year. After all, it is the tournament of hopes and dreams.
I'll be sure to recap as the tournament goes on.