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By special request, here is my bracket for the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament. It's a little early to reveal my picks to my greatest rivals (Sacamano, Abboud) but so be it. I reserve the right to change some of these picks before Thursday, but this is how I laid it out this morning.

I don't watch NCAA basketball with the same level of obsession that I used to (thanks, Chris Webber), so over the past couple of years, I've had to come up with some alternate strategies in picking my brackets. This year I abandoned some of those strategies, while clinging even more to others. Here they are:

1) Pick the favorites. I like cheering for the underdog as much as the next guy, but there's a reason so many of these programs get the high rankings year after year after year. I went even more conservative than normal this year, predicting one #2 seed and three #1 seeds in the Final Four. Other than a couple #9 upsets, my upset picks were Siena, St. Joseph's, Davidson, St. Mary's, Kentucky, San Diego, and West Virginia. Other than Kentucky, I didn't pick any of those teams to make it past the Sweet Sixteen.

2) Pick the Catholic schools. In particular, the Jesuit universities. That's how I roll. Ad majorem Dei gloriam, baby. No Boston College, Creighton or Holy Cross for me this year, but Gonzaga, St. Joseph's, Xavier and Georgetown all advance in my bracket. Notre Dame, too. Xavier and Georgetown make the Elite Eight, with Georgetown losing in the Finals to UCLA. Sadly, I just couldn't pick Marquette to advance. Kentucky is really hot right now, and they never lose in the first round (seventeen straight first round wins).

3) Always bet against Duke. I hate Duke. Always bet against Duke. Go, Belmont Bruins!

4) Pick the Ivy League School. I usually pick the Ivy League champion in the first round, which for as long as I can remember has meant picking either Penn or Princeton. This year it's Cornell, and I can't pick those guys. That Cayuga Lake smells just awful.

5) Have at least one pick you can giggle at. The last couple years, this has meant taking Oral Roberts University. Heh. Oral. Heh. TV Minister. This year, my pick is Kent State. My reasoning: singing "four dead in Ohio" non-stop for the last minute of the game. Gotta get down to it!

So there you go. It's nuts, but it's worked. I've been pretty pleased with my record over the past three years:

2007: 2nd place
2006: 4th place
2005: 1st place

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First round game to watch: USC vs. Kansas State; anything called by Gus Johnson.

Players to watch: Michael Beasley, Roy Hibbert, OJ Mayo, Derrick Rose, Derrick Low, Tyler Hansbrough, Stephen Curry, Luke Harangody, Kevin Love.

Best name in the tournament: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.

Player I'm sad about not getting to see in the tournament: 7-7, 360 pound Kenny George. His voice terrifies me.