Monday, March 17, 2008

 

The Madness

(click image to enlarge)


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



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.

Comments:

Picking Kentucky in an upset? I think you're being influenced by the colonel my fried.
 


The more Kentucky advances, the more I get to see Ashley Judd in tight Kentucky tees.
 


GO AWAY NCAA BASKETBALL!!!! Boo to you for putting this on a Battle of Alberta page!
 


GO AWAY NCAA BASKETBALL!!!! Boo to you for putting this on a Battle of Alberta page!

I agree. Who the hell would want to watch the Tournament when we have a full plate of meaningless NHL and NBA games to watch. I can't wait to watch the Miami Heat go through the motions for two and a half hours tonight.

Fuck, it's been almost two months since I've watched a meaningful sporting event. The NCAA tournament can't come soon enough.
 


Is that KFC deal good in Canada? If it is, I'm printing out your bracket for lunch tomorrow.
 


This is my favourite blog that's about civic politics and NCAA basketball but DEFINITELY NOT the Edmonton Oilers.
 


This is my favourite blog that's about civic politics and NCAA basketball but DEFINITELY NOT the Edmonton Oilers.

Because Andy is clearly praying at the altar of Deputy Mayor Fernando Pisani, who will be competing for Kentucky during March Madness, in the post below.

Random question, open to the floor: Am I getting crankier in my "old" age, or is the Internet getting demonstrably stupider?
 


HA! The only conference that is more overrated than the ACC is the Pac-10.

I figure that UCLA is probably 2:1 to be out after the first two rounds.
 


doogie - wait until you get to be my age

I hate everything - music, movies, TV, politicians, the Internet, big business, big labour, Walmart, the oil companies, bureaucracy, cats, rats, bats, stoats, goats

and especially RABBITS!
 


Andy I presume you have seen the pic of Ashley Judd in a Wildcats hockey jersey.

Hubba hubba!

And especially RABBITS!
 


Sac, lemme guess: Indiana versus Indiana in the final, right? :)
 


Andy I presume you have seen the pic of Ashley Judd in a Wildcats hockey jersey.

I have. Prrrrr. Link here.
 


Thank you.
 


West Virginia is a 7 seed. So, they aren't really an upset for the first round.
 


Oops. Correct you are. For some reason I thought they were in the 10 spot.
 


so...no BOA bracket competition this year?
 


I never said that.
 

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