More Bracket Thoughts

Originally published March 22, 2008 on Ramblings From The Suburbs.

More Bracket Thoughts

Pregame

• How many guys with the last name "Smith" does Tennessee have? I lost count.
• Do the guys on the American Eagles shop at American Eagle?
• I doubt that anybody will have a perfect bracket after this one.
• Stephen Curry is a beast.
• Adam Emmenecker has to be one of the best all-around players I have seen. And that's not me echoing the announcers.
• Picking a slumping Indiana team over Arkansas was a bad choice.
• Whoever #51 on Arkansas is, he has awesome hair. I'd like to see his fashion sense.
• The people in Tampa Bay got quite the show yesterday. Four upsets, two in overtime. Lucky bums.
• I went 22-10 in the first round. Not good.

Charlotte Region

• If North Carolina was playing Indiana in the second round game, I would pick North Carolina by a mile. However, Arkansas intrigues with their size that could help to neutralize Tyler Hansbrough, but Ty Lawson 's speed could cancel out the size factor. Still taking North Carolina.
• Notre Dame-Washington St. could be another good one. As I said before, I know nothing of how these two teams matchup. All I know is that Luke Harangody is a beast. So I think I'm leaning towards Notre Dame on this one to break through to the Sweet 16.
• I took a risk with St. Joe's over Oklahoma and that did not pay off. Most people complain about how all these small conference schools come out of nowhere to wreak havoc on their brackets. I hate the middle-of-the-road big conference schools that you do not hear anything about during the season and that come in to the tournament and wreak havoc on my bracket. Examples this year include Arkansas, Oklahoma, Miami, Villanova, Mississippi St., Texas A&M, and Purdue. Throw UNLV and Kent St. in there for good measure. Maybe I just need to follow college basketball closer.
• I think Louisville can definitely take Oklahoma. They better.
• Butler over Tennessee. The Smiths can't save the Volunteers this time.

Detroit Region

• Kansas should handle UNLV. I think. I know nothing of UNLV, so I'll have to watch this game to find out.
• Villanova and Siena both slightly messed up my bracket. Villanova knocked out Clemson, one of my Sweet 16 teams. I am happy to see Villanova and Siena win. If I had filled out multiple brackets like I usually do, I would have had both of them winning. I'm going to say the magic continues for Lucky No. 13 and Siena upends Nova.
• Wisconsin-Kansas St. intrigues as to who will guard Michael Beasley. Wisconsin is one of those teams that always sneaks up on me. After losing Alando Tucker, I did not think they could make it far into the tournament, but they always seem to do something right, sweeping the Big Ten crowns.
• Davidson-Georgetown is a scary one for me. I have Georgetown winning it all, but the way Davidson has been playing puts me on upset alert. As I said before, Stephen Curry is a beast.

Houston Region

• Memphis should run all over Mississippi St. Sorry for all you that wanted a Hansbrough family reunion in the finals.
• Michigan St.-Pittsburgh is a great matchup. I am a big Drew Neitzel fan and would love to see them advance, but I also really like Pitt and DaJuan Blair. I picked Pitt though, so Neitzel's great college career is almost over.
• Stanford is another one of those teams that has been sneaking around, but I have actually heard a lot of good things about them, especially the Lopez twins. Their size should be enough to stymie the Golden Eagles of Marquette.
• I had St. Mary's against Texas here, but Miami proved me wrong. Texas should handle Miami though. Should. My mom actually has Miami in her Final Four. Riiiiiiiiiight.
• This is the only bracket where the higher seed has one every game so far.

Phoenix Region

• UCLA's easier road continues against Texas A&M, who they can probably handle with help from Kevin Love. A&M might hang tough for a little while, but they will be overwhelmed eventually.
• The Western Kentucky-Drake game was the best game I have seen in a long, long time. I lost one of my Sweet 16 teams, but it was worth it for that excitement.
• San Diego-UConn was the second best game I have seen in a while. AND I PICKED SAN DIEGO!!!!! That aside, San Diego-Western Kentucky will be a great one. I think Western Kentucky has the edge though. Also, for all you out there who would like to learn more about San Diego, read about RobJones. He has quite the story that was covered in Sports Illustrated a while back that covered his and his father's past.
• Xavier's tenacious defense will be too much for Purdue, putting the Musketeers into the Sweet 16.
• I have Duke over West Virginia, but the Belmont game really scared me. West Virginia can definitely beat Duke, which I would like them to do, but for the sake of my bracket, Duke, please get to the Sweet 16.

Overtime

• I really enjoyed yesterday. Being off from school and watching basketball all day was awesome. However, the one thing that I absolutely hated was watching North Carolina beat up on Mount St. Mary's. That was horrible. No team should have to go through that. The Mount was thoroughly overmatched, but I guess there is not much they could do. It was still painful to watch while there were three other quality games going on.

So here are my picks:

National Champion Georgetown

Final Two Georgetown Memphis

Final Four North Carolina Georgetown Memphis UCLA

Elite Eight North Carolina Louisville Kansas Georgetown Memphis Stanford UCLA Xavier

Sweet Sixteen North Carolina Notre Dame Louisville Butler Kansas Clemson Wisconsin Georgetown Memphis Pittsburgh Stanford Texas UCLA Drake Xavier Duke

Second Thirty-Two North Carolina Indiana (Arkansas) Notre Dame Washington St. St. Joseph's (Oklahoma) Louisville Butler Tennessee Kansas Kent St. (UNLV) Clemson (Villanova) Vanderbilt (Siena) USC (Kansas St.) Wisconsin Davidson Georgetown Memphis Oregon (Mississippi St.) Michigan St. Pittsburgh Marquette Stanford St. Mary's (Miami) Texas UCLA BYU (Texas A&M) Drake (Western Kentucky) San Diego Purdue Xavier West Virginia Duke

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