Oh There's the Upsets!

So how's your bracket looking on the the third day? (Notice I didn't say "brackets" since I not only believe but know that the correct and true way is to fill out ONE bracket and then submit that ONE same bracket for every pool you are in. People who fill out a different bracket with different results in different pools, I mean, what does that prove? How hard is that? That's like taking a multiple choice final exam but instead of submitting one test you submit ten, all with different answers, and you tell the prof "whichever one of these ten gets the most right answers is the one you'll take." It's ridiculous, and it's wrong. Just plain wrong!). Speaking of wrong, so far I have picked 10 wrong games out of the first 32, putting me at the bottom of most of my pools. Already I'm kicking myself for changing my answers before submitting them (Again with the multiple choice exam example, you should always go with your first instincts if you're not sure), and for not following a reminder I made for myself last year: don't pick too many upsets. I don't know about you, but when filling out my bracket I always get the feeling that there'll be upsets galore, but with the exception of the crazy George Mason Tourney a few years back, there's never as many as you think.

As we all know, there's ALWAYS at least one 12 over 5 upset, and there seems to be a 13 over 4 as well as an 11 beating a 6. Knowing this, I didn't like any real upset possibilities in the 5/12 matches, and picked the wrong one (Temple over Michigan State). For the 4/13 games, I originally had, and I swear it, Siena beating Vandy. Vandy had struggled down the stretch and Siena seemed fiesty, but then I started reading about how Vandy has the SEC player of the year and blah blah blah and changed it Wednesday night. Deciding that i still needed a 13 over 4 I dumbly took Winthrop over Washington State.

I did not pick an 11 to beat a 6, so I missed K-State over USC. I thought USC was too hyped and was surprised to see some "experts" picking them to the Elite 8 or Final Four, but I at least thought they'd beat K-State. Nope. With the 7/10 games I, like seemingly the rest of the world, picked Davidson over Gonzaga, but missed WVU over Arizona (I thought Arizona had too much talent to lose in the 1st round, but I suppose that's why they were a 10 seed in the first place), and had St Mary's beating Miami. Again, too many upset picks!! I did get three of the four 8/9 games, missing A&M over BYU.

Two of my Sweet 16 teams are gone (Clemson and Drake), but still have my Elite 8 intact: Carolina over Tennessee, Kansas over Bucky Badger (watching Wisconsin play basketball should replace the death penalty. Make a tape of murderers being forced to watch Badger hoops, like Alex in "A Clockwork Orange", and I guarantee murder rates would drop dramatically. Seriously while I greatly respect the Badgers and the program they've built, and in no way am I being sarcastic about my respect for them, watching them play makes LISTENING or HEARING paint dry seem exciting. Yet as ugly and boring and slow as they play, they still took the Big 10 regular season and tourney titles, so that's why I have them in the Elite 8. They will bore you to death), Texas over Pitt (Memphis' woeful free throw shooting will come back to haunt them, although as somebody pointed out Pitt does well in the Big East tourney EVERY year and then flames out in the big dance. Frick I'm an idiot!), and UCLA over Duke (who is trailing by 7 to West Virginia right now. Good gosh I would love to see the damn Dookies lose here. Why do I ever pick them out of the first weekend when they are probably my least favorite team on earth? Mental note for next year: don't pick Duke out of the first weekend! Noted. Thanks brain).

I picked UCLA over Carolina in the finals because I think Carolina is loaded and can play any style of basketball...until they play UCLA apparently. I don't know, I didn't like taking the top-seeded Tar Heels even though it made the most sense. So I went with UCLA because it felt right, and then I saw the Sports Guy made the same pick and knew I was screwed. But hey, I was picking to my picks!!- Well except for Siena over Vandy...long story short, as Jack Nicholson says in A Few Good Men "you want me in your bracket pool! You NEED me in your bracket pool!" I mean with reasoning like this, who wouldn't want me in their pool? Enjoy the rest of the weekend everybody, and happy Easter!