everything that's on my mind

The madness continues

I believe next year I am going to fill out what I'll call the "George Costanza" bracket. Remember the episode where George chooses to do the opposite of whatever his instincts tell him? Well, that's apparently what I need to do. If I'd picked the other team on every one of my picks, I think I'd be doing better than I am now.

Atlanta

Didn't see one second of the West Viginia - Northwestern State game, but I'm not surprised they won. I almost picked W Va over Iowa and then to beat Texas. Instead, I went with Iowa. Again, the Costanza method would've helped. Texas, in the end, hammered NC State after State had kept it close for a while. I was hoping State could pull it off for a third ACC team in the sweet 16, but they finished the season pretty weak, and the win over Cal was a huge surprise. I figured it'd be quite a feat to pull off the win against Texas in Dallas. Texas looked really good, but they were playing NC State, so it's hard to tell how well they're really playing.

Oakland

Memphis was all over Bucknell. If Arkansas had been slightly more agressive, they would've beaten Bucknell. But the theories that Arkansas would give Memphis trouble are pretty ridiculous. Memphis' defense looked to be in Bucknell's uniforms with them at times, and they seemed to steal the ball at will during several stretches of the game. Memphis looked really good, too, but again, they've played ORU and Bucknell, so who really knows?

Bradley scored a second upset, knocking off one of my final four teams, Pittsburgh. The funny thing in this game was the on-screen scoreboard. With the higher seed always on bottom, that meant that the scoreboard read Brad Pitt. Well, I thought it was humorous.

Minneapolis

Saw none of the Georgetown - Ohio State game, either. Although I picked Ohio State, I wasn't surprised Georgetown won. They've beaten a number of good teams this year. Arizona gave Villanova a pretty good game. I thought they might have a shot at the upset, and they played them to the end, but didn't quite have enough. As good as Villanova's guards are, I don't think they can win it all.

Washington

Speaking of not being able to win it all, UNC won't be repeating since they lost to George Mason today. I recall many saying George Mason shouldn't be in the tournament. Now they've beaten two of last year's Final Four teams, including the champion. "I guess the foot's on the other hand now." It appears - at least from the box score - that David Noel was the only one that did much of anything for UNC. Perhaps their youth was a factor after all. And did you check out Roy going Bob Knight on the sideline, picking up the chair and slamming it to the floor? You usually don't see ol' Roy that upset.

Kentucky gave UConn another scare. One of the criticisms of UConn is, of course, that they don't play for 40 minutes. They clearly didn't against Albany, and despite all of the talking heads declaring they'd beat Kentucky more easily, they didn't, and you have to wonder if they're still not willing to play 40 minutes. I was convinced before the thing started that they would not win it all, and they haven't done anything to change my mind. They still may very well do it - they certainly have the talent - but they're not going to if they don't play the whole game. That will end up biting them before it's over - maybe even against Washington in the next round. They'd better show up to play next weekend, or it will be their last weekend.

Final thoughts

Looking forward to the sweet 16. I will make official picks, most likely, by Thursday, but my initial thoughts are that, while many are picking LSU & Texas in the Atlanta final, I still say Duke wins and I think West Viriginia might just beat Texas this time - as you may recall, they lost to Texas in November. I also think Boston College still has what it takes to come out of Minneapolis. I expected neither Memphis nor Gonzaga to go past next weekend, but they both have a good shot at it, especially with Kansas and Pitt losing. And I think you'll have to consider the winner of UConn and Washington to be the most likely final four team from Washington, DC. So, I'll probably have more thoughts this week, and we'll see what happens this weekend.