March Madness

Filled out my bracket tonight, even though I must admit I know nothing about what has happened this college basketball season.  Sure, I've heard all about Kentucky with freshmen and soon-to-be NBA lottery picks Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.  I can honestly say I didn't watch one single Longhorn game this year (haven't missed much apparently).  However, I have spent the past week catching up on the season reading bracketology columns and watching some of the bracket analysis on Sunday night.  In glancing at the cover of my SI college basketball preview issue, I see that a number of projected top 20 teams are not dancing this year - Pitt, UCLA, and AZ.

As usual, I am excited about the tournament.  There's just something about it that brings excitement every year along with the arrival of Spring Break.  I remember my first interest in college basketball was when I was 15 following the UH "Phi Slama Jama" Cougars.  I remember crying when they lost that game to NC St at the buzzer.  I was a big fan of Akeem (pre-Hakeem) Olajuwon as he led them back to the Final 4 the following year (lost to G'town), and then went on to play for the Rockets.

I remember filling out my first bracket 25 years ago (in '87) while on Spring Break in Destin during my freshmen year in college.  I remember filling out my first "office pool" bracket in '94 at ALSAC and discovering the bracket organizer was married to a fellow Longhorn here in Memphis.  I remember picking Texas as a sleeper pick in many brackets before they became a regular top tier seed, including their run to the final game in 2003 losing to Syracuse, and losing in the Elite 8 to LSU in '06 and Memphis in '08.  I also remember 25 years of filling out brackets and never winning the big prize, but there's always a next year.

So, this year I'm going with Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio St, and UNC as my Final 4.  No surprises there as Kentucky appears to be the most popular pick to win it all, but I'm taking UNC to win it.  My upset picks (8th seed or higher) for the sweet 16 are Belmont, Cal and K-State, but I have none of them advancing to the Elite 8.  It's easy to forget that 8th seeded Butler and 11th seeded VCU made it to the Final 4 last year...who's this year's surprise team(s)?