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March Madness


I printed out a bracket, read a web page that offered odds on each team winning each game each round, looked at the power rankings (I don't even know what those are!). Read an analysis by somebody on Yahoo, looked back at ESPN Mag's giant killers article, and made most of my picks.
I want to believe that a year's experience and maturity will only help, and I loved the way Florida played last year, so I'm favoring them as my #1 of #1s. North Carolina looked really good while they were crushing Duke last week, before the nose-smashing. As corollary, Duke looked really bad. An aside: Bill Simmons says a basketball fan has to choose between UNC and Duke, but I'd just as soon see them both lose -- the only historically good program I continue to root for is UCLA; I like their chances this year. VCU got high marks as a giant-killer from ESPN and I'm picking them (maybe wishfully) to knock off Duke in the first round then stay hot to beat Pitt. My even more sketchy giant-killer pick is Old Dominion. After choosing Winthrop to win a couple games I see that an analyst on CBS sportsline is calling them the "sexiest" pick.
I want to see as much of Durant as possible, so I've picked Texas to go until I reluctantly chose UNC over them. I've got OSU going to the Final Four because I want to see more Oden. But based on yesterday's game, I'm hoping he gains a lot of polish in the first two games; OSU looked vulnerable to me. Georgetown is another team I've seen enough highlights and fragments from, and read enough about, to think they'll do very well, and I want to watch them.
I know I'm being tempted into some wishful thinking; I'd like to see Kentucky beaten in the first round (another in the list of historically good teams I just don't like), but I haven't actually pencilled Villanova's name in yet. Either way, I think Chicago is a Kansas walkover weekend.

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