awr March Madness Picks – Explained Mostly With .GIFs

Ok, I gotta make this quick. Mainly because the NCAA Tournament starts tomorrow afternoon and I have to be up for work in less than five hours. (Clearly I wrote this Wednesday night.) Ok, so like literally everyone else out that takes place in any March Madness Bracket Pools, I don’t have a direct science on how to pick these teams. Obviously. Because if I did, I’d be quite wealthy and I definitely wouldn’t be working 60 hour weeks while having second thoughts on that 7th Jack & Coke on Wednesday. For the record, I’d probably live in mansion in Miami and be Future’s European Tour Manager. I’ve gotten too far off track. Now, for my bracket.

I’m in a few pools this year so I don’t want to give too much info on where my picks came from this year, or really even what all of them are—I know there are some procrastinators among my competition this year—so I’ll just give a few highlights. Note: These are subject to change until about 12:14 on Thursday….so there’s that.

• Don’t Call It An Upset: (8) Pitt over (1) Gonzaga – Yea, I might be wylin. But have you seen Gonzaga lately? They’ve gotten Gonzaga-er) and Gonzaga-er as the year’s gone by. Did you see the Air Guitar earlier this year against Illinois?

What about the Gonzaga-ness displayed on Selection Sunday?
As Bill Hanstock on SBNation put it, “You want some Gonzaga with that Gonzaga, Gonzaga?” I got Pitt in a 5 – 7 point game.

• Marshall "Mathers" Henderson: (12) Ole Miss over (5) Wisconsin – This most definitely also constitutes as wylin. But hey, Ole Miss just beat Missouri and Florida en route taking the SEC Tournament crown. I know it was only one game that’s gotta mean something. Plus, he gave us arguably the greatest .GIF of the college basketball year.

But I'd also fail you if I didn't mention this...


• Sleeper Team: Illinios. I know, but the wylin just doesn’t stop. I know Illinois has basically no shot at winning this year...but then again, yeah they do. They started the season hot, they’ve beating Indiana, they’ve beaten Ohio State (they also lost to Indiana and Ohio State, but at least they know they can win.) But hey, that’s why they’re my sleeper.
Call it flukey, but the Illini pulled this one off.


• National Champion: I’m keeping this one to myself. All I’ll say is that we all could use a little Sonya Curry in our lives.

I'm just sayin.

March Madness is officially here, BROne Thugs 'N Harmony.

Plumlee Bros: Doin Work.

Slow down Duke, you killin em.

Not only will he dunk over a group of five, yes, five kids but Miles Plumlee has actually outdone himself by dunking literally over his younger brother Mason at this summer's Duke basketball camp. Five kids is amazing enough but his brother is just a shade under seven feet tall. Check it out:

Pretty dope and it looks like these two might be more athletic than we thought.

But I'm pretty sure my brother Orin and I could do this.

Don't believe me?? Then you can

Duke Wins...Haters Unite

This goes down in history as the first time I've been happy to be wrong...and it will probably be the last. Duke wins, Butler gets jealous'd. All is well in the world.
[Note: In all actuality, I'm happy that Butler made it this far. It's further proof that the tourney should stick to 64 teams to keep Cinderellas alive. They have passed the label of mid-major and I was impressed with their run. Shouts to Gordon Hayward and Avery Jukes who played great games. But #dukies all day.]

awr's March Madness Breakdown: South

You think that last one was a quick post? The South breakdown is as follows:

• South Region Finalist: Louisville. [Sorry Dukies] It hurts but Louisville is built for the Tourney and Edgar Sosa has been playing like he has something to prove. Get past Duke in the second round and it's theirs.
• Upset: Louisville over Cal and over Duke. Yea son.
• Team to Watch: Besides Louisville [obviously] I'd have to say Nova. You can NEVER count out Scottie Reynolds.

And there you have it. My bracket breakdown. If you need any help in these last few hours, refer to these last fours posts. Because, asamp was right.

Wtf: Sports Edition

Yo, wtf??

On the eve of Playoff Basketball, the sports world is a little crazy right now. I'll elaborate.

First off, Isaiah Thomas has decided to take the head coach position at Florida International. Florida International?? Word??? That's the best you could get Isaiah?? When I first heard this, I immediately thought it was curtains for Isaiah Thomas. And then I heard something today that confirmed it: He's working for free next season. $0 dollars. So this new coaching gig is basically a glorified internship. Isaiah Thomas has an internship to be the head coach at Florida International. Wow.

In other nutty sports news....Greg Paulus, the former staring point guard for the Duke Blue Devils, had work out with the last week. He just finished his fourth year at Duke and I guess he missed his old pastime. Paulus was a standout football player in high school and he was even named the 2004 Gatorade Football Player of the Year....but he hasn't played in four years. And definitely not on a professional level. And yesterday he even met with Michigan football coach about possibly playing for the Wolverines this year. Crazy. But stranger things have happened.

[Note: Playoffs start Saturdayyy. Oh shit. The NBA Playoffs Beer Pong: Where Real Amazing Happens.]

Sweet 16 Preview/Fusion x N.E.R.D. Concert @ Emory. Oww.

Even though my bracket hasn't been perfect thus far, I'm still at the top of almost all of my Bracket Leaderboards and 14 of my Sweet 16 are left. Ow.

Anyway, here's how I see the first half of this round turning out:

• Game 1: UConn (1) vs. Purdue (5)

It's gotta be UConn. I'm surprised that Purdue has even made it this far. Jeff Adrien is about to go wild, A.J. Price will continue to show why he's one of the oldest best guards in the country and Thabeet is about to erase about 10 shots. This one might get ugly early. Uh oh.

• Game 2: Xavier (4) vs. Pittsburgh (1)

I have Pitt as my National Champ, so of course I'm going with them. Part of the reason is that like Purdue, I think Xavier has overachieved a little bit this year. It's gonna catch up with them this game. The triple-headed monster of Blair, Young and Fields will be way too much for any one on Xavier's squad to handle. Can anyone name three players on Xavier's squad anyway...??

• Game 3: Missouri (3) vs. Memphis (2)

This one wasn't as easy to call. Oh wait, yeah it was. Memphis is about to run, run and then they might run against Mizzou. They got athletes like Diddy got fresh shoes. Dozier is a beast in the paint and freshman guard Tyreke Evans has lived up to the hype. Should be a big win. And imagine if they still had D.Rose...[Yikes!!]

• Game 4: Villanova (3) vs. Duke (2)

I had to actually think about this one because I had Duke losing to Texas last round. I guess I'll go with....Duke. The main two reasons for this are Gerald Henderson and Coach K. Henderson's been pretty Kobe-esque these last three or four weeks and this should continue. He pretty much put Duke on his back and took out a pretty good Texas team. Don't let me down Gerald...or else...

...or else I might not win the bracket.



Too bad I won't be home to watch these joints. Fusion x N.E.R.D. concert tonight at Emory and after party @ Famous Bar. Come show support. Plus, Fusion AND N.E.R.D. for $25?? Dope.
Owwwwww.

The First Week of March Madness. Oww.

So everything hasn't gone according to plan with my bracket.

• Wake T'd me. I definitely had them going to the Sweet 16.
• Duke actually decided to play against Texas which kills hurts my Elite 8. Oh well.
• Pitt looked far from beastly in their game against Oklahoma State. Wtf. The only constants were Sam Young dropping 32 and DeJaun Blair's double-double. At least they should smash Xavier on Thursday.

But the one thing that went well was that my Tigers fought til the end against UNC. We started the game off straight but at the end, the bench for North Carolina was just too much. With eight minutes left, the game was tied at 63 but LSU couldn't withstand the 11-0 run by the Tar Heels. All-in-all, good season, boys: SEC Champs, Conference Player and Coach of the Year and a strong showing in the tourney. And I don't care what anyone says, Marcus Thornton should will be a frirst rounder. He gets buckets. And Trent Johnson might look like an ostrich but he really is a great coach.

Three hottest teams right now have to be UConn, 'Cuse and yeah, Duke. Big wins in the last round should give them momentum heading into and through the Sweet 16.

Oh yeah, and USC got beat by Michigan State yesterday. Did anybody peep Lil Romeo on the bench looking concerned towards the end of the game?? Classic.
^ Concerned. ^