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.

awr's March Madness Breakdown: East

Yes. I'm finally blogging about March Madness. Work has been crazier than ever but I'm finally back. And it's the perfect time. This year is bound to be one of the most unpredictable tournaments in a very long time, so no picks are really too far-fetched. Since I'm participating in like 5 different brackets, I'm only going to post my finalist in each region, my upsets and my team to watch. That might be too much already but whatever. So here's my breakdown of the East:

• East Region Finalist: Kentucky

Even though experience might the most important thing to have going into the tourney, sheer talent might be a close second. I'm looking for the combo of Wall, Cousins and Bledsoe to be the best young tourney team since Melo and the boys in 2003.

• Upset: Cornell over Temple

Most years this seems like a crazy pick but this year is unlike any other. Cornell has a pretty decent game inside and out, highlighted by .434 three point percentage. Hey, you gotta pick upsets somewhere.

• Team to Watch: West Virginia

Really, it's player to watch. Da'Sean Butler has been getting BUSY all year and he pretty much singlehandedly won huge games in the Big East Championship twice. That leads me to believe that if placed in a similar spot in the tourney, he could make it happen again.

I'm not sure what it is but I'm in a really good mood. I always do well in March Madness and some of these brackets are for $$$. Welp, must be the money!

Midwest Region up next!

March Madness Is Upon Us...Finally

A lot happened during my hiatus for Spring Break 09...mostly a lot of boring ass preseason baseball, Kobe/Lebron/D.Wade playing insane basketball, the epic SIX overtime game between Syracuse and UConn  and the launching of March Madness. F'ing right.

I've been waiting since the end of College Football for March Madness and it's finally here. The best thing about this year is that with no team being able to maintain the #1 ranking during the season, there's no real team that's head-and-shoulders better than everyone else. Here's my short version of my bracket, starting with my Agreements, Disagreements, Surprises and Sleepers:

Agreements:

• The #1 Seeds: I had North Carolina, Louisville and UConn in my Final Four since the beginning of the year so I had to agree with them getting the top spots. My fourth team, Oklahoma got the 2-seed in the South so I'm not too mad.
• I was glad to see that my man Jonny Flynn and 'Cuse got rewarded for their heroic performance in the Big East Tourney by being given the 3-seed in the South. They should be  smooth sailing until the third round against Oklahoma...
• Kansas got the smooth 3-seed in the Midwest despite falling to Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament. They should make it all the way to the Elite 8 against Louisville.
• Cornbread? Ain't nutin wrong with that. (1:29)

Disagreements:

• HOW does LSU get the 8-seed and have to play BUTLER?? I thought that our dominance in the SEC would have been enough to get a more manageable 6- or 7-seed but we get the dreaded 8/9 match up. I was watching the Selection Show mad like:
   But hey, at least it's not a 5/12....

• I don't think Arizona should have made it this year. I'm a Jarryd Bayless fan but he's gone and so is Lute. Finishing the year unranked with a 19-13 record doesn't really scream "NCAA Tournament." It seems like they got in off of past seasons' performances and took a spot away from another deserving team. But that happens every year.
  
• How can you leave out St. Mary's?? The lack of a tough conference schedule isn't really their fault. A 20-6 record (with 3 of the L's coming from Gonzaga) should have been enough to get them in the Big Dance. 

Surprises:

• North Dakota State. After their performance, I'm not surprised they were chosen, just surprised they were able to do it. This was their first year of NCAA Tournament eligibility and they were able to grab a spot. Impressive. Especially when a school like Northwestern has never made the Tourney....even in 71 tries.
• And finally, I don't really agree/disagree about Penn State not making the Tournament, I'm just surprised. The Big 10 was shockingly good this year which made success for all of the teams impossible. 

Sleepers:

• VCU: Eric Maynor is a beast and he's done this before, 
• Siena: a fast, running team, comparable to the Phoenix Suns of the NBA, and 
• LSU: Gotta go with the Tigers...even though they would have the Tar Heels in round two. Oh well, the season was fun while it lasted.

Basically, this year's Tourney is wide open and it should be one of the most enjoyable in recent memory. And when your team loses, I don't want to hear anything. Just stfu. S-T-F-U!!