Tourney Time

See, I kind of knew this was going to happen. For the last couple months or so, I’ve been bragging to friends, coworkers, and Sun-Times readers about how great I am at picking the NCAA Tournament. I have the monetary evidence to back it up too; I’ve nailed the entire Final Four two of the last four years, and won my pools both times. Who could ever forget my greatest triumph, taking home the Providence pool junior year? Those were the days.

Unfortunately things aren’t look as promising this year. Usually I’m extremely confident with these things (as anyone who is in a fantasy league with me knows, I always proclaim I have the best team at the end of every draft, immediately followed by saying everyone else sucks), but my sleepers drew a tough road on Sunday. My top two Final Four dark horses were UConn (who I rode all the way to title in high school with Gordon and Okafor) and Pitt. The Huskies has a cake walk to the Sweet 16 (Drake sucks) but then run into UCLA. I actually had UConn taking out the Bruins until I realized that doing so meant my title game would have been North Carolina versus Duke, something I simply couldn’t bring myself to do. As for Pitt, they run into my dog D-Rose in Sweet 16, and I decided many moons ago that the Tigers were destined for Final Four goodness. I also love that a lot of people are saying that Memphis is the #1 seed most likely not to reach the Final Four, which makes me very happy. You (as in 'the hatas') realize that Rose doesn’t lose, right? He lost two games as a junior at Simeon, one game as a senior, and now only one game so far as a frosh on the Tigers (Phillips, go ahead and correct me if those high school numbers are wrong).

I’ll post my bracket here on Thursday, but no sooner because of the BlogsByFans pool I set up below, and I need to crush all of your souls despite the fact that nothing is on the line (I doubt Bruce Paine will give away a gun, as I suggested in the pool’s tagline).

Besides for UConn and Pitt, watch out for Wisconsin. It’s easy to think they suck because they have no big name players (though Brian Butch was a Parade High School All-American the same year as LeBron, which is funny enough that I don’t even need to add a joke), but the Badgers just know how to win. They’re like the David Eckstein of the college basketball world or something, and remember, even Eck was a champion (and World Series MVP!).

Note 1: Bolding all the names: your thoughts?

Note 2: Sam Smith, axed. Surprisingly, maybe, this made me extremely sad. Stompy and I should probably change our majors before it’s too late. Newspapers are going down to Chinatown.

Note 3: I have midterms this week, so if anyone wants to contribute, go ahead. My email is available by clicking on the feedback button in the right of the page.

Note 4: A very happy 21st birthday to legendary commenter Gordon Bombay (aka Beau). Do three to five things you'll regret. I would expect nothing less.