Plugging along with the NCAA tournament...

After the opening weekend of the tournament, my bracket is still in reasonable shape, with three of my Final Four teams still intact. Like everyone else on the planet, I did have Kansas advancing to the Final Four, but “luckily” for me, I did have them losing to Syracuse. The entire Midwest region is now done for me, since I was prophesying a Kansas vs. Georgetown match-up in the Elite Eight. Whoops!

I finish that region with a 7-8 record, with six of the wins coming on the tournament's opening day. That 1-7 mark to finish up on the third and fourth days of play? Positively URI-like down the stretch. (Sorry, still bitter, even if they have won a pair of Not Invited Tournament games.)

Luckily though, my overall record remains decent at 32-16. I finished the opening round at 23-9, and the second round at 9-7. The Midwest is my sole “bad” bracket, as my six other Elite Eight teams remain alive. For the record, they are Syracuse, Xavier, Baylor, Duke, West Virginia and Kentucky. Mostly chalk, I know – Sue me.

In other news, I'd note that the two teams that beat Atlantic 10 teams – St. Mary's and Cornell – are both still alive in the tournament. Meanwhile, Villanova was thankfully karma-bounced from the tournament, and Pittsburgh lost to Xavier. In the NIT, UConn once again ducked URI, as they managed to lose a lead in the final minute, and thus, will not travel to the Ryan Center. Cincinnati also lost to Dayton. I love Syracuse, which is why I picked them to win the national championship, but otherwise, I still think the rest of the league works as a cartel that mostly exists to protect its own members' interests.

Steve's Bracket: C'mon Atlantic 10!

[Right] John Chaney wouldn't have allowed this shit, Temple. What happened to the dominant team I saw beat URI three times, and twice quite convincingly?

Going into the tournament, I basically kept two things in mind when picking teams - The Atlantic 10 was underrated and the Big East was way overrated.

While I still believe the first statement is correct, you wouldn't necessarily know it from the first round 1-2 record of the Atlantic 10. Unfortunately though, Richmond and Temple, both teams that were ranked for portions of the year, drew really bad, non-BCS draws, like Cornell and Saint Mary's. Both are quality teams, and I'm still annoyed that both A-10 teams only managed to get a 5 and 7 seed respectively from the committee, setting them up for those two tough teams.

At least the Big East has been exposed. Every year, I hear some variation of, "The Big East is so tough and they beat up on each other, so that's why they can't play a tough out of conference schedule!" I think the real reason they can't play a tough out of conference schedule is that it would expose their teams. You know, like when Temple throttled Villanova earlier in the year. After first round games, with the miracle win by Nova with the help of the three officials, the Big East is 4-4, with the four wins coming from its No. 1 to No. 3 seeds - Syracuse, Villanova, Pittsburgh and West Virginia. Big East teams have also done shabby in the Not Invited Tournament, I've heard, but I refuse to follow that.

Anyway, as far as my own bracket goes, I'm 23-9 after the first round, with four loses coming from the failures of Temple, Richmond and Georgetown. While I think the Big East is overrated, I thought Georgetown had a great draw, being in Providence - an arena they play in frequently - and as a No. 3 seed, with a beatable Ohio State team lurking. Whoops!

The Chaney photo is from this old MSNBC story about Temple suspending him the rest of the season for sending one of his players on to the court to "send a message" to a player with some hard fouls. Ah, Chaney!

Steve has a bracket!

I did actually fill out a bracket this year, albeit at the last minute. Unlike past years, this year I did not create a bracket group for my old buddies at The Good Five Cent Cigar, mostly because I had a fever the past two days. (Unfortunately, cowbell was no cure for it - sigh!)

You can see my full bracket by clicking above. As of right now, I'm 4-3, with Butler on the verge of winning to make me 5-3 for the first eight games. Unfortunately, Richmond couldn't prevail over a tough Saint Mary's team. I had the Spiders beating Villanova, who looks ripe for an upset after getting taken to overtime by Robert Morris, a 15-seed.

Who else does everyone like? My Final Four is Syracuse, Kansas, West Virgina and Duke, with Syracuse beating Duke in the finals. Boring, I know, but I've never been a huge upset guy. My one claim to fame was picking Hampton over Georgetown that one year.