Picking brackets is an annual humiliation, but we’ve put it off long enough. Let’s go get embarrassed!
Well, sort of. We usually go round-by-round, because picking the whole thing is an exercise in futility. However, here are our Final Four picks: Duke, Houston, Arizona and Iowa State.
We didn’t post our picks for the First Four, but we kind of whiffed there: we picked NC State over Texas, SMU over Miami, and Lehigh over Prairie View. We did get Howard over UMBC right.
East:
- Duke over Siena. We don’t bet against Duke.
- Ohio State over TCU. It’s close, but we’ll take the Buckeyes.
- Northern Iowa over St. John’s. Why? Because Northern Iowa really slows things down, and we remember how much Rick Pitino struggled against Virginia when they did that.
- Kansas over Cal Baptist. Could Dominique Dawes do the Jayhawks in? Maybe, but we’re not betting the rent money on that.
- South Florida over Louisville. The Cards have just struggled to find consistency without Mikel Brown.
- Michigan State over North Dakota State. Only one group of Bisons gets to advance, and Howard is already there.
- UCLA over UCF. We’d love to see Johnny Dawkins move on, but UCLA seems like the better team.
- UConn over Furman. Not this time, Paladins.
SOUTH
- Florida over Prairie View. Only the boldest would take Prairie View.
- Clemson and Iowa are kind of fascinating, but we’ll stick with the ACC! ACC! ACC!
- Vandy vs. McNeese is tough, but we’ll go with the ‘Dores here. Rising star in Mark Byington.
- Nebraska over Troy. The Huskers are really impressive. By the way, it looks like Georgia Tech is set to hire Troy’s Scott Cross. And if you want to play for Georgia Tech, it’d be a good idea to like Waffle House. No, we’re not joking.
- VCU over UNC. Trendy pick, but UNC just hasn’t been playing well and Hubert Davis is the King of Erratica, and his team reflects that.
- Nicole Auerbach was so impressed with TJ Power’s huge performance against St. Joe’s that she’s taking Penn over Illinois. Two things: 1) Illinois ain’t St. Joe’s, and 2) Fran McCaffrey is a dreadful March coach.
- St. Mary’s over Texas A&M. Same principle as St. John’s and Northern Iowa. Randy Bennett’s style could drive Buckyball mad.
- Houston will vandalize Idaho so bad they’ll have to change their ultra-cool nickname.
WEST
- Arizona over LIU. We’d only take LIU after drinking with Russians all night, and probably not even then.
- Utah State over Villanova. The Big East was just not impressive this season.
- High Point over Wisconsin. High Point is better than people think. Or maybe we really have been drinking with Russians. Again.
- Arkansas over Hawaii. We haven’t been drinking that much.
- Texas over BYU. We would take a fully healthy BYU here, but that’s out the window, and BYU has struggled since losing Richie Saunders.
- Gonzaga over Kennesaw State. Bet against Mark Few in early games at your peril.
- Miami over Missouri. The ‘Canes have some guts, especially late in games. Sorry for Mark Mitchell, but them Tigers are goin’ down.
- Purdue over Queens. First and last visit for Queens: they’re merging with Elon.
MIDWEST
- Michigan over Howard. Only two 16 seeds have ever won, and this won’t be #3. Great job, Kenny Blakeney, but the party will be over, and most likely quickly.
- Our head says Georgia, but our heart says the universe will heal long enough for Robbie Avila to have his moment. Go Billikens! By the way, here’s what a Billiken is. It may have inspired Zippy the Pinhead. Just a hunch.
- Akron over Texas Tech. We admire the Red Raiders, but they’ve struggled without JT Toppin, and are on a three-game losing streak.
- Hofstra over Alabama. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but after all the crap that has happened with Alabama, it’d be nice to see them get a bloody nose.
- Congrats to Miami! What a performance against SMU. For a prize, you get to get roughed up by Tennessee. The RedHawks scored 48 on threes against SMU. No way Rick Barnes will let that happen twice, and that was Miami’s best game of the year. You don’t get two of those in a row.
- Virginia was really good in the ACC Tournament, and they have the best shotblocker in the tournament in Ugonna “get it” Onyenso. Wright State will have fits against him.
- We like Santa Clara over Kentucky for various reasons, not least of all the pressure on Mark Pope. Over at Kentucky Sports Report, Matt Jones got a little ahead of himself and imagined UK playing Virginia in the Sweet 16, saying “Virginia is…Virginia.” Kind of dismissive. Onyenso started at Kentucky, but he wasn’t blocking shots like Bill Russell when he was there.
- We’d love to see Nolan Smith’s Tennessee State shock the world, but Iowa State is a heck of a team. Not happening.
Go to the DBR Boards to find Blue Healer Auctions |
Drop us a line