The nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks as the NCAA tournament kicks off later today. I found myself joining a free pool at work this year, so while most of these selections have no ultimate bearing on my life, there is some personal pride on the line. Things are not looking good for me to attend any game should a certain school from West Lafayette manage to make another run this year. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s selections.
My selections here are mostly chalk, with a couple early upsets but with the top two seeds heading to the Sweet Sixteen. Michigan State is my pick to advance to the Final Four, though that may be some inherent bias towards the Big Ten.
Old friend Mason Gillis shows up with top seed Duke, who I have heading to San Antonio for the Final Four.
The Purdue redemption tour continued last night in Glendale, AZ, as the Boilermakers, competing in their first Final Four since 1980, defeated North Carolina State 63-50. They advance to the championship game for the first time since 1969, facing UCONN tomorrow night, as the Huskies attempt to go back-to-back.
Things look pretty decent here. Auburn’s loss to Yale knocked me for a bit of a loop, but, aside from that, things are fairly clean, with three of the four teams heading into this weekend still alive.
Things are slightly worse on this side of the bracket, with just two of the four teams I picked playing this weekend. While Nebraska did me dirty, I correctly picked that Wisconsin had peaked after beating Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament two weeks ago.
My selections here are mostly chalk, with a couple early upsets but with the top four seeds heading to the Sweet Sixteen. Iowa State is my pick to advance to the Final Four.
Following a tournament filled with upsets, more history was made last weekend when the last two number one seeds fell, leaving the Elite Eight without a single number one seed for the first time ever. My Final Four predictions are all completely toast, so there’s nothing left for me this weekend. If anything, wrapping up the tournament will be a detriment to my fan experience, since it means Gene Honda will be in Houston Monday rather than at Guaranteed Rate Field for the home opener.
This region is a wreck, with only one team remaining in the Sweet Sixteen, and that team I had losing in this round, so this one was a dud.
Things look much better on this side of the bracket, as the only Sweet Sixteen team I had that didn’t make it is IU and, honestly, I’m ok with that.
Alabama enters the tournament under a cloud of scandal, as their star player was recently involved in the murder of a young woman. Because of that, I have second seed Arizona going to the Final Four.
Gonzaga is the overall #1 and my pick to come out of this region and moving on to the Final Four. I did throw the occasional upset in the earlier rounds, so we’ll see how those pay off.
A bit of an upset here, as I have #3 Tennessee advancing.