Hoops Du Jour

Ok, a quickie on March Madness. I didn't do all that bad last year:

Kansas over North Carolina (take that, Roy)
Texas over not-UCLA

Kansas over Texas

I screwed up with Texas, but KU did beat North Carolina (and how! Let's not forget that it was, at one point, 40-13). I didn't—and don't—respect Memphis, so I probably underestimate them again this year. (Although looking at my brackets, I seem to be wrong about this, as well!)

I'm not too much bigger on Louisville.

I won't bore with the details, but I've got two different brackets filled out. While this may be seen as hedging my bets, the one in bold is the one I'm going with:

Michigan State over Memphis
Oklahoma over Minnesota

Michigan State

This is the "Tubby gets his revenge" bracket, where all those losers in Kentucky realize he's a pretty damn good coach. Since I think the Big Ten is pretty useless in basketball, I went out on a limb here.

Memphis over Louisville
Pitt over North Carolina

Memphis over Pitt

This is the "safe bracket" pick. Boring. Since both are almost certainly wrong, well . . . .

My surprise teams, other than Minnesota going much farther than folks expect, are:

Missouri, Texas A & M, Florida State, and Butler.

While I wish the Jayhawks the best, and still have time to fill out another bracket that has them winning (beating, say, Michigan State and Louisville), I shan't be too greedy. I'll be satisfied by last year's Championship for awhile.

Enjoy the games, folks!