The Madness That Is March

It’s that time of year again when we fill out our brackets and then watch our picks fall one-by-one as each game plays out. It is March Madness.

What we love about this time of year is that we start out with a chance to have our tournament bracket be the one that finally has all the correct picks. As far as we know, that has never happened. It’s like a 16-seed beating a 1-seed. It seems like it should happen at some point but we are still waiting.

I am no different than anyone else when it comes to filling out a bracket. I picked a few upsets but ended up going with a “blue blood” as my champion. Here is a breakdown of my picks:

 In the East Region, I have two upset picks in the first round with 10-seed Marquette and 12-seed UNC Wilmington advancing. I have Duke as the only higher seed advancing to the Sweet 16. In the Elite Eight, I have SMU beating Wisconsin to advance to the Final Four.

The first-round upset picks for the West Region include Vanderbilt (9-seed), Xavier (11) and Princeton (12). Advancing to the Sweet 16 are the top four seeds (Gonzaga, Arizona, Florida State, West Virginia), and I have Arizona beating Gonzaga to make it to the last weekend.

Getting out of the first round of the Midwest Region are all the favorites except for Creighton, who I have getting beat by Rhode Island. The Sweet 16 includes top-seed Kansas, 2-seed Louisville, 5-seed Iowa State and that pesky 11-seed Rhode Island. I have KU beating Louisville to get to the Final Four.

In the tough South Region, the first round “upset” picks include 9-seed Seton Hall, 10-seed Wichita State and 12-seed Middle Tennessee State. The Sweet 16 contests include the top three seeds (North Carolina, Kentucky and UCLA) along with MTSU. I have North Carolina beating Kentucky to advance to the Final Four.

With the Final Four taking place in Arizona, I picked the hometown Wildcats to beat SMU to advance to the championship game against Kansas. And the champion for this season is KU, who I have beating Arizona, 78-73 in the title game.

 Chances are more of my picks than not will not work out as predicted. But this is the bracket I am going with for this year. And no doubt, I will be back to picking poorly again next year too!