The headline on "Our March Madness picks: A prelude to humiliation...," a March 18 blog in which I shared the NCAA brackets filled out by my daughter Lora and me, may prove to be prescient very soon -- but at this point, we're still hanging in there. We correctly named fourteen of the Sweet Sixteen competitors in the men's tourney, and since we predicted that the two exceptions would fall in round three, the possibility of a perfect Elite Eight remains alive. Still, there have been some bumps in the road.
Our Friday record was 12-4 -- actually better than the 11-5 we managed the previous day. However, two of the screw-ups hurt considerably worse than anything that afflicted us on Thursday. We had Florida State (which fell to Wisconsin despite the presence of superstar-in-the-making Toney Douglas) and Wake Forest (which came up short to Cleveland State, of all teams) winning in round two. Hence, both outcomes guaranteed automatic botches in the next series of contests. We also had West Virginia topping Dayton and Utah besting Arizona -- as did just about everyone else on the planet. But at least we correctly called a couple of more minor surprises: USC over Boston College, and Siena atop Ohio State.
Saturday was much better: We went eight for eight. And while our two miscues on Friday came back to haunt us on Sunday, we were correct about the other six games, bringing our overall record to 37 and 11. Granted, we're a bit nervous about Pitt, our predicted champ, which hasn't exactly looked invincible thus far. But hope springs eternal.
Click "Continue" to see where we stand thus far:
NCAA Tournament Bracket 2009: Men's
MIDWEST BRACKET, ROUND ONE:
Louisville over Morehead State CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Siena over Ohio State CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Utah over Arizona INCORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Wake Forest over Cleveland State INCORRECT (Friday, 3-20) West Virginia over Dayton INCORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Kansas over North Dakota State CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) USC over Boston College CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Michigan State over Robert Morris CORRECT (Friday, 3-20)
WEST BRACKET, ROUND ONE:
Connecticut over Chattanooga -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) BYU over Texas A&M -- INCORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Purdue over Northern Iowa -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Mississippi State over Washington -- INCORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Marquette over Utah State CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Missouri over Cornell CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Maryland over California -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Memphis over Cal. State Northridge -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19)
EAST BRACKET, ROUND ONE:
Pittsburgh over East Tennessee State CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Oklahoma State over Tennessee CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Florida State over Wisconsin INCORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Xavier over Portland State CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) UCLA over VCU -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Villanova over American -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Texas over Minnesota -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Duke over Binghamton -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19)
SOUTH BRACKET, ROUND ONE:
North Carolina over Radford -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Butler over LSU -- INCORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Illinois over Western Kentucky -- INCORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Gonzaga over Akron -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Arizona State over Temple CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Syracuse over Stephen F. Austin CORRECT (Friday, 3-20) Clemson over Michigan -- INCORRECT (Thursday, 3-19) Oklahoma over Morgan State -- CORRECT (Thursday, 3-19)
MIDWEST BRACKET, ROUND TWO:
Louisville over Siena CORRECT (Sunday, 3-22) Wake Forest over Utah INCORRECT (Sunday, 3-22) Kansas over West Virginia CORRECT (Sunday, 3-22) Michigan State over USC CORRECT (Sunday, 3-22)
WEST BRACKET, ROUND TWO:
Connecticut over BYU CORRECT (Saturday, 3-21) Purdue over Mississippi State CORRECT (Saturday, 3-21) Missouri over Marquette CORRECT (Sunday, 3-22) Memphis over Maryland CORRECT (Saturday, 3-21)
EAST BRACKET, ROUND TWO:
Pittsburgh over Oklahoma State CORRECT (Sunday, 3-22) Florida State over Xavier INCORRECT (Sunday, 3-22) Villanova over UCLA CORRECT (Saturday, 3-21) Duke over Texas CORRECT (Saturday, 3-21)
SOUTH BRACKET, ROUND TWO:
North Carolina over Butler CORRECT (Saturday, 3-21) Gonzaga over Illinois CORRECT (Saturday, 3-21) Syracuse over Arizona State CORRECT (Sunday, 3-21) Oklahoma over Clemson CORRECT (Saturday, 3.21)
