Rapid Fire March Madness Picks

I was an early adopter when it came to March Madness, furiously scribbling the names of the teams on single pieces of paper (no brackets pre-printed back then). I loved it, loved college hoops, loved it. This was before they killed NCAA basketball by sending high school and freshman rooks into the NBA. Before, I could get behind some random team for several seasons (e.g., Georgetown). Now, I'd be hard pressed to give you the names a dozen players in this year's tourney.

So with that as a qualifier, here are my picks (Sweet Sixteen in bold to save on space...)

Round 1:

UNC
Indiana
Notre Dame
Winthrop
St. Joseph's
Louisville
Butler
Tennessee

Kansas
UNLV
Villanova
Vanderbilt
Kansas St.
Wisconsin
Gonzaga
Georgetown

Memphis
Mississippi State
Temple
Oral Roberts
Marquette
Stanford
Miami
Texas

UCLA
Texas A&M
Western Kentucky
UConn
Baylor
Xavier
West Virginia
Duke

Sweet Sixteen winners
Indiana
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Georgetown
Memphis
Texas
UConn
West Virginia

Final Four
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Memphis
UConn

National Title Game
Memphis over Vandy

The logic of this? Well, everyone has christened UCLA and North Carolina as some incredible teams, and I just think with so much parity that we won't see that. The SEC is way down this year, which means half the Final Four will be from the SEC. Three teams from the state of Tennessee, with UConn thrown in (I have no idea why).

Virtually no one is picking Memphis, with most pundits naming them as the first #1 seed to head out. SI had a great article on their offense a few weeks ago, adopted from a high school coach in California somewhere. Incredibly athletic and fearless, playing a free-flowing game that no one has been able to stop this season.

I've also gotten rid of some of the darling picks (Pitt, Davidson, Drake). I also like getting both Hansbrough brothers out in the 2nd round. The Hoosiers have come through alot this season, and UVa showed them that the Tar Heels are hardly immortals. I don't like Stanford winning two games, and there are definitely some stretches on my board (Indiana, Vandy, West Virginia). Whatever.

There you go. btw, I just bought ITT stock today, so you can take that to the bank as well!