Lastly, I touched on this in the blog. But I do better in these things if, before the seedings are ever announced, I think about who I think is a legit Final Four team. I had a pretty good idea my final 4 would be from UNC, UCLA, Tennessee, Louisville, and some combination (depending on the pairings) of Michigan State, Pittsburgh, and Xavier. With a love of Marquette that I think subconsciously ties into the fact they have the coolest uniforms in college basketball this year. The brackets really screwed with my thinking. I didn't want to pick Georgetown, Duke, Texas, or Kansas. Kansas because, even though I like their team, I always get drawn into picking them and they always screw me over. Duke because they aren't good (I told Krutch a while back, during our losing streak, that if we snuck in and played Duke I was taking Florida), and Texas (I like DJ Augustin) because of Simmons' hatred (the chess/checkers analogy) of Rick Barnes. Georgetown because I am defintely not a Hibbert fan, but also thought he should have gone to the NBA last year. He's not growing as a player, and he's not raising his stock. Turns out, he's not playing for a title either. Why is he in college? I shouldn't have to dignify Memphis with comment. They play in Conference USA (Houston/Kentucky jokes aside).

And unless something crazy happened (like referees stopped cheating) then I was picking UCLA the entire way. The only thing stopping them the last 2 years was Florida. And this year, we wanted a new challenge than that "easy" NCAA Tournament.

Round of 32

East

Carolina (easy), Arkansas (they're just better), Notre Dame (I like their team, at least their shooting ability), Washington State (Winthrop? really? that's your upset pick?), St Joe's (I thought it was Oklahoma in a Bowl game), Louisville (easy), Butler (way underseeded), Tennessee (easy)

Midwest

Kansas (easy), UNLV (go Lon Kruger!), Clemson (thought their ACC run was the start of something), Vandy (this was their best team of recent years, and they've made some runs lately... oh well), Kansas State (took a gamble on the #1pick having a great tourney, like last year), Wisconsin (I hate Fullerton because their baseball hats are like screwed up Florida hats), Zags (Davidson, in all honesty, didn't deserve to make the tourney. Knowing what I know now, they only have the 2 victories over ANYONE in the top 115 RPI at season's end. So they had 0 before the tourney. This time, the 'close loss to a good team' argument paid off), Georgetown (easily one win, right)

South

Memphis (easy), Mississippi State (I kind of like Jarvis Varnado, if you couldn't tell from the forums- plus Oregon overseeded, I usually have love for the Ducks), Michigan State (thought they HAD to win one, even though Temple can be a tough out), Pittsburgh (easy), Marquette (abandoned the SEC at the last moment because I really like this team, and UK still had a weak resume- look at their margin of victory... +0.3 for SEC games.. and Gardner Webb!), Stanford (easy), St Mary's (picking Miami would represent all that is soulless and wrong! If the University of Miami were an ice cream flavor, they'd be pralines... and dick), Texas (easy)

West

UCLA (easy), Texas A&M (I don't know anything about BYU, and I know a lot of Aggies. Either team was second round fodder anyways), Western Kentucky (that one's for you, Craig), UConn (San Diego snuck into this tournament, whatever), Purdue (didn't have any reason for the upset), Xavier (I really like this team, the scoring averages remind me of our awesome teams), West Virginia (one of my sleepers), Duke (Belmont?)

Sweet Sixteen

East

UNC (easy), Notre Dame (didn't think the Cougs had it in them), Louisville (easy), Tennessee (I wasn't as worried as Clay Travis)

Midwest

Kansas (1's almost never lose this round, I had a surprise elsewhere already), Vandy (irrelevant), Wisconsin (snuffed out my previous upset gamble), Georgetown (figured they were good for at least 2 wins)

South

Mississippi State (man was I close, but this is explained a lot in the forums), Pittsburgh (hardest game for me to pick in the bracket, probably, but I thought Michigan State had a slightly larger chance of being upset in the 1st round, so went with what I deemed to be a 'safer' pick...), Stanford (couldn't justify taking a uniform upset), Texas (easy, even though I don't like them)

West

UCLA (easy), UConn (couldn't take WKU to the Sweet Sixteen... whoops), Xavier (easy), West Virginia (I went into the Duke thing above, and West Virginny was one of my early round sleepers- I loved Alexander, but now love Smalligan's pattern baldness, Ruoff, and the way Mazzulla plays)

Elite Eight

East

UNC (still pretty easy), Louisville (Pitino much more tourney-proven than Tennessee, I just think they are more consistent, but I think if UT's on they could really go all the way)

Midwest

Kansas (as much as I don't want to pick them for a run, they don't get tested, pretty much ever, in this bracket), Wisconsin (pretty much all the same reasons as before, just think they are a safer pick)

South

Pittsburgh (oops- but I will almost be surprised to see Memphis get this far- consider this pick 'not Memphis'- it was really a coin flip between MSU and Pitt anyway), Stanford (Stated previously I don't like Texas, I also think Stanford is pretty solid)

West

UCLA (still easy), Xavier (in 2 of the other brackets, could have been one of my Final Four picks- also, as much as I like West Virginny as an early-round sleeper, I think their run ends here. Xavier is better than Duke. But Belmont might be, too)

Final Four & Championship

Pittsburgh- As I stated several times before, I expected someone of the 3-5 seeds of the South region to make the run, as I don't trust Memphis and Texas as top seeds. Turns out I chose the wrong one, but really believe this team will be the winner of a MSU/Stanford game.

Wisconsin- Less me loving this team to make a run (do we have to listen to Big Ten fans get 2 to the Final Four?!?!) and more me hating Kansas for what they've done to me before. This is a solid pick, though, so maybe this is the year they put it together (and they made it out of the first weekend, after all)

Carolina- I thought a little about picking them as a champion, but I do have some past issues with Roy Williams (the Mike Miller fiasco), and they really, really got hosed in their bracket. Made my decision for the champion easy.

UCLA- They got a relatively easy bracket (way, way easier than Carolina anyway) so I feel this is a really safe pick for a Champion. Plus, I was going to pick them unless they got seeded in the East against the C's, Cavs, and Pistons. I was also counting on Mbah-a-Moute sitting out early rounds when 1 seeds are pretty much shoo-ins and being healthy for the stretch run. Not that I think he's the best guy on their team, more that they need all their regular guys ready, no one wants to count on new lineups getting it done when the tried and true guys are the ones who got you there.

In case you're interested, I stand by my bracket, just substitute Michigan State for Pittsburgh and I like how it plays out. I expect the Spartans to beat Memphis, but I don't like that a team that faced little-to-no competition for the better part of 08 now has the confidence of beating an underrated Mississippi State team and is into the second weekend. I'm more confident Memphis doesn't make the Final Four than I am confident that UNC will.

Anyways, the comment section below is for you to tell me I'm an idiot for picking Pittsburgh and Mississippi State. But unless you finish above me at the end of the G1 Bracket Challenge, I think you'll find it tough to justify. And at least I didn't just pick chalk the whole way, right?