That other blog

Ohhhh, so you’re supposed to pick the team you think will WIN the game.  Well, that changes everything!

Seriously, though, what a brutal day.

Among the lessons we learned, foremost is the fact that this is the 2008 NCAA tournament not 1994 or 1991. Apparently, when making our picks we experienced some Lost-style consciousness leaps and forgot that John Chaney is not coaching Temple anymore, Fran Dunphy went 1-9 as the Penn coach in the “dance,” Shawn Bradley does not play for BYU these days, Antoine Walker is not on this Kentucky team, and Harold “Baby Jordan” Minor is no longer on the court for the Trojans. Among other things. Ugh… that’s really all there is to say – “ugh.”

All right, so we admit it… it was an bad day for That Other Bracket because we made more than a few miscalculations.

We owe the Purdue Boilermakers an apology, and we tip our hat to MSU, Kansas State, and close to a dozen other teams who defied the experts (us) and found a way to win.

The good news is, now we can sit back and watch the games rooting for our favorite teams rather than the teams we picked on our bracket. And, we take some solace in the fact that tonight at least 10 million other Americans saw their brackets busted just as badly or worse than we did.

So, “good luck” to those of you still competing in the tourney or leading your office pools, we admire your accomplishments and wish you continued success.

(Hmm…. wait a minute, you know… if we go 16-0 tomorrow we’re right back in this thing! Our Final Four is still in tact, … barely [Duke]. And, you know, it’s not like we made outlandish picks. We’re not dead yet! What time is the next Sportscenter on?)

If you listen to ESPN radio’s “Mike and Mike” then the phrase “sheet of integrity” needs no explanation.

For those less familiar with Greeny and Golic, a sheet of integrity is a single NCAA bracket which is your ONLY NCAA tournament bracket for pools and selections.  The use of a sheet of integrity means you’re putting it all on the line… there is no picking Indiana to beat Arkansas on one sheet and then Arkansas to beat Indiana on another. You make your decisions and you stand by them.

And here we have posted our SHEET OF INTEGRITY (read with a booming voice). We summarize the selections below

In the East Region: we see North Carolina as the cream of the crop.  We are big Pitino fans, and we would love to see Louisville go all the way; however, in our bracket we have them making only to the Elite Eight. Biggest upset pick? Butler over Tennessee to get to the Sweet 16. Our only other underdog wins are Arkansas over Indiana and St. Joe’s over Oklahoma.

In the West Region: we again went ACC, picking Duke to represent the region in the Final Four. We picked two mild upsets in the rounds – Western Kentucky over Drake (although we acknowledge Drake could win handily) and Baylor over Purdue (no chance for Purdue – “lock of the week” as they say). As alumni, it hurts us to pick against Texas A & M, but we just can’t get those visions of Shawn Bradley out of our heads and have to go with BYU.

In the South Region: we’re all about Memphis. While we do worry about the free throw shooting, our bracket doesn’t have them tested until they face Stanford in the Elite Eight. We expect Standford to be tired from a tough battle with Texas, and Coach Calipari will pounce to bring his team to the Final Four. As far as upsets go, we are big fans of Coach Fran Dunphy and his Temple team. We have the Owls winning two games before losing to Memphis. Other ‘dogs we have winning in the first round are Kentucky, St. Mary’s, and Oregon.

In the Midwest Region: we expect a tired but tested Georgetown team to come out of what we consider the most competitive bracket. Our Sweet 16 matchups of Kansas vs. Vanderbilt and USC vs. Georgetown should be excellent television, and while we expect KU to give the Hoyas a run for their money we expect the Big East team to take a spot in the Final Four.

This leaves a Final Four of UNC vs. Georgetown and Memphis vs. Duke.

Maybe it’s the prospect of an all ACC final, or maybe it’s that we’ve never really been Duke Fans, but we see UNC and Memphis battling in the finals where UNC will make less errors and come out with a 71 – 65 championship win.

View the complete bracket here.

That’s our crackpot theory of the week, and we’re sticking with it. (Jay and Jack fans know what we’re talking about.)