And the WInner Is ... ?

Hey all,

It's tourney time! You've made your pre-tourney picks, now it's time to take it a step farther: Who will win the whole thing?

You've had two days to look at the brackets (with only a day and a half left!), so send it in, Jerome! (That's a Bill Raftery reference, for all you hockey fans out there.)

My pick: North Carolina. I know, way out on a limb there, huh? My Final Four: No. 1 seed N.C., No. 1 Louisville, No. 2 Memphis, and No. 3 Villanova. I'd really like to pick Gonzaga to upset N.C. to make the Elite Eight, but the Tar Heels have so many future NBAers they could beat the Sixers many nights.

And I was sooooo close to picking Wake, Phil: Louisville-Wake is going to be a great game. — John


Who will win it all? AIG. They clearly have nerves (and perhaps other body parts) of steel over there on that squad.

My revised Final Four are: Pitt, Louisville, Memphis, UNC. Eventual champion: Pitt, beating Memphis in the final.

Biased? Of course. Realistic: as long as past performance is no indication of future results, I believe so. This may be the only time in my lifetime where I get to put Pitt on the final line and have it be more than just a theoretical possibility.

Thanks for the “Send it in Jerome” quip John… brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it. (Now if we could only get Raftery to stop doing his annoying little “Team x comes out…man-to-man!” thing. I think he’s OK as a commentator, but should have shoes thrown at him when he does that.) — Kurt


Ok, I crunched the numbers (threw the dart at the brackets), hit Chattanooga to win it all, rethought my process, and decided to be a lemming - let's go!!!

Final Four: (drum roll please as everyone waits with baited breath—by the way, what is baited breath? Is that some kind of fishing reference? Does it smell fishy? What if you don't like fish, can you wait with pizza breath?)

Louisville ... Memphis ... Pittsburgh ... North Carolina.

National Champion: (shock of all shocks) North Carolina,

I'd be happy to share my Elite Eight, Sweet Sixteen, even the thrifty thirty-two's, but I don't think anyone would find inspiration in my picks. I'm looking forward to watching the games. Gotta love this time of year, if only for MARCH MADNESS.

As an aside, I heard from "a source" that Troy Vincent, having come in second in votes for the the Players’ Union’s executive director position, would be willing to accept a leadership role with the players union, if asked…..All you have to do is ask ... call, write, text ... just get it out there. — Troy V. of Yardley


All,

Final Four: Louisville, Memphis, Pitt and Syracuse.

Rematch of the Big East Final with Louisville and Syracuse, except this time Syracuse cuts down the nets.

However, I want the right to change my prediction if Eric Devendorf gets in another fight with a girl on campus and feels the need to punch her in the face. If he does this, they may hold him out of a practice or team meeting. — Dave


The question I asked myself was: Which is worse, picking Wake to go to the Final Four and they don't, or not picking them to go to the Final Four and they do?

I don't think I could forgive myself if they made the Final Four and I didn't pick 'em that far, ergo: Wake losing to Pitt, with the Grubby Tar Holes defeating UConn in a mythical consolation game.

p.s. Chelsea's 4pts behind Manchester United in PL and onto FA Cup Semis. But y'all probably already knew that. — Phil


Wow, could we have a Wake (Phil)-Pitt (Kurt) national championship? Yes, we could. Talk about a test of friendship. John