March Madness Week 2 React

Historically, it always seems to be the round where the Cinderellas loose there footing and the high seeds follow through. No George Mason this year, and although it may be better off for my bracket, the excitement level just wasn't the same. Maybe its just me, but last year was the pinnacle of just how maddening march can be and its hard to go back to mundane high seed eradication.

At least for me, I don't have a team to pull for any more. I could barely take Florida winning it all last year, now we're talking repeat? And why can't UCLA go alway too? At least both of them won't play on Monday. Georgetown comes from a region void of interest so I guess Ohio State and cartoon faced Greg Oden are all that's left for me.

Non the less, the last two rounds still showcased some great basketball. Call me what you want, it was satisfying to see Acie Law not deliver for once. We saw wild point swings, big 2nd half runs and what seemed like an inaccessible rim for Kansas in overtime. With only 3 games left, the tournament is coming to an end and all I can hope for is one more barn burner with a fantastic finish. Is that too much to ask? Probably; these games are never as good as they should be.

Bracket Rankings through Regional Finals
Jake Hartwell is running away with this one, but with all of his picks still in play, along with a massive jump to second place, Troy is poised for the biggest comeback in the Two-14 bracket pool's long storied history. (What's it at, two years now?) Can't you feel the suspense?

This week's high risers: Troy- 11th to 2nd, Brian- 13th to 7th

This week's big drop: I'm not going for hurt feeling so I'll just say Baker- 9th to 12th

109 Jake H
94 Troy
93 Stan
87 Lindsey
84 Taylor (max)
83 Jonny
75 Brian
74 Ruben (max)
73 Steph (max)
73 Sammy (max)
68 Jessica
66 Baker
47 Lydia (max)

(max) indicates that these brackets have no correct picks remaining and have maxed out their point count. Many of you never filled in the tie breaker section of your brackets, which means that you automatically loose in case of a tie. (unless both of you didn't send me your tie breakers, in that case I despise you both) You can still get yours in my emailing me your prediction for the total points scored in the final game before Monday.

March Madness Week 1 React

Spring Break is over and the dust has settled from the first week of battle with a mere 16 teams remaining from a field of 64. Never failing to mix up the sporting world, this year's tournament failed to produce in many of those upsets that were "supposed" to happen and threw in a few nobodies to further infuriate the supposed experts out there. Besides that vague introduction, I really don't have much insight to last weeks action and I really feel like someone who actually got a chance to watch these games should be writing this. Taylor!

The few first round stories that I did manage to witness included the complete collapse of my upset pick Illinois and a Texas game that was a little less than engaging. I got hold of the rest of the scores through the morning paper, which confirmed the fact that I can't put a bracket together to save my life. Once again, I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. My year is coming, I just know it; the question is whether I put money into it?

Apparently Wisconsin was a week 2 seed and Ohio State got away with one, but all I know is that the Aggies still don't look good enough to make it to Atlanta. They are a solid team that has one some big wins and beat what was essentially a home team in Lexington (Why does that matter again?) but they still don't seem to have that championship substance. Who knows, they may be just lurking right now. I continue to demonstrate that I know nothing.

I do know that Texas looked just plain flat against Southern California and the Trojans coach did a great job in preparing for this high caliber team. With our non-existent bench, he blanketed our scorers and forced the rest of the team to step up. He got lucky, cause for once, nobody did. It's the clear question of what's wrong with DJ? Surprise, surprise, he looks like a Freshman. He is much like Tony Parker for the Spurs; when he's hot the team cruises, but when he's out of it the team can still pull it out, but there's something obviously wrong. The other blaring weakness in the Texas squad is there lack of presence down low. USC scored in the paint at will throughout the game and the constant hack jobs really impeded any attempt at a comeback. I'm ready to say goodbye and good luck to Kevin and simply dream for next year.

Bracket Rankings through 2nd round
I've given up on my sorry excuse for a bracket, but we have a tight race at the top. For everyone out there that didn't bother to fill one out... No soup for you!

53 Jake H
52 Taylor
51 Jonny
48 Ruben
48 Jessica
45 Stan
45 Steph
43 Lindsey
42 Baker
41 Sammy
38 Troy
35 Lydia
31 Brian

Let's just see how many Cinderellas can hold out in these next two rounds.