Brackets Ahoy!

I believe that I have given myself a sufficient amount of time to grieve over Virginia Tech's exclusion from the NCAA tournament, and so I have filled out my brackets and talked plenty of smack on the Yahoo messageboards. There are going to be plenty of punks getting pwned starting tomorrow, and I can't do anything to stop that.

I am really hoping that this will be the year that a #1 seed finally goes down to a #16. It's highly unlikely that it's finally going to happen, but of all the 16 seeds, I like Radford the best. They played UVA close at the beginning of the year, which doesn't mean much but it's better than any of the other 16 seeds, who were all not just beaten, but smoked by BCS-conference opponents. Plus, Seth Greenberg's brother Brad coaches at Radford, so you know that they can play some defense. Well, maybe. Even if Ty Lawson sits this game out, this should be a relatively easy romp through the garden for UNC.

My favorite "upset" of the first round is Arizona over Utah. I've been hearing a lot of the talking heads on ESPN saying things about Utah like, "You haven't seen this team play," or, "No one knows about this team." I have seen that team play, and they are horribly unimpressive. They have a gigantic Aussie center, Luke Nevill, who has a nice arsenal of post moves, but he's completely unathletic and will get dominated by Jordan Hill. The rest of Utah's team is comprised of 3-point shooters, and they're all pretty streaky. Neither team has a bench that is worth talking about. What also needs to be considered is that Utah hasn't shown that they can play away from home. They don't have a good or even respectable away win this entire season, and they'll be playing their first round game in Miami, FL. I don't even think Arizona is all that good, I just know that if they come to play, they will beat this Utah team easily.

This is going to be a fun tournament to watch, and I feel like we can expect a good amount of upsets in each and every round. Personally, I am pulling for North Dakota State over Kansas, but that has about a North Dakota snowball's chance in hell of happening. Let me just say this though... don't be the tool who picks maybe one upset in each of the first two rounds... upsets are fun and upsets are American and you should pick them as your heart desires. Forget about the percentages and statistics... go with your gut and you'll enjoy your March Madness experience at a much higher level.

Next weekend I will be taking both Thursday and Friday off to watch basketball and hang out at my friend's grandparents' river house. There will be good beer, good food, Bacardi Raz (what?), video games, croquet, bunk beds, and of course, foxy boxing. As usual, girls will not be permitted, so you can expect plenty of burping, farting, and ball-busting. That's just the way of things. Let ManFest 2009 begin!