Well, clearly I’ve been ignoring the blog recently — it turns out that on this fellowship occasionally you have to DO stuff. Among other things, I have utterly failed to publish some breaking personal-grooming news. But it will have to wait at least one more post because in about 12 hours March Madness begins. Thursday and Friday are the best sports days of the year.
My laptop is running out of juice and so I’m just going to throw this out there — a pick for every game. Upsets marked with exclamation points.
EAST
First-round winners: Pitt, Tennessee (!), Wisconsin (!), Xavier, VCU (!), Villanova, Texas, Duke.
Second round: Pitt, Wisconsin (!), VCU (!), Texas (!).
Sweet 16: Pitt, VCU (!) (Clearly I am going off a cliff with this VCU thing.)
Elite 8: Pitt.
SOUTH
First round: UNC, Butler (!), Illinois, Gonzaga, Temple (!), Syracuse, Clemson, Oklahoma.
Second round: UNC, Illinois (!), Syracuse, Oklahoma.
Sweet 16: UNC, Oklahoma.
Elite 8: UNC.
MIDWEST
Round 1: Louisville, Siena (!), Arizona (!), Wake, Dayton (!), Kansas, USC (!), Michigan State.
Round 2: Louisville, Wake, Dayton (!), Michigan St.
Sweet 16: Wake, Michigan St.
Elite 8: Wake.
WEST
Round 1: UConn, Texas A&M (!), Purdue, Washington, Utah State (!), Missouri, Maryland (!), Memphis.
Round 2: UConn, Washington, Missouri, Memphis.
Sweet 16: UConn, Missouri.
Elite 8: UConn.
Final Four: Connecticut over Wake… UNC over Pitt.
National title game: UNC over UConn, 85-74. Tyler Hansbrough is tournament MVP and spends the next 10 years riding various NBA benches.