RETRO: ncaa 06 is fillet

With as much time as I spent last week on my bracket, I figured I would probably still be watching things burning and crashing and me looking stupid. Well, I’m actually doing alright, not terribly, although I’m still scratching my head over the West/Oakland regional. For the six online bracket contests I filled out, I think I put down five different winners. I didn’t like Kansas or UCLA or Memphis, but I also didn’t really trust my Gonzaga and Indiana polls. Well, Gonzaga took down Indiana, killing the only bracket I spent money on, but making me happy that Adam Morrison’s fantastic pedestache will live another day. I can only hope that Gonzaga keeps winning so that we can get more shots of it, and also so the local talk shows will shut up about UCLA. Seriously, the Pac Ten sucks. I don’t care how good Washington is playing.

So I’ll keep my online pick of Gonzaga in that one. But the more I think about it, the more I realized I should not have doubted Memphis. Rodney Carney can take it to the hole, so that alleviates their overreliance on the long ball. They are the most talented team in that bracket, and they did beat UCLA and Gonzaga earlier this year. Still not as good a story as the ‘stache.

I still like LSU over Duke, though they made me sweat with that narrow win over Texas A & M (whom I did call, you Syracuse jerks). I don’t think West Virginia is making a run this year as much as they’ve gotten favorable matchups. Texas is still my overall choice here.

UConn worried a lot of people with two close games, but some teams get these early and then never look back. I don’t think Washington has the size to contend with them. And yes, I totally saw that Wichita vs. George Mason game coming. Every year, there comes a broken bracket where a couple upsets lead to a low seed team making it far over another. For the record, I chose Wichita to advance, so my suave picking won’t really help me all too much if George Mason gets it, because nobody else picked them anyway. Wichita at least comes from a very good mid-major conference.

I almost got the Mid/Nova one, but Georgetown snuck in there. That’s not entirely surprising, though Ohio State was playing well. I still like Boston College to batter Nova with their big men, and for Florida to surpass everyone.

To recap, my updated picks for Thursday and Friday:

Memphis, Gonzaga, LSU, Texas, UConn, Wichita, Boston College, Florida

Final Four & Championship: same as last week (still intact) UConn over Texas (Gonzaga and Florida semis)