The road to Detroit

First Round
Midwest

Louisville over Morehead St. I had Alabama St. winning this one, but then they lost the play-in game and completely screwed up my bracket.

Ohio St. over Siena. They're playing this game in Ohio! Not fair!

Utah over Arizona. Until 2007, Arizona had a player with one of the greatest names of all time: Mustafa Shakur. The loss of such a wonderfully-named player still haunts them.

Wake Forest over Cleveland St. Cleveland's not even a state, is it?

West Virginia over Dayton. Dayton's becoming a trendy pick, but West Virginia beat Pitt and Villanova, and Alex Ruoff can play.

Kansas over North Dakota St. Bill Self's squad won the regular season Big 12 title, and he'll have them ready to make a run in the tourney.

Boston College over USC. Middle-of-the-pack ACC over middle-of-the-pack Pac-10.

Michigan St. over Robert Morris. The Big Ten can't beat everyone, but they can beat the Northeast Conference.

West

UConn over UT-Chattanooga. The Mocs did win the SoCon tourney, and Stephen McDowell made the second most 3-pointers in the nation ... but no.

Texas A&M over BYU. I like the Aggies' size over the Cougars' shooting.

Purdue over Northern Iowa. UNI has a chance to pull the ol' 12/5 upset, but Robbie Hummel is healthy and the Boilermakers have a big man down low in JaJuan Johnson.

Washington over Mississippi St. MSU beat Tennessee (twice), LSU and Kentucky, and if they get hot from downtown, they could take it. But the Huskies score points by the bucketful, and I'll keep my money on them.

Marquette over Utah St. This game will be in Idaho, which neighbors Utah, and that's wack. But I still think Marquette has the firepower to take down a WAC team, even if they have lost five of six after losing stud Dominic James.

Missouri over Cornell. Those 1500 SATs won't do you any good against the run-and-gun Tigers!

Maryland over Cal. See: Boston College over USC.

Memphis over Cal State Northridge. Just a warm-up for Calipari's boys.

East

Pitt over E. Tenn. St. Just too many abbreviations in E. Tenn. St. You can't win when even your name is half-assed.

Tennesee over Oklahoma St. This one's tough. Could be a shootout, and I'll put the money on Bruce Pearl finding a way to get the win.

Florida St. over Wisconsin. The Badgers lost to Marquette, UConn, Texas, Michigan St. and Purdue (twice). Florida St. can handle 'em.

Portland St. over Xavier. I wanted to pick an upset. Xavier's young, Portland St. can shoot the trey. Go get 'em, Vikings!

UCLA over VCU. If only VCU had one more letter, then maybe they could win this rather acronymous match-up.

Villanova over American. Um, Villanova's just better.

Texas over Minnesota. I had a hard time with this one, but I guess I'll take A.J. Abrams over ... wait, who the heck does Minnesota have, anyways?

Duke over Binghamton. I'm pretty sure I've never heard of Binghamton.

South

UNC over Radford. I'm pretty sure I've never heard of Radford either.

Butler over LSU. Butler beat Xavier, and Xavier beat LSU. The transitive property never fails.

Western Kentucky over Illinois. Did you know that WKU beat Louisville? Illinois has no go-to guard, hasn't been able to close out games lately, and lost Chester Frazier to injury. Plus there has to be a 12/5 upset.

Gonzaga over Akron. The Zags are my Cinderella team. Oh, wait, that was like eight years ago, you say? A 4 seed can't be a Cinderella? How about a sleeping beauty, then?

Arizona St. over Temple. Dionte Christmas is good, but he's all they've got.

Syracuse over Stephen F. Austin St. OK, I'm positive Stephen F. Austin isn't a state.

Clemson over Michigan. I'm not even sure Michigan should be dancing, though they do have talent and could cause some trouble.

Oklahoma over Morgan St. Blake Griffin = good. MEAC = bad.

Second round
Midwest

Louisville over Ohio St. The Buckeyes made a nice run in the Big Ten tourney, but Louisville won their conference tourney. Take that!

Wake Forest over Utah. Jeff Teague is sweet. Sweet Sixteen, that is.

Kansas over West Virginia. I think WVU could pull off the upset, but Bill Self will keep the back-to-back dream alive a little longer.

Michigan St. over Boston College. MSU's got Izzo, and they've got they best rebounders in the country.

West

UConn over Texas A & M. Aggies' big men ... meet Hasheem Thabeet.

Purdue over Washington. Defense over offense.

Missouri over Marquette. The Golden Eagles just aren't the team they were two months ago. Mizzou, on the other hand, won the Big 12 tourney.

Memphis over Maryland. Put a pin in the Terrapins.

East

Pitt over Tennessee. The Vols aren't disciplined enough to take down one of the best.

Florida St. over Portland St. It was fun while it lasted, Vikings.

Villanova over UCLA. Villanova beat Pitt once and Syracuse twice. They'll ruin the Bruins.

Duke over Texas. The Dookies are a little soft, but Gerald Henderson is a man.

South

UNC over Butler. Ty Lawson or no Ty Lawson, don't matta.

Gonzaga over Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers won't be able to top the hill of threes built by Gonzaga. Wow, that was awful.

Syracuse over Arizona St. They may not even need overtime!

Oklahoma over Clemson. Terrence Oglesby can only do so much.

Sweet Sixteen
Midwest

Louisville over Wake Forest. The Deacons aren't quite there yet.

Kansas over Michigan St. Can you tell I'm not real big on the Big Ten?

West

UConn over Purdue. Told ya I'm not big on the Big Ten.

Memphis over Missouri. I gotta be honest: I don't know how to judge Memphis since they play in Conference USA and weren't on the tube a whole lot this year. But I think they're good enough to beat the Tigers.

East

Pitt over Florida St. FSU meets their match, and more.

Villanova over Duke. It's no fluke Duke will get nuked earlier than expected--they do it every year.

South

Gonzaga over UNC. I guess you could say this is my upset special. I'm counting on an old-fashioned shootout, a not-100% Ty Lawson, and a classic ACC flameout.

Oklahoma over Syracuse. The Orange had a great (and exciting, and long) conference tournament, but they only finished sixth in the regular season.

Elite Eight
Midwest

Louisville over Kansas. Great coaching match-up, great overall match-up, but Louisville is older and better.

West

Memphis over UConn. The Tigers haven't lost since Christmas--can they make it to Easter?

East

Pitt over Villanova. The Wildcats won by 10 earlier this year, but move ova 'Nova, Pitt's got revenge on their mind.

South

Oklahoma over Gonzaga. The Sooners can match any style of play, and they have more talent than the Zags.

Final Four

Louisville over Memphis. Louisville didn't just survive the insane gauntlet that is the Big East--they won the regular season and conference tournament titles. They're good.

Pitt over Oklahoma. DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, Levance Fields, Jermaine Dixon--this team's loaded.

National Championship game

Pitt over Louisville. Pitino's squad won by six in the regular season, but that was in Looavul. Pitt was undefeated at the time, but fell victim to a 24-8 Cardinals run over the final nine minutes. Revenge is a dish best served in April.