The Sports Idiot

If you need a reset of the brackets, check out Perry’s work over on Off The Record. He broke down all four regions and gave some thoughts. If you want my thoughts, you are welcome to them after the jump.

Lets start with the East Region. My first round upsets are Arkansas over Indiana, St. Joe’s over Oklahoma, and South Alabama over Butler. None of those teams will make the second weekend though, as I think UNC, Notre Dame, Louisville and Tennessee will all make it to Charlotte. On March 27th, we’ll see UNC get past a good Notre Dame team while Tennessee struggles to get by Louisville. Then, in the Elite Eight, Psycho T and the boys will send Chris Lofton packing. North Carolina is your East Region winner.

Moving on to the Midwest I think we will see the exact same scenario with the winning and losing seeds as I have the East. I like Kent State over UNLV, Kansas State over USC, and Davidson over Gonzaga. Kansas, Clemson, Wisconsin and Georgetown as the Midwest entrants of the Sweet Sixteen. Kansas will end Wisconsin’s dream season and make it to the Final Four.

The West Region has been taking a beating as the weakest division in the NCAAT. I have to wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. For your first round upsets, I like Texas A&M over BYU and Western Kentucky over Drake. In the second round I have Purdue taking down Xavier for the right to lose to Duke in the Sweet Sixteen. UCLA and UCONN are your other second weekend participants, with UCLA beating Duke in the West Regional finals.

Last we have the South Region. This is the only region that I went with the chalk on. At least until the regional finals were I have Texas taking down Memphis in the NC State Pay Raise Challenge for the right to go to San Antonio and the Final Four.

That brings us to San Antonio and the 2008 Final Four. This has the makings of a classic Final Four, with a match up of Roy Williams and his old Kansas team. While he’s been removed long enough for it to not be a “my old players” kind of moment, we will undoubtedly get to see Roy sheding tears for his old program after he ends their title aspirations. In the other game, we’ll finally get to see why DJ Augustin is so highly regarded. Look for Texas to get by UCLA to set up a Rick Barnes/UNC title game. Barnes will then learn that while Dean Smith may be retired, he still can not beat UNC in a meaningful game. As much as it pains me (it really doesn’t, it’s not like they are our rival) to say it, I have picked UNC to win the National Championship.

The Idiot’s Brackets