got stuff done

So the past two days have been big for me (not to mention the past week).

I have my bracket submitted to facebook, espn, and a few other places now (I tweaked it up a wii bit yesterday). We'll see how it goes. I have some pretty unusual upsets predicted...but I think I can defend them (that is, I can defend them until they don't happen). I noticed a few trends, some expected, some unexpected.

For example, I have the PAC-10 doing well. Which is odd cuz I'm not really a homer, I'm way on the other side of the country in SEC/ACC territory. The PAC-10 could be legit, they have some great teams.

If I were to breakdown every single team this post would be too long and I'd probably get tired of typing. I do wish to look at some of the more "popular picks" and break those down a bit.

I'll start with the 1 Seeds:

UNC: These guys are real good (duh). On any given night they have the potential to unload 100+ points on anybody (duh). However, my concern is defense. Scoring 100 points doesn't matter if the opponent scores 110. At times during the season the Heels looked like defensive masterminds. At other times, it looked like high school teams could score on these guys. If the Heels go all the way it will be because of good defense, not offense.

Memphis: Has anybody looked very closely at Memphis' resume? They only have one loss all season, and it was to the then #2 team in the country. It's hard to have a better resume than that. I don't want to hear any of that "but it's the conference USA" mumbo jumbo. I'm sold on these guys.

Kansas: If this team was playing your favorite team, and you said you weren't scared, you'd be lying. They have an extremely balanced attack, not relying on one superstar (but they could rely on any of their starters, and survive, if needed). These guys can do it all. They can shoot the 3 ball, they can pound it inside, they can defend. They have depth on the bench. If they put it all together, then lookout.

UCLA: These guys (obviously) are good but I think the team's achilles heel (rebounding) might haunt them. Kevin Love is the only one that they can count on to consistently pull down the boards. If he were to get in foul trouble then they'd best hope that all of their shots fall and their opponents don't.

Duke: You can never count these guys out, if for any reason than that they're Duke. But I'm always hesitant to pick any team to go all the way that lives and dies by the 3-ball. They don't have an inside presence to dish it to if the threes fail to drop.


I've got more, but it will come later, perhaps when I unleash my bracket. I also wanna talk about my other "online selection game" -- my fantasy baseball draft, which was held last night.

I didn't do awesome, But I don't think I did horrible either. I'll take it, considering the fact that the only prep work I did started 20 minutes before the draft. I made some mistakes during the draft, but I also felt like I got some good steals in the mid rounds.

It's my first time doing a head-to-head league. I'm at a little disadvantage because I'm so used the standard 5x5 stuff. Head to head may call for a completely different strategy, I just don't know.

I took a lot of risks. I'm relying on Josh Beckett to get and stay healthy and Dontrelle Willis to bounce back to his old ways. I also gambled that Andruw Jones will get his avg up and that Aaron Rowand can keep his numbers despite moving to San Fran.

If a lot of those don't happen, I'm doomed.