How I'm doing...

After the first weekend of the tourney, here's how I'm doing in my bracket so far...

East:
I've got three of the four teams correct that will participate in the Sweet Sixteen. I had Oklahoma upsetting Louisville, but it didn't happen. I am not really a fan of predicting the 1, 2, 3, and 4 seeds of a region in the sweet 16 on my bracket, but that is how they ended up in the east.

UNC has been dominant in both games, but the Wash St. game should be entertaining. I'm especially looking forward to some of those matchups, the guard duos (Lawson/Ellington vs. Low/Rochestie) and it'll be interesting to see how/who Roy Williams decides to defend Kyle Weaver. Wash St. is hidden in the middle of some very tough Pac-10 teams, they can play. If you underestimate them, they'll beat you, no matter who you are. I wouldn't recommend missing this game.

Midwest:
Wow, what can you say about the midwest? I have 2 of 4 teams correct in the midwest. I figured/hoped that USC could make it to the elite 8, but Beasly and Kansas St. decided to shatter my expectations. I did get Villanova correct, but I don't really view that as very prophetic.

Kansas has to really like what happened below them, with a bunch of mediocre teams doing their dirty work for them. They still have Wisconsin to be worried about but I think Kansas can handle them (or anyone). Wow, the midwest was fun the past coupla days!

South:
Again, I have 2 of 4 correct in the south. As I've already said, it's no fun to predict the 1, 2, 3, 4 seeds in the sweet 16 (or in this case, it'd be 1, 2, 3, 5, which is only a wii bit better). You can laugh at me for predicting Miami to beat Texas, but I don't care.

Anything can happen in the south, with those 4 squaring off against each other.

West:
As is commonly the case, I have 2 of 4. But the big story here is losing a final four team, UCONN. This is the first time I've lost a final four team in the first round, but I suppose I still won't do so badly if UCLA takes UCONN's place, provided Xavier cooperates. But Xavier better not go ahead and celebrate a victory of WV. Duke can tell you that West Virginia will stick a very tough man-to-man defense on you. At one point Duke missed 15 consecutive 3 pointers. As I said in my last post, if you rely on the 3-ball for your only means of scoring, you can win some games. But I really don't like the odds that a team can rely on the 3 ball for 6 straight games. Is it possible? yeah. But just look at the challenges it brings.

Scheyer didn't make any. Nelson didn't make one. King didn't make one either. Singler didn't even attempt one (which I'd argue is better for Duke, not that he is bad at it, but he needs to attack the glass, and he can't do that from behind the arc). Paulus (3 of 9) can't do it all himself. So what happens to an outside shooting focused team when they shoot 22.7% from behind the arc. Well, they're gonna need to pull down a lot of rebounds and play some gooooood defense.

A good friend of mine here in Valdosta who attended Duke told me that the reason Duke lost was not because they struggled from outside but because Demarcus Nelson went 2-11. He has a point, but I always hate saying that the reason a team lost was because of 1 person.

Well, I guess that's a really wordy way of saying that if you rely on 3 pointers...good luck.

This weekend will be another fun weekend. There are some good matchups, and there will be more upsets. I'll keep my bracket for the time being, let's see if I will get to keep it or throw it away in a week...