It’s that time again. It’s March Madness. That time of the year where EVERYBODY has a bracket and everybody thinks you care about their bracket. The sad truth is, the only person who cares about your bracket is you. That is just fine with me, because brackets are like opinions; everybody has one, even the stupid people. There are people who have never watched a single play this season filling out brackets right now. That guy in your office who confuses NCAA football teams with NCAA basketball teams is filling out a bracket right now (Where the hell is Alabama ? ) It is up to you, reader of TMRZoo.com, to fill out your bracket and take their money and pride. Do not worry, we are here to help! Let’s get started!
MIDWEST:
The Midwest section is the section of doom this year. There is not a stronger 1, 2, 3, than Louisville, Duke, and Michigan St. In fact, the only real upsets I like in the first round this year are #9 Missouri and I like the high powered offense of #11 St. Mary’s to take out #6 Memphis.
In the second round, I love #7 Creighton and their great shooting ability. I think #2 Duke is prime for an upset, but not today. Duke’s strength is defending the three, I think they get by, but Creighton is a sleeper pick for your 2nd bracket. The only upset I see is #5 Oklahoma St. taking out #4 St. Louis
In the sweet 16, I will take the physical play of Michigan St. to upset Duke, and Louisville to get by Ok St. in a decent game. Louisville will punch their ticket to the Final Four in a close win over Michigan St. Too much Russ Smith! #1 Louisville wins the Midwest!
WEST:
Sadly, the only first round upset I really like here is #10 Iowa St. over #7 Notre Dame.
The second round, I think #5 Wisconsin takes out #4 Kansas St. and the rest of the round goes to the favs. If you are bored thus far, buckle up, because here we go! #3 New Mexico State upsets #2 Ohio St. and #5 Wisconsin takes out the #1 seeded Gonzaga with tight defense. I think a lack of offense will ultimately doom in Wisconsin and New Mexico state shocks a lot of people by reaching the Final Four. #3 New Mexico St wins the West
SOUTH:
A minor upset as #11 Minnesota takes out #6 UCLA, but the rest of the favs survive the first round. Things stay pretty square from there. I want to take #3 Florida farther than the Sweet 16, but I cannot trust any team that lost to Kentucky recently. Maybe #5 VCU upsets #4 Michigan, but either way, this is #1 Kansas’s Region to lose, and I do not see them doing that. #1 Kansas wins the South.
EAST:
Here is a fun region. I’ll take #10 Colorado to upset #7 Illinois and the Tournaments biggest shocker thus far will be #14 Davison beating #3 Marquette.
In the second round, I think #2 Miami is a fraud team who has trouble scoring, but they will find a way to narrowly escape #10 Colorado. They will however, fall to #6 Butler, as Butler turns it on again in the tournament. #1 Indiana is too good though. They may lose to Butler in the Elite 8, but if I only get one bracket, I have to go with Indiana. #1 Indiana wins the East.
FINAL FOUR:
You are never comfortable with this many #1’s in your Final Four, but it happens. For the sake of upset purposes, I am going to take #3 New Mexico to take out #1 Louisville and head to the Championship. On the other side, two juggernauts go at it, but I will take the experienced Jayhawks to outdo Indiana. McLemore and Whithey will be too much for Oladipo and Zeller.
Championship:
As stated above, I like McLemore and Whithey to be huge for the Jawhakws this post-season. I think New Mexico can make it interesting, but ultimately, in crunch time, McLemore gets it done on offense, and Whithey gets it done on defense and they do what they came so close to doing last year. Winning a National Championship. Kansas wins the National Championship.
From a betting perspective, now is a good time to get futures on my Final Four. Louisville +450, Indiana +550, Kansas +1400 and New Mexico +2500. Throw the same down on each of them and you are guaranteed to make a little as long as one of them wins. Best of luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
Bracketology Contest:
As in previous years, TMRZoo.com will be running a March Madness pool through the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports interface, so you’ll need a Yahoo account to enter. The contestant who wins the pool will be awarded a huge prize pack containing a bunch of movies in both blu-ray and DVD format, A Jagermeister T-shirt and a gift bag of AXE products. To enter The TMRZoo .com contest, use the following link and enter the following information:
Click Here To Go To The Entry Page
group id: 150630
password: gorilla
Make sure you enter your picks prior to Yahoo’s deadline. The Commissioner cannot manually enter picks after the deadline. The Winner will be contacted via Yahoo, so make sure you accept message from the league commissioner. The winner is whoever Yahoo crowns the champion using their own tie-breaking system. Multiple people per household can enter, but not more than one entry per person. Prizes will only be mailed to U.S. addresses.
