Breaking down the Bracket

	Frank Elegar and Drexel were denied a tournament bid despite a 22-8 record that included wins over Creighton, Syracuse and Villanova. AP
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Committee thumbs-up: I've got no problem with the exclusions of Syracuse and Kansas State. In both cases, the committee looked deeper at those 10-6 conference records and recognized that, hey, wait a minute, that's not enough if you only played some of the top teams in your league once, and you didn't really do anything out of conference. Those pesky unbalanced schedules will kill you.

Committee thumbs-down: Drexel got jobbed. Period. The Dragons did exactly what the committee says it wants teams to do -- go on the road and play people in the non-conference season. Drexel not only played at Villanova, Creighton and Syracuse, it won there. Who cares if it only went 13-5 in the Colonial. The Colonial sent a team to the Final Four last year. It's not like it's the SWAC. And if you're going to leave Drexel out, don't do it to make room for an Arkansas team whose entire list of SEC accomplishments came in the last nine days.

Best draw: Like I said, Florida.

Worst draw: Notre Dame. If you've watched the Irish play, you know they're better than a No. 6 seed, nevertheless one that gets shipped to Spokane and draws a Winthrop team many feel could be this year's George Mason.

Unfair home cooking: No. 6 seed Louisville playing in Lexington. Yeah, that's fair to three seed Texas A&M. Why not just skip the formality move the game to Louisville, save Cardinals fans some gas money.

Best first-round matchup: Notre Dame-Winthrop. Don't let the seeds fool you. These are two evenly matched teams that can both put some points on the board. How about a little 92-89 action?

Runner-up: Nevada-Creighton.

Best potential second-round matchup: Ohio State-Xavier. I'm not sure it's a great matchup basketball-wise, but you've got Thad Matta going against his former team (some of whom he led to the Elite Eight as freshmen) in the two schools' neighboring state.

Runner-up: Texas A&M-Louisville.

Best potential Sweet 16 matchup: North Carolina-Texas. Are you kidding me? Kevin Durant against Brandan Wright? Ty Lawson against D.J. Augustin? Next time most of them meet, it will be in an NBA arena.

Runner-up: UCLA-Pittsburgh.

Best potential Elite Eight matchup: Kansas-UCLA. You could argue it's a national championship-caliber game, and the sheer amount of star power on the floor with Brandon Rush, Arron Afflalo, Julian Wright, Darren Collison, et. al., would be tremendous.

Runner-up: North Carolina-Georgetown.

The picks

Midwest: Florida cruises in the region most likely to be overrun by mid-majors (Butler or Old Dominion, Davidson, Winthrop).

West: UCLA and Kansas get to the Elite Eight, where the Bruins' defense gets the better of the Jayhawks.

East: Durant and Co. knock off the Tar Heels in the Sweet 16 but can't overcome the more experienced Hoyas.

South: With likely tourney star Acie Law at the helm, Texas A&M survives Louisville, then frazzles Greg Oden in the Elite Eight.

Final Four: Florida has been the nation's most impressive team at various intervals, but UCLA shined over the entirety of the season until its recent two-game skid. Two games don't change the opinion I formed of the Bruins over their previous 29. They exact revenge on Florida in the semis, then take down Georgetown in the title game.

What can I say? I'm taking the dare.