Imagine my horror when I read Seth Davis' picks. I finished filling
out my bracket around 10 o'clock on Monday night. I penned the first draft of
this blurb around 11 and jumped on line to e-mail it to my bosses. Before I send
it, I read my the mail in my inbox, which included Davis' picks, straight from
his home base in sunny California. Well, great minds... See, I also picked all
four No. 1 seeds to advance to the Final Four. Seems cowardly uncreative, I
know. But it's never happened. No doubt you've read all kinds of methods that
all these other experts use -- from Phil Taylor's karmic beliefs to avoiding
Stewart Mandel's Guaranteed Eight Ways To Lose Your Bracket Pool (I sat next to
Mandel when he made his picks and in many cases he did exactly what he said not
to do -- good luck, though, Stew) -- but I picked the games like this: I looked
at the matchups, not at the seedings. Who would win each game at the given
venue? Bottom line is Kentucky, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma can win the four
games they'll have to play to get to Burboun Street. Two teams in particular
received unfortunate draws -- Xavier against Maryland and Oregon against
Kentucky, both in the second round. I would have had XU and the Ducks winning at
least two games under different circumstances. Look for Kansas-Duke and
Syracuse-Wake Forest to provide the best drama outside of New Orleans, where
Arizona wins it all.
