Lines Lines, everywhere are lines

My mind is bracket mush, but my picks are down on paper.

But before I give you my selections, some things to keep in mind over the next 3 weeks:

1. The SEC is dog crap. Take SEC teams to get past the first weekend at your own risk. Don't forget, their conference tourney was won by the 11th best team who had to win 3 games in 2 days, oh and all 3 games were against teams in the field.
Not a good sign

2. Every year there is an overrated team that everyone gives way too much credit to and they end up getting bounced in the first or second round. This year, that team is USC.

3. Every year there is one or two "upset" teams that everyone loves. Usually one of them comes through. Last year, that team was Winthrop. This year: look out for Davidson and Siena

4. When someone is discussing their bracket with you and they tell you with pride that they picked several upsets and then boast about the two 9 seeds, the 10 seed and the (oh my god!) 11 seed they picked: PUNCH THAT PERSON IN THE EAR. Nothing short of a 12 seed is an upset. The teams seeded 6-11 are practically the same. There are usually 1-2 wins that separate the teams. Want proof? Look no further than the Big 12:

6. Oklahoma
9. Tex A&M
11. Kansas St
11. Baylor

Now look at how these teams finished in the conference:

3. Kansas State
4. Oklahoma
5. Baylor
6. Texas A&M

So K State finishes ahead of Oklahoma and are 5 seeds lower? Really? So no, 11 seeds winning are not that much of an upset

5. Speaking of the Sooners, I don't think there is another team in the field that is more overseeded than the Sooners. Oh, and there is no team more underseeded than Butler. Oklahoma is the 6 in the East and Butler is the 7. What, the committee could not have switched these two? When they put the bracket together no one stood up and yelled "Bullshit!" Well I yell it now. It's absolute crap. Maybe they did it for the pod system, right? WRONG, they are both playing in Birmingham. There is no excuse for this. Plus, by downgrading Butler they take away a great darkhorse special in South Alabama, but on the other hand, if I was a betting man it would be a great time to load up on St. Joes.

Ok, so here are my picks, starting with 2nd round matchups:

EAST:

UNC over Indiana
Wash St over ND
Lville over St. Joes
Butler over Tenn

Tennessee needs to spend less time bitching about their seed and more time worrying about whichever team comes out of that 7-10 split. Both can keep up with the Vols and Tennessee will have a tough time on Sunday


MIDWEST:

Kansas over UNLV
Clemson over Siena
Wisconsin over KSU
Georgetown over Davidson

A couple of dangerous teams...dangerous to pick. USC is good, but KSU is underrated here and I'll go with Beasley knocking off a USC team that might not be as good as everyone thinks. Vandy is too inconsistent to win 2 games in 3 days. Oh, and Siena completely dominated a solid Rider squad last week. I really like Siena here


SOUTH:

Memphis over MSu#1
MSU#2 over Pitt
Stanford over Marq
Texas over Miami

Miami is a hunch to win and Miss State is an actual SEC team I respect. Oh, and it pains me to pick the Gold

WEST:

UCLA over Tex A&M
UConn over Drake
Purdue over Xavier
Duke over Arizona

Here is the bracket where PPP and tempo free statistics finally got to me. I was going to pick BYU, but A&M is the better pick, so is UConn as Drake can't do much other than shoot 3s- although Drake was awesome against ISU last week. Also Purdue is strong as well. Arizona could beat Duke, but they could lose by 20 to WVU too. In those situations, I take the highly seeded team.


FINAL 8

Louisville over UNC
Kansas over Wisc
Stanford over Memphis
UCLA over Duke

I've said all year that UNC is losing in the second round. They probably won't but I cannot see them playing Indiana/Ark, WSU/ND, Tenn/Lville without a massive defensive disaster. I bet it happens agains Pitino who will outcoach Roy and get to the Final 4

The Badgers are going to kick Georgetown's ass, but damn is Kansas great. Clemson could give Kansas a tough game, but I am picking the talented squad here who plays defense and scores at will.

Texas' home court in Houston gets thrown out the window the moment you realize 1. It did no good for Tex A&M in San Antonio next year and 2. Whatever sound they can create goes right into the rafters the moment the ball goes into the air. Plus, playing on the 50 yard line means a tough shooting backdrop, but not if your name is Lopez and you are shooting from 2 feet away.

UCLA is miles ahead of UConn and Duke and they move on


FINAL 4:

Kansas over Louisville: Too much firepower, the ability to stay physical with Carracter and Padgett and they'll be able to knock down enough 3s of their own should the Cards get hot. A lot of offense in this one, 75-67

UCLA over Stanford: Will the 4th time be a charm for the Cardinal? Probably not, Stanford got screwed 2 weeks ago in LA, but UCLA puts the clamps on the Cards early and win a 60-51 snoozer.

FINAL:
UCLA over Kansas: I said I was picking a Pac 10 team, so for the 3rd year in a row I take the Bruins. This game might not be a classic, but it will be a balanced matchup. UCLA and Kansas are both great at the same things, but UCLA just does them better. 74-69.