Dancing With the Devils

Well, it's that time of year again, two of the least productive work days in America...the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament, better known to you and me as March Madness or, the Big Dance. It's that time of year when I agonize and agonize over my picks, only to have them fall short almost immediately.

The good news? I'm usually able to use my bracket as a napkin in a pinch.

This year the "experts" say the field is as wide open as it has ever been, yet many of them are universally picking Kansas. Being the contrarian that I am, I decided to go another way. Plus, let's be honest, if you're going to pick chalk (all the higher seeds or, most of the hire seeds) you really have to nail the first few rounds including upsets to be in contention. So, why not go in a different direction?

This year, I am dancing with the Devils...the Blue Devils of Duke. I feel that they play a great team game and they've got good perimeter shooting and enough of an inside game to give teams fits. Between John Schyer, Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler, and of course, Coach K.

My other final four teams are Georgetown, Syracuse, and West Va. with Duke taking out Syracuse in the title game. Call this the Ty Lawson effect. Last year, when he was hurt going in to the tourney, several experts jumped off the UNC bandwagon, and they're doing it this year with the Cuse. We'll see who is right!

As far as upsets go, I have a few:

• 10. Ga. Tech over 7. Oklahoma St
• 10. St. Marys over 7. Richmond (moving on to the sweet 16)
• 10. Missouri over 7. Clemson
• 11. ODU over 6. Notre Dame
• 11. SDSU over 6. Tennessee
• 11. Washington over 6. Marquette (moving on to the sweet 16)
• 13. Sienna over 4. Purdue
• 12. UTEP over 5. Butler (moving on to the sweet 16)

There are some other mild upsets in the later rounds as well (6. Xavier over 3. Pitt) so we'll see what happens.

Good luck, and happy madness!