NFL Draft Preview: If I Were the Redskins...

I tell ya, there’s nothing like the NFL draft. It takes a lot of time and a lot of patience, but it is a joyous thing to behold at the end of every April. I can even remember a time when I was in 8th grade when I had to do a report on a sporting event and convinced my teacher to let me do a report on the NFL draft. I believe it was the year the Patriots took Drew Bledsoe number one. As part of that report, I listed out every draft pick…no copy/paste back in those days! Sufficed to say, I enjoy the draft. Even as an adult, I think that if I were given the opportunity to sit in a draft war room I’d take it in a heartbeat.

As a Redskins fan though, it has been hard to watch over the years because the picks have been few and far between.

With no collective bargaining agreement in place NFL fans all over have had to wait a few extra weeks for their hope springs eternal moments, but with the draft just a few short days away, and the schedule release behind us, we’re all about to get a little more optimistic. NOTE: Since I first wrote this, the NFL lockout has been lifted and it is possible that we'll see some player trades at the draft.

This year, the Redskins pick 10, 41, 144, 155, 177, 213, 224, 253 respectively. They lost their 3rd rounder in a trade with the Saints for Jamaal Brown, who ended up being a tomato can, and lost their 4th round pick (and a 2nd last year) for Donovan McNabb, who also ended up being a bit of a tomato can.


With so many needs and only two picks in the top 100 going in, it’s going to be difficult for the Redskins to make marked progress just through this draft, but progress can be made. The identified needs (in no particular order) are: OL, DL, WR, QB, RB, CB, LB (sheesh, maybe I should put new team…the lockout scabs aren’t looking too bad right now.)

Because of the McNabb gaffe, many draft experts have speculated that the Redskins will take a QB. They’ve been linked to all of them in one way or another. Conventional wisdom seems to suggest that Cam Newton and Blaine Gabbert will be gone by the time the Redskins pick at 10, so any QB taken beyond those two in the top 10 would have to be considered a reach. The potential QB candidates at 10 are Jake Locker (Washington), Ryan Mallet (Arkansas), and Andy Dalton (TCU). Of the three remaining players at QB, Dalton is the safest pick and Locker probably has the most upside. IF, the Redskins picked a QB and Gabbert wasn’t there, I would take Andy Dalton. Whether he plays next season or three seasons from now, he won’t make very many mistakes and can be a guy that could manage the offense until he reached a point where you needed him to make plays and by that point (hopefully) you’ve added some weapons. Having said all of that, I don’t think QB should be the pick at 10 or 41. More on this later…


At 6-10 and with the current roster and no perspective on what free agents will be coming to town, I think the 2011 draft needs to be approached in total rebuilding mode. To me, that means you build from the inside out with the offensive and defensive lines , then linebackers or defensive backs, then the skill positions and hope that you manage to pull two full-time starters for the next 5-10 years at 10 and 41.

So, who does that leave for the Redskins to draft?

Let’s do a quick Mock and see who might be available:


1) CAR – Cam Newton, QB, Auburn
2) DEN – Marcel Darius, DT, Alabama
3) BUF – Von Miller, LB, Texas A&M
4) CIN – AJ Green, WR, Georgia
5) ARI – Bliane Gabbert, QB, Missouri
6) CLE – Patrick Peterson, CB, LSU
7) SF – Robert Quinn, LB UNC
8) TEN – Nick Fairly, DT Auburn
9) DAL – Tyron Smith, OT USC

I don’t necessarily think that the above players will go to the teams in this specific order, but I do think that this crop of players is the most likely to be off the board. So, given this group, here are some players that might be available for the Redskins to pick:

Jake Locker, QB Washington
Andy Dalton, QB TCU
Prince Amukamra, CB Nebraska
Julio Jones, WR Alabama
JJ Watt, DE Wisconsin
Da’Quan Bowers, DE Clemson
Cameron Jordan, DE CAL
Mike Pouncy, OT Florida

Of the listed options above, I’d go for Watt, Jordan, Amukamara, and Pouncy in that order. Either Watt or Jordan would give the Redskins a young 3-4 end that they desperately need and in Jordan’s case, he is fast rising up draft boards. Prince Amukamara would give them a young shutdown corner to play opposite DeAngelo Hall that would help mitigate the eventual loss of Carlos (board hands) Rogers. Pouncy would be a reach at 10, but if you cannot find a partner to trade down and you like a player enough, 10 is a spot where you could reach for a guy like Pouncy, who can play at either Guard or Center next season.

Bowers has a lot of upside but also has a dangerous injury history to be concerned about and Julio Jones is a luxury pick that the Redskins cannot afford to make right now. Build from the inside out, draft pass rushers, offensive lineman or corners, that’s going to help you compete in the NFC East.

My personal belief is that their best option is to trade down from 10. An ideal partner would be New England because they have picks to spare, but they didn’t acquire three extra picks in the top 100 by making bad trades, so it would be interesting to see what kind of offer New England came with, if any. If the Redskins let it be known that they were out of the QB business, a team like Miami or Minnesota could move up. If Julio Jones was still there, St. Louis or Atlanta could move up with Washington. Finally, if Prince Amukamara is still there and the Redskins aren’t enamored with him, there are plenty of teams that are and could make a play for him, Detroit at 13 being one of them. I hope that they move down, but if they are forced to pick, one of the four aforementioned players would be the smart way to go as they try to truly rebuild this team and not put band aids on fractures.

At 41 you can again move down and acquire picks, or, stay where you are and take the best player available, which could be an OL or DL that was a projected first round pick like Phil Taylor from Baylor or a LB like Akeem Ayers from UCLA. Go get a starter, you don’t *need* a QB!

Do I think that Rex Grossman or John Beck will be the answer at QB here in Washington? No, not necessarily, but what I do believe is that if you’re the Redskins, you have to do what you failed to do last year…you have to either say “we’re rebuilding,” or, you have to say “we want to win right now!” Last year was a mixed signal. This year, they cannot afford to make that same mistake.

So here are my predictions:

If they stay at 10: Pick I would like to see: JJ Watt or Cameron Jordan

If they stay at 10: Pick I think we will see Julio Jones, Jake Locker, or Andy Dalton

Best case scenario: Trading down with New England and acquiring the 17th pick and some combo of picks in the 2nd and 3rd round.

Should be fun!

Cinderella, Kindly Return Your Slipper

“If the glass slipper don’t fit, it means Butler played like Sh…(hey now, this is a family blog!)

Well, the magical run of the Butler Bulldogs came to an end on Monday night in Houston. In what was one of the worst if not the worst national championship games ever played in the history of college basketball, Butler fell to the somewhat mighty UCONN Huskies. Anyone expecting Jimmy Chitwood of Hoosiers fame to come out and lead the small school team from Indiana to a victory over one of the big boys didn’t get to witness that, and really did not get to witness a good basketball game at all. And so, with the Connecticut win, my bracket sailed off into the sunset (trashcan) leaving me just a few points shy of a good-sized pay day.

I can definitely empathize with what Butler is going through. Like getting back to the national title game, getting back to first place in a bracket challenge is extremely difficult…particularly when the pool doubles in size and some folks enter more than one bracket. And yet there I was on Monday night looking to be a back-to-back bracket champion and to once again experience my one shining moment…but it was not to be. Throw out any Cinderella cliché you can think of here…the glass slipper did not fit, the carriage turned into a pumpkin, the clock struck midnight…really, any of those will work. Another good one I heard a while back is comparing it to the Jedi in Star Wars waiting for Obi-Won Kanobe to show up and save the day and when he gets there he’s drunk or hung over, stumbles around, robe flies open and he’s got nothing on underneath…you know a real disappointing finish when the expectations are so high.

When it was all over, I tried to console myself by saying “well, the money was never mine to begin with.” But darned if there wasn’t some iPad2 in some factory somewhere waiting for me to bring it home and give it a family with hours and hours of angry-bird play. Now I might have to spend my own money on one, which certainly does not warm the heart!

Back to basketball…

Watching Butler completely fall apart has made me wonder if the glass slipper will ever truly fit on a Cinderella team. Year after year we see teams make a run to the final four only to lose to a big and powerful school. We’ve seen it now with George Mason, Northern Iowa, VCU, and countless others. They’re good enough to win a few games, but fall short when it really counts. Do I think Connecticut was so vastly superior to Butler? No, I don’t. In fact, the Huskies were completely gassed at the end of the Kentucky game and had Kentucky not taken a series of bone-headed shots, we may have seen an entirely different outcome. But the point remains, year after year the big dogs fall and the little man rises up and year after year when it comes right down to it, David’s sling shot doesn’t come close to hitting Goliath and more often than not, Goliath walks out steps on David and goes about his business. It makes for an exciting few weeks of college basketball, but when you get right down to the final four, coaching and talent takeover and the big name teams almost always prevail. Even as I think back to the incredible run Utah made to the title game in 1998, taking a 12 point lead over Kentucky into the half and having a few eventual NBA players on its roster, the Utes just could not get it done.

The interesting thing here is that I think that years like this will be the rule, not the exception. In a one and done format, you’re more likely to see a team get hot like VCU did or ride a superstar like Kemba Walker (though he was not the best on his team during the title game and might have not been the second best either) carry a team all the way. The fact that all four number 1 seeds have made it to the final four just once is very telling.

And so ends another college basketball season. College basketball is funny because when it starts you don’t realize it until sometime in January usually and when it is over you feel kind of like “hey, I was just getting into this…!” And so we wait until next year when the brackets are printed and a whole new cast of characters creates their own shining moments, leaving us to rip our brackets into shreds once again.

So You're Saying There's a Chance

Last week as the buzzer sounded on Pittsburgh losing to Butler, I resigned myself to my fate. I had been previously bounced from the playoffs in all of my fantasy football leagues and now, just a year after getting it right, I got it oh so wrong, picking Pittsburgh to win the whole thing.

What I did not account for, however, was how truly mad March gets...and in particular, this March. With teams like VCU, Richmond, and Butler advancing to the sweet 16, the potential for more upsets still remained. Going into the sweet 16, I still had three of four final four teams left.

And then, it happened...

Butler Beat Wisconsin, and Florida (and some questionable officiating in the Florida game).

UCONN up ended SDSU (they were jerks anyway) and Arizona.

VCU continued an improbable run with wins over Florida St. and #1 seed Kansas.

And Kentucky took out Ohio St. and UNC, the #1 and #2 seeds, respectively.

With Kansas, Duke, Ohio St., UNC, SDSU, Florida, and Notre Dame all out of it, many people's brackets are busted. I managed to get two teams into the final four...and if anyone but UCONN wins the whole shootin match, then I will win the bracket I put $10 (a $600 reward). 3/4 odds isn't bad at this time of year, but you just never know...but I'm saying there's a chance!

Better Luck Next Year

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Either way it's okay...

One year removed from getting it right, I very clearly and very loudly got it wrong. Like I said last year, there's nothing quite like making a prediction and getting it right, then coming back to pat yourself on the back.

Likewise, when you make a bad prediction, you've got to come back and own up to your poor predictions. So here I am, owning up to it all.

I think my first mistake was that I didn't see Butler getting out of the first round. They'd had a decent season, but nothing to write home about and with Gordon Hayward gone, I didn't see them advancing very far. That, and I have a man-crush on ODU's Blaine Taylor. I love the toughness that his teams play with. I've hoped that he would be in the mix at Utah for its vacancy, but I'm not sure they'll go that direction. So yeah, I didn't take Butler very seriously, and it cost me, big time.

My second mistake was overvaluing Pitt's size, experience, and conference affiliation. They were the best team in the regular season in the Big East, a league that got 11 bids (though only 2 remain, both of which knocked out fellow big east teams to advance to the sweet 16) and looked pretty strong going into the tournament. Little did I know that their big man was actually as soft as Charmine and their defense and decision making was awful. Combine that with Mack (Butler) having a career shooting night and it created the perfect formula for an upset.

As for the calls at the end of the game, I guess as an official you have to make those calls. The first one was a little more egregious than the second in my opinion only because the foul had an impact on the out come. A guy runs down the court and gets bumped out of bounds, I mean you have to call that. Now, a rebound with 1.4...not so much. But, I think the refs felt compelled to make any call they could in that situation simply because they'd done it to Butler just a few minutes earlier so in that regard, Bravo.

I did make some decent upset picks in the first two rounds that came to fruition. Most notably, Florida St. beat both Texas A&M and Notre Dame. Had I still had my champion in the hunt, that would've helped me, as would Arizona's win over Texas, which I don't think many people had. So, I sit here today with 8 Sweet 16 teams, 5 Elite 8 teams, 3 final four teams, and no champion, which means my bracket will likely slip further and further down the standings for this year.

So, who will I be cheering for? My boys from Virgina, of course!

A Bracket Runs Through It

Eventually, all teams merge into one tournament...and a bracket runs through it.

And so begins the 2011 NCAA Tournament...

Experts have called this year's tournament one of the most wide open they've seen in years...yet many of them have all or most of the number one seeds advancing. Will it happen? Only time will tell.

Last year, I picked Duke, Georgetown, West Va. and Syracuse in my final four and I had Georgetown knocked out on the first night of the tournament when the then 3 seeded Ohio Bobcats absolutely took it to the Hoyas. I thought my bracket was busted, but some savvy Sweet 16 picks kept me getting points and staying on top. One by one, the popular picks fell until Duke was left standing and I was left as the Champ (and with a few dollars in my pocket).

Before I unveil my 2011 bracket picks, I'll share a little bit of strategy that I've both used and that I've taken note of as I've seen the experts picks.

Many of the experts pick what they call "chalk." This basically means that they pick many if not all of the higher seeds to advance in the tournament. The problem with this strategy is that if one or two of the top 4 seeds in each region loses, you might be in trouble. It also doesn't really factor in upsets, which are typically rewarded in many pools. For example, if you pick a 12 seed to beat a 5 (happens almost every year) then you would get the point for the pick and some amount of bonus points for picking the upset. So, it behooves you on some level to pick upsets. Which takes us to my general strategy.

The only way to really keep yourself in it points-wise, is to pick upsets. There is an obvious risk-reward element to picking upsets and if you can hit big, then you can really help yourself out. For example, last year I picked Old Dominion over Notre Dame and St. Marys over Richmond. Both were picks that few others had and really gave me a leg up going into the second round. What you can do and probably should do with upsets however, is hedge your bet a little bit. So, for example, if I have the winner of Clemson/WVU losing to Kentucky, and I think Clemson could beat WVU, then I am going to pick Clemson. Sure, I don't get the point if they lose, but if they win, then I hit it big. You can't do that every time, but I found it to be effective last year and I'm giving it a shot this year again.

And now, the picks:

My Final Four Are:

Noteable Upsets:
Round 1:

12 Clemson over 5 West Virginia
9 Villanova over 8 George Mason
11 Missouri over 6 Cininnati
10 Michigan St. over 7 UCLA

11 Gonzaqga over 6 St. Johns

13 Belmont over 4 Wisconsin

10 Florida St. over 7 Texas A&M

12 Richmond over 5 Vanderbuilt

9 ODU over 8 Butler

At the end of the whole thing, the team that will cut down the nets in Houston is:

Welcoming Back the Madness!

Outside of the first weekend of college or pro football, for me, this is absolutely the best time of the year.

If you've been reading my blog for a year now, you'll remember that last year I boldy predicted that Duke would win the whole thing, and I got it right!

Last year, I had one of my final four teams bounced on the opening night of the tournament when Georgetown fell to Ohio, but because of my other picks (and obviously getting the NC winner right) I was able to hold on.

This year the bracket is as wide open as ever, and I suspect we'll see a lot of brackets busted before the end of the first weekend.

Stay tuned for my bracket tips, as well as my bracket.

Enjoy the madness!

2010 NFL Predictions

With the season kicking off tonight, I thought I'd go ahead and make some picks of my own because...I have a blog and this is the kind of thing blogs are for! :)

AFC

East - New England
Wild Card - Miami
Bold Prediction - Riding high off of their season of Hard Knocks, the Jets will miss the playoffs. The schedule and inexperience at QB will do them in as their coach and several players on the team continue to place a rather large target on their collective backs.

North - Baltimore
Wild Card - None
Bold Prediction - The fact that there is no wild card coming out of this division is bold enough. I think the Ravens will claw their way to a 10-6 or 9-7 finish and the Bengals and Steelers will miss the playoffs with records of 8-8 or better.

South - Indianapolis
Wild Card - Houston
Bold Prediction - Not only will Houston make the playoffs out of this division, they'll win a playoff game as well! (not to spoil my picks!)

West - San Diego
Wild Card - None
Bold Prediction - Kansas City will keep itself in the playoff discussion all season long, but will miss out with an 8-8 record, which will be a vast improvement over previous seasons.


NFC

West - San Francisco
Wild Card - None
Bold Prediction - The 49ers will break through this year and will not only win their division, they'll get a first round bye and host a second round playoff game with a record of 11-5 or 12-4.

South - New Orleans
Wild Card - None
Bold Prediction - The Saints will be this division's first repeat champion in a long time and the Panthers under Matt Moore will finish second and remain in the playoff discussion all year long, but miss out by a hair at the end. If there were a 7th team I could put in the playoffs, it'd be Carolina.

North - Green Bay
Wild Card - Minnesota
Bold Prediction - Green Bay will win the division and will split in the regular season with Minnesota. Brett Favre will see his career come to an end at Lambeau field. Also, Detroit will finish with a better record than Chicago.

East - New York Giants
Wild Card - Washington Redskins (my homer pick)
Bold Prediction - When the Redskins and Giants lock horns on January second, it will be for the division crown. The Giants will edge the Redskins, but the Skins will finish 9-7 and sneak into the playoffs under first year head coach Mike Shanahan. Dallas will miss the playoffs because of divisional tie breakers and both Wade Philips and Jason Garret will be fired in an attempt to bring in Bill Cower, who will spurn the Cowboys to coach in Carolina.

Playoffs:

AFC Wild Card

Miami @ Baltimore - Baltimore
Houston @ New England - Houston

NFC Wild Card

Washington @ Green Bay - Green Bay
Minnesota @ New York - Minnesota

AFC Divisional

Houston @ Indianapolis - Indianapolis
Baltimore @ San Diego - Baltimore (Norv Turner gets fired)

NFC Divisional

Minnesota @ San Francisco - Minnesota
Green Bay @ New Orleans - Green Bay

AFC Championship

Baltimore @ Indianapolis - Indianapolis

NFC Championship

Minnesota @ Green Bay - Green Bay (I told you Brett Favre's career would end in Lambeau!)

Superbowl

VS.

And your Super Bowl Winner: The Indianapolis Colts

On Utah to the Pac 12

At the end of the movie “The Patriot,” General Cornwallis (played by Tom Wilkinson) says “Everything will change, everything has changed.” A little dramatic? Perhaps, but when Utah formally accepts an invitation to join the Pac 12 conference later today, everything will indeed change for the boys up on the hill in Salt Lake City.

If you just look at the dollar amounts Utah is looking at from TV revenue as a member of the Pac 12, you’ll realize how much things will change. Utah will go from around $1.3 million as a member of the Mountain West to $8-10 million in the Pac 12. The stadium is likely to be expanded and many of the facilities will be upgraded. Sure, anyone can throw dollar amounts out there, but the truth is, the financial impact on the school will hit so many areas, that it may even be hard to measure at this point.

As this story has developed over the last several weeks, I’m reminded of the movie Invincible, where Vince Papali’s friend is encouraging him to go try out for the Philadelphia Eagles. He says, “even if you’re down there, for one hour, you’re down there.” So too is the case for Utah and the Pac 12. It doesn’t so much matter where they fall in the PAC 12 pecking order immediately, the fact is that there is a table called the BCS, that table has a pile of cash on it, and regardless of year-in and year-out performance, Utah now has a seat. That is HUGE!

 

It’s no secret that Utah doesn’t exactly have a rich tradition, but over the last decade, you’ll find few non-BCS teams that have been better. The truth is, Utah got hot at the right time and recorded big wins during a pivotal shift in the college football landscape. They hit one out of the park with the hiring of Urban Meyer and he then turned the Utes into immediate contenders going 10-2 his first season and leading them to an undefeated season and a BCS bowl win the next year before bolting to Florida. From there, Kyle Whittingham was charged to keep Utah’s trajectory upward. While he struggled a little at first, he improved on his previous seasons win total each of his first few years culminating in a 13-0 unbeaten season and Sugar Bowl win over Nick Saban and Alabama. During that game Moose Johnston, one of the commentators said things like “Wow, wow, wow…” as Utah jumped out to a 21-0 lead and never looked back. Wins such as the Sugar Bowl win and even the dominant performance over Cal in the Poinsettia bowl last year have kept the Utah in the national conversation and have made them an relevant and attractive addition to the Pac 10.

It’s hard to say how competitive Utah will be moving forward. Even though they now have a seat at the table and access to more money then ever before, I suspect they will continue to improve and be a legit contender in the PAC 12. It appears as though they will be placed in the “South” division with the likes of USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona St. and the other newcomer Colorado. That’s not the easiest road to be sure, but it will also give Utah recruiting inroads in those places that they have otherwise not had before. In the short term though, Utah is poised to begin PAC 12 play in 2011 (rumored) and will have a JR. QB in Jordan Wynn with about 16-18 starts under his belt. They have a lot of young talent in the program already, and hopefully this move will allow them an additional influx of talent as they move forward into the Pac 12.

This is a happy day for Utah fans and alumni. It ranks right up there with the two BCS bowls and the final four appearance in 1998. The sky is the limit for the University of Utah and I cannot wait to see it all unfold!

GO UTES!

The Eagle Has Landed

If there was one news story that overshadowed the national championship and opening day of baseball, it was the acquisition of Donovan McNabb by the Washington Redskins. Since I’m into making public pronouncements these days, let me just say that I don’t like this move…I LOVE it!
For better or worse, the Redskins have had Jason Campbell as the full time starter for 2 or 3 seasons now. Unfortunately for Campbell, he hasn’t had much of an offensive line, and he hasn’t had much coaching. This has led to a lot of people feeling as though he did not get a fair shake in the nation’s capital. That might be true, but sometimes when a regime changes, everything has to change. Exit Zorn and Campbell, enter Shanahan and McNabb.

For the Redskins, this move gives the offense instant credibility…even with a banged up offensive line. All of the young WRs will get a numbers boost from having McNabb under center. Some people have said, “If they don’t fix that line, McNabb will be running for his life.” While true, McNabb will at least be running forward, something Campbell struggled with. Additionally, McNabb has far better instincts and will be able to escape the pocket when it collapses around him, giving the WRs and TEs time to get open, or to check down to one of his stable of Running Backs; Clinton Portis, Larry Johnson, or Willie Parker.

For the most part, I like the way the offseason is shaping up for the Redskins. It has been very difficult for the national pundits to keep the gloves up when discussing the Redskins because it has been easy to take shots at them in the past. To a man, (with the exception of a few) most of them like this move for the Redskins, though they don’t hesitate to throw in the line “Same old Redskins, winning the offseason again…” But the thing they fail to mention is that they’re doing it in a much more planned out and calculated way, and most of these moves aren’t costing them that much.

I believe that this is just the first domino to fall for the rest of the Redskins offseason. I can see a scenario where they move Jason Campbell, Andre Carter, Carlos Rogers, and Rocky McIntosh all for draft picks. None of these guys except for maybe Carter could demand anything other than a 4th or lower, but it’ll help add depth to a team that is in desperate need of it. And of course, I do believe they will address the offensive line.

Regardless, the Redskins always keep it interesting…

The Champ

There is nothing quite like making a public prediction and being right. If this has never happened to you, you should totally try it some time. I'm not talking about jumping on the Obama bandwagon and then later proclaiming "yes we did," or pretending like you knew all along that the Saints would topple the Colts on a Peyton Manning interception. No no, I am talking about a good, honest, bold prediction that, good or bad, you stand by. Believe me, I've had several go the other way on me...but not this one, not this time.

To have a full understanding of why this is so meaningful to me, I have to take you back to last December. I was in the midst of a potential run to the title game of the MC Gridironers Fantasy Football league as well as the League of Social Detriment (don't ask). In both leagues, I was primed to make the championship, but the bottom fell out when I went against the grain and sat 2 of my star players in favor of players that were at the time heating up. So I sat Reggie Wayne and Randy Moss in favor of Robert Meacham and Knowshown Moreno. Had I not benched them, I would've coasted to the title game and likely championship (putting some coin in my pocket along the way! Regrets? I have a few.

Back to my bracket...

I entered a total of 8 brackets this year with the exact same picks and I finished in first place in all eight of them, picking 44 of the 63 games correctly. When Georgetown (one of my final four picks) went down, I thought I was toast, but the Devils kept winning and kept winning and some of my big upset picks went through! While this was happening, the brackets were turning my way as Kansas, Kentucky, and Syracuse all fell...and West Virginia (another popular pick to win it all) fell to Duke in the semis. In the two money brackets I entered, I had one of them won before the final four even started and the other one was won when Duke took out West Va.

People can hate on Duke and Coach K all they want, but they survived and advanced...and put a little extra coin in my pocket in doing so! Finally! Agonizing over my brackets paid off! Until someone knocks me out of next year's bracket challenge, you can just call me The Champ.

Still Dancing

We're through two weekends and four rounds of the NCAA tournament and my bracket is still standing. Of the four teams left in the tournament, I have Duke and West Va. still going strong.

Of the 5 or 6 pools I participated in this year, I can safely say that I am in first-place in almost all if not all of them. My picks have already earned me a sum of money and if Duke wins just one more game over West Virginia, that sum of money will increase a bit. It makes me want to quit while I am on top and never submit another bracket again...but where's the fun in that?

Go Devils!

Bracket Update

Well, the first weekend of the NCAA tourney has come to a close and I'm still standing.

One of my final four teams, Georgetown, lost to Ohio in the first round, which hurt quite a bit but sweet 16 upset picks St. Marys, Washington, and Xaiver all advanced helping me make up some points.

The big loss of the weekend was Kansas going down to Northern Iowa. I would say that roughly anywhere from 50 to 75% of all the brackets I've seen in groups I am in had Kansas winning it, which is definitely good for me.

My numbers currently sit at 11 of 16 sweet sixteen, 6 of 8 elite eight, and 3 of 4 final four participants with Duke and Syracuse, my final two, still standing.

Should be an exciting finish!

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!