The NCAA Basketball tourney is my favorite annual sports event. I love the drama, intense competition and inevitable upsets.
I am participating in a pool again this year. This pool is run my a former co-worker of mine and he does an excellent job of administering it and keeping all players updated on our standings after each round is completed. I always have a lot of fun playing and consider it a real challenge to finish in the upper end of the standings because the other participants are pretty knowledgable college hoops fans. I picked Duke to win last year in one of my two brackets and ended up taking 1st place. The key to victory there was that only one other bracket in that pool, which had about 30 brackets entered, that had Duke winning it all.
This year our pool bracket count is 42.
Ohio State 14
Kansas 12
Duke 6
San Diego State 3
Pittsburgh 2
UCLA 2
Florida 1
North Carolina 1
Syracuse 1
I entered two brackets this year. I ended up picking Ohio St. in one of my brackets and Duke to win in the other. OSU was an obvious favorite because they have been a powerhouse all year and I could not ignore their impressive record of 32-2 going into the tourney. They stand out in year that reflected great parity in college basketball. I figured a lot of other people would be picking OSU in the pool so I also picked a team team that would have to be considered an unlikely opponent in the championship game and that team is Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish were very good this year and could go deep in the tourney if their outside shooting is on.
Although Duke is a number one seed they are still considered a little bit of an underdog when compared to Ohio State and Kansas, but I think Duke has a good shot to win it all again because they have an all-time great coach in Mike Krzyzewski and very talented, tournament tested team. They won the tough ACC again and seem to peaking at the right time.
On a side note I hope MWC teams, San Diego State and BYU, go far in the tourney. I like SDSU because they are my local team here in San Diego and they have captured the imagination of San Diego. BYU is intriguing because of their superstar guard, Jimmer Fredette. I don’t think either one will make it into final four, but good for them if either one can pull it off.
gmf journal 