State of my Bracket Address

The end of the opening weekend of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament is always bittersweet. For me, the first four days of March Madness are among my "high holy days" of the sports calendar, rivaled only by the likes of the Super Bowl and the World Cup. On those days, my attention is on nothing else but the competition, and I am almost always highly entertained by the games themselves.

With that being said, my bracket does not reflect my love for college basketball. Awful early picks (BYU, Ohio State, Minnesota) and good picks that did not quite pan out (Utah State, West Virginia) outweighed my good decisions, and two of my elite eight teams are already out (Clemson, Utah State).

But before you write me off, let me defend my struggling bracket.

1. I have 1 and only 1 bracket per year. That bracket applies to all pools/side bets entered. I do not take multiple shots at guessing games. I commit to picks and I enjoy the action.

2. I understand that boring brackets are not interesting (hence their name) and that they will not win pools. A seven or worse has made the elite eight in 8 of the last 9 years and the final four is rarely comprised of one seeds. Due to this, I take risks and attempt to guess a Cinderella or two for the sweet sixteen.

3. My love for the Big East makes it difficult for me to subjectively analyze the conference's talent from year to year. I have made an awful habit of putting 3 or more Big East teams in the elite eight on a yearly basis.

Ordinarily, these things have prevented me from having stellar brackets over the years, although I did finish 3rd in a 20+ people pool behind Florida's second national championship run two years ago. But this year, my old limitations completely destroyed my bracket hopes in a perfect storm of sorts.

First of all, I picked against the Big East for the first time in my life this year, figuring they were overrated and overhyped and that this could be the year I finally realized that the conference disapoints in the tournamet. Well, with 5 of 7 teams through to the sweet sixteen and at least 4 looking in good shape to get to the elite eight, the Big East has finally impressed this year. It figures.

Then, my time tested theory of the emergence of at least one Cinderella story collapsed, as this tournament has none left. The lowest seed remaining is Arizona, an incredibly talented team and storied program that simply can not be regarded as a Cinderella. So my Utah State pick became as silly as my Clemson pick, and a quater of my elite eight went up in flames.

The positives? My final four is still in tact, and my champion, Connecticut, has looked like one of the two best teams in the tournament, along with Villanova.

So tune in next week for an update on the state of my bracket and much more on The Mouth That Roared.