March Madness '07!

This has been a crazy, yet predictable NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament this March. There has been a lot learned this year, such as rooting for the teams that start with "V" - Vanderbilt, Vegas (UNLV), Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth (VCU), and Virginia. Nearly all of the games were predictable, for it was easy for a person to get every pick right in the NCAA tourney brackets.

In the first round of the tourney, there were some upsets, ranging from ninth-ranked Purdue defeating eighth-ranked Arizona, to the biggest upset - VCU beating Duke - once an almighty powerhouse in the tourney. The only other upset was Xavier (#9) defeating BYU (#8). Although 11th-ranked Winthrop beat 6th-ranked Notre Dame, Winthrop was considered the better team - by far. An astonishing victory was Vandy's clobbering of the University of George Washington, by 33 points!!! Surprisingly there was only three first-round upsets out of the 32 total games played in the first round. :O <-- A surprised smiley. In the second round, there was four upsets total - UNLV surprisingly trouncing 2nd-ranked Wisconsin, one of three big upsets in the entire tournament - USC beating Texas, Vandy shocking 3rd-ranked Washington State, and Tennessee defeating 4th-ranked UVa. The third huge upset in the entire tourney was USC shockingly defeating Texas, since Texas was led by AP player of the year and a freshman - Kevin Durant. Many people predicted Texas to reach the sweet sixteen, or even the elite eight, against UNC (The other crucial upset was VCU's victory over Duke). The only staggering defeats from the sweet sixteen forward was 2nd-ranked UCLA defeating #1 Kansas and #2 Georgetown defeating #1 UNC - both games taking place in the elite eight. Amazingly, the tourney will end with a January basketball and the BCS National Championship game rematch of Ohio State University against the returning champion, the veteran Florida Gators. I, like many other basketball fanatics, made my own predictions of the NCAA tournament. In the first round, i had Arizona defeating Purdue and Georgia Tech defeating UNLV in the Midwest region. In the West region, i predicted Illinois defeating VT (Virginia Tech), Duke defeating VCU and Gonzaga defeating Indiana. In the East region, i had Arkansas defeating USC - like many sports commentators predicted - and both GW and Oral Roberts shocking Vandy and Washington State. All of these picks in the first round were wrong - 75% of my picks were correct. In the second round, there was only half as many mistakes made. I foolishly predicted Michigan State to beat top-ranked UNC and was surprised by the results of the other four games that i missed - UNLV defeating Wisconsin, USC defeating Texas, and Vandy defeating Washington State (in double overtime!).

From this point onto the National Championship game, all but one of the games i predicted are correct. The only game i missed was the Memphis-Texas A&M match. I thought Acie Law IV would dominate and shock this underrated Memphis team. Boy, was i wrong! I luckily foresaw the final four teams - Georgetown, OSU, Florida and UCLA, and even the National Championship game, between OSU and Florida. I was shocked (in a good way) that i foresaw this Championship matchup.

What a tourney this has been in March!