Everyone into the pool!

The day is upon us! This morning, the NCAA Basketball Championship Tournament kicks off and, like every good self-respecting man out there, I’ve spent the last week torturing myself trying to fill in the 63 little blank spaces on my bracket form. Well I finished yesterday, sent it in to my pool(s) but didn’t have time to post them here until today. Though the games have just now started, I need you to trust me that none of these picks are influenced by what has occurred thus far.

So without further ado, here are my 2005 NCAA Tourney Picks:

CHICAGO REGION

Illinois over Farleigh Dickenson
Nevada over Texas
U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee over Alabama
Penn over BC
LSU over UAB
Arizona over Utah St.
Southern Illinois over St. Mary’s
Oklahoma St. over SE Louisiana

Illinois over Nevada
UWM over Penn
LSU over Arizona
Okla St. over Southern Illinois

Illinois over UWM
Okla St. over LSU

Illinois over Okla St.


ALBEQUERQUE REGION

Washington over Montana
Pittsburgh over Pacific
Georgia Tech over George Washington
Louisville over Louisiana-Lafayette
UCLA over Texas Tech
Gonzaga over Winthrop
West Virginia over Creighton
Wake Forest over Chattanooga

Pitt over Washington
Louisville over Georgia Tech
Gonzaga over UCLA
West Virginia over Wake Forest
Louisville over Pitt
Gonzaga over West Virginia

Louisville over Gonzaga


SYRACUSE REGION

North Carolina over Oakland
Minnesota over Iowa St.
Villanova over New Mexico
Florida over Ohio
Wisconsin over Northern Iowa
Kansas over Bucknell
N.C. St. over Charlotte
UConn over Central Florida

UNC over Minnesota
Florida over Villanova
Kansas over Wisconsin
UConn over N.C. St.

Florida over UNC
UConn over Kansas

UConn over Florida


AUSTIN REGION

Duke over Delaware St.
Stanford over Mississippi St.
Michigan St. over Old Dominion
Syracuse over Vermont
UTEP over Utah
Oklahoma over Niagara
Iowa over Cincinnati
Kentucky over Eastern Kentucky

Duke over Stanford
Syracuse over Michigan St.
Oklahoma over UTEP
Kentucky over Iowa

Duke over Syracuse
Oklahoma over Kentucky

Duke over Oklahoma

FINAL FOUR

Illinois
Louisville
UConn
Duke

I’ll be back later today with my championship picks and breakdowns of the final four teams.

NOTE: It’s halftime for the first set of games: Bracket Buster UWM is beating Alabama (Yes!) Pitt is losing big to Pacific (Fuck no!) Kentucky and Oklahoma are big favorites and holding narrow leads (oh dear God…)

Stay tuned.