the tindog coffeehouse

Last year, I posted my picks to win the NCAA men’s tournament while admittedly not knowing enough about the teams to make even a reasonable guess. And of course, I completely blew it. (Thank you, Pitt.)

But I’m trying again this year, a little more educated and a lot more hopeful. OK, so I really don’t know how hopeful I am, but who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky.

Breaking it down by region:

Midwest. aka “The Group of Death.” The Midwest is tricky because there are a lot of wildcards, teams that are probably seeded too high (Ohio State), and others that are probably too low (Tennessee). I think the Buckeyes will make it past Oklahoma State, but the Vols will knock them off to make it to the Elite Eight. No. 1 Kansas should survive, though, and win the region.

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I normally don’t follow college basketball; there are just too many games. But I do tend to get caught up in March Madness. Not to the point of bringing a TV and rabbit ears to work like a former co-worker of mine used to do every year, but I do enjoy watching games when I can.

That said, here are my pics for the men’s tournament. Yes, most of them are safe bets while a few are probably long shots. (Predicted winner in parentheses) Discuss.

Sweet 16.
Pitt vs. Florida State (Pitt)
Duke vs. Villanova (Villanova)
Louisville vs. Wake Forest (Louisville)
Kansas vs. Michigan State (Kansas)
LSU vs. Gonzaga (LSU)
OU vs. Syracuse (OU)
UConn vs. Purdue (UConn)
Missouri vs. Memphis (Memphis)

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I wondered at the beginning of this year’s college football season how accurate EA Sports’ NCAA College Football 09 for the Wii was at predicting the outcomes of the real games. Each week, I played the game as the University of Texas versus their scheduled opponent for the week and then compared that score to the real score.

A few of the Wii scores were fairly close to the actual ones (Florida Atlantic, Rice, Texas A&M) while others were way off (Arkansas, Missouri, Baylor), margins of error probably not too different than what you’d get from ESPN and other “expert” prognosticators.

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OK, so the Texas Longhorns are going to Lawrence, Kansas, this week to face off against the Kansas Jayhawks, their last road game of the regular season. I’ll keep this brief since I know very little about KU, except that head coach Mark Mangino is the spitting image of Mr. Lunt from VeggieTales:

Hee-hee.

OK, I’ll try to be serious now. (Giggle-snort.) Yeah, so anyway, the Jayhawks have a great quarterback, Todd Reesing (an Austin native), who will probably be more of a challenge to the Texas defense than Baylor’s Robert Griffin. But Texas still has Colt McCoy and now-healthy Quan Cosby and Fozzy Whittaker. Plus, Kansas has a 6-4 record, so barring any major injuries or a complete breakdown of coverage, the Horns should win this one pretty solidly.

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