My NCAA Tournament Bracket (click to enlarge)

Below is my bracket for this year's NCAA tournament. I don't normally watch college basketball because I think college play is inferior to the NBA (that's an argument for a later blog post), therefore I really don't know much about any of the teams in the tournament and a lot of my picks are just guess work.

Before I explain any controversial/important picks, first I have a confession to make. I am a big time fan of any mid-major team, due to my support for George Mason. I remember their Final Four run in 2006 and how all of Fairfax was covered in gold and green in support of them. I like to pick upsets wherever I can and this bracket might be a little upset heavy. Now on to the explanations:

Round 1

Temple over Cornell: Everyone is picking Cornell to pull the upset here, making my choice of Temple almost an upset in its own right. While people are right in pointing out how good Cornell is and how underseeded they are, no one seems to be realizing how good Temple is as well. They are underseeded also and I have them going to the sweet 16.
Washington over Marquette: I have to have at least one upset in each region in the first round and this seems like my best bet in the East. I'm not particularly thrilled with this pick.
Sienna over Purdue: Purdue is missing their best player and Sienna has a pedigree for pulling off the upset. Plus, everyone else is going with this pick so I might as well jump on the bandwagon.

Round 2

Xavier over Pittsburgh: I like Xavier a lot. Not just this year, but in general, because they help bring up the image of mid-majors everywhere and they have a cool name. Pitt isn't very good this year- they play way too slowly- and I think they have a good chance of being upset

Sienna over Texas A&M: I need at least one double digit seed in the sweet sixteen, and while I do believe that Texas A&M is a good team, I think Sienna has the best chance of any double digit seed to get to the next round.

Round 3

Butler over Syracuse: This is my big, bold pick. Syracuse isn't that great- they lost to an okay at best Georgetown team in their most recent game; and Butler is on a 20 game winning streak. They know how to play in big games and I think they'll have all the momentum.

Round 4

Baylor over Duke: I don't think Duke is that great and I think Baylor is a good team that could sneak up on Duke. In the end, however, this is just a guess with no real basis to back it up

Championship

Kansas over Kentucky: I have Kansas as my champion because they're the safest pick. They're most likely the best overall team in the league, they have balanced scoring, and they're experienced. Kentucky has two freshman as its best players, ruling them out.

So are my picks and explanations generally on target or am I just a blithering fool? Comments would be welcome.