Bracket Predictions

I've been working on this all day, waiting to see how the upset bids of Illinois and Georgia would work out...

• The bracket is based on a combination of records, rankings, ESPN's Daily RPI (including record versus RPI Top 100), and record over the last dozen games.
• The regions are seeded to split up teams from the same conferences, and to avoid conference rematches, as much as possible.
• I've tried to factor in sub-regional sites, but mainly in regards to travel for lower seeds.

EAST REGION (Charlotte):
1 UNC
2 Georgetown
3 Stanford
4 Drake
5 Marquette
6 Indiana
7 Arkansas
8 Oklahoma
9 St. Joseph’s
10 St. Mary’s
11 South Alabama
12 Oral Roberts
13 Siena
14 CS Fullerton
15 Belmont
16 Mount St. Mary’s

MIDWEST REGION (Detroit)
1 Kansas
2 Tennessee
3 Xavier
4 Pittsburgh
5 Butler
6 USC
7 Purdue
8 West Virginia
9 Miami (FL)
10 Western Kentucky
11 Mississippi State
12 VCU
13 Cornell
14 Boise State
15 American
16 Mississippi Valley State vs. Coppin State (Play-In Game)

SOUTH REGION (Houston)
1 Memphis
2 Texas
3 Michigan State
4 Vanderbilt
5 UConn
6 Washington State
7 BYU
8 Notre Dame
9 Davidson
10 Illinois State
11 Virginia Tech
12 Kansas State
13 George Mason
14 St. Mary’s
15 Portland State
16 Winthrop

WEST REGION (Phoenix)
1 UCLA
2 Duke
3 Wisconsin
4 Louisville
5 Clemson
6 UNLV
7 Kent State
8 Gonzaga
9 Texas A&M
10 Villanova
11 Arizona
12 Temple
13 Georgia
14 Austin Peay
15 UMBC
16 UT Arlington

The Final Four In:
Kansas State
VCU
Mississippi State
Arizona

The Last Four Out:
Kentucky
Baylor
Creighton
UMass

Skins vs. Seahawks

For the 2nd time in 3 years, my two favorite NFL teams are meeting in the NFC playoffs. When I latched on to the Seahawks in the mid-80s as my AFC team, I could have never imagined this scenario. But I digress... Two years ago, I decided to pull for the Seahawks because I felt they had a much better chance to advance to the Super Bowl. This year, I have to root for the 'Skins as the sentimental favorite and the feel-good story. The inspiration the team found in Sean Taylor's death would be enough on its own, but when you add in the story of Todd Collins, I have to go with the 'Skins this week. Winning in Seattle, with the crowd noise and elements, will not be easy, but hopefully they can continue to ride this streak throughout the postseason.

The NFL B.R. (before replay)

I have been watching the Bills playoff comeback versus the Oilers in '93 for about 10 minutes now on NFL Network, and it strikes me that it would probably have never happened in 2008. Trailing 35-10 in the 3rd quarter, Frank Reich completed a pass to Don Beebe that Beebe fumbled before being touched down. The referee ruled him down and Buffalo retained possession. A few plays later, Reich threw a touchdown to Beebe after Beebe stepped out of bounds on the out and up. Both plays would have been overturned on replay. It was such a simpler time then... a simpler time with god-awful zebra sweatpants!

Virginia Tech

First, my prayers and thoughts go out to the entire Blacksburg community on this terrible day.

As a wannabe journalist, I wanted to post a few comments about the media coverage I have been watching since about 1:00 this afternoon. At times, it has been agonizingly slow in getting information. There was about an hour where the local Fox affiliate was reporting 32 fatalities while CNN was reporting 22. Not once in that hour did CNN even address the possibility that more people had been killed. Also, the press conferences have not shed much light on the situation, but that is understandable considering the ongoing investigation. However, after watching a number of similar news conferences in my lifetime, it would be nice if the assembled media could learn that "I cannot comment on that at this time" means that the speaker will not be commenting on that at this time no matter how you try to phrase the question.

Of greater frustration has been the rush to judgment by the media on how the university handled the events of the day. With hindsight, I am sure the university and campus police wish they would have done things differently. But the crucial question to answer is what did they know and at what time? The first incident was reported via a 911 call at 7:15am. Police arrived, secured the building, and began interviewing witnesses. From the few details the police chief has unveiled at the press conferences, you can glean a scenario that may have played out: Witnesses told police that John Doe was responsible for the shootings. They tracked him down as a "person of interest." While they were interviewing him, reports came in of the second shooting site.

I sometimes wonder if the media weighs the need for public information versus the threat of mass hysteria. With 9000 students on campus, thousands of other students commuting onto campus, and thousands of employees either on campus or en route, what was the best course of action to ensure their safety? Do you lock down a campus when you believe you may have the person responsible in for questioning? I am sure people would be second-guessing if campus police caused panic and the first incident turned out to be just an isolated event? I just do not understand the need to so quickly assess blame for an act so despicable that it is beyond our imagination.

MLB 2K7 Nightmare

They say games aren't played on paper, and thankfully for the Baltimore Orioles, they aren't played on a video game console either. ESPN played the entire 2007 season on MLB 2K7 and the results were not pretty. The Birds finished 60-102, 40 games behind Boston for the division title in the AL East. The game not only predicts the O's to be the worst team in baseball, but far worse than any other team. That means 8 games worse than Kansas City & Colorado, 9 back of Tampa Bay & Pittsburgh, and 12 behind our own Nats.

I will now take a few minutes for rebuttal. First, I would like to borrow a quote from the Geico Caveman... "yeah, I have the response... what??!" Who loaded the skill ratings for this game? I realize that they probably won't challenge for the division title this year, but I also don't think that a .500 record or better is out of the question. It is early, but the pitching looks much improved. The starters have delivered eight consecutive quality starts including the 8-1 win Friday over the Royals. Take away last Saturday's nightmare in New York and Kurt Birkins' implosion in the 12th on Wednesday and the bullpen has been near perfect. The hitters have struggled mightily and yet the team is 5-6 at the moment. With the proven hitters in the lineup and the near-future additions of Ramon Hernandez and Jay Payton off the DL, there is legitimate hope for improvement. And by improvement, I mean finishing the rest of the season with a record better than 55-96.