NCAA Championship - Bracket Time!

Sunday, 4:10 - OK, after much deliberation, here my final bracket. Come back here later tonight and throughout the week for thoughts on the actual bracket. Can't wait!!!

Big East (8) - WVY, Cuse, Pitt, Georgetown, Villanova, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame

ACC (7) - Duke, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Wake, Clemson, Florida State, Va Tech

Big 12 (7) - Kansas, Kansas State, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Texas

Big 10 (6) - Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan State, Wiscy, Minnesota, Illinois

Mountain West (4) - New Mexico, BYU, San Diego State, UNLV

SEC (3) - Kentucky, Vandy, Tennessee

Atlantic 10 (3) - Temple, Richmond, Xavier

Conf. USA (2) - UTEP, Houston

WCC (2) - Gonzaga, St. Mary's

WAC (2) - New Mexico State, Utah State

For me, Illinois, Va Tech and Utah State are the last three in, while Cal, Miss. St., Florida, Seton Hall are on the outside looking in. Hard to believe the regular season Pac 10 champ doesn't make it, but Cal has only one top-50 win. That just doesn't cut it for me...Mississippi State had three of their four best wins this week, not consistent enough over the course of the year...As for Utah State, I can live with someone saying they didn't play enough games against the top-50 (3) and they don't have the wins of some of the at-large contenders, but I have them in for now...

5:55 - Let's go already! While we wait, here are my projected top lines, set by region...

1) Kansas (MW), Kentucky (East), Syracuse (South), West Virginia (West) 2) Georgetown, Kansas State, Ohio State, Duke 3) Baylor, Villanova, New Mexico, Pittsburgh 4) Temple, Purdue, Butler, Tennessee 5) Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Michigan State, Wisconsin

6:04 - Shocker, Duke gets hooked and gets to stay closer to home. I live in Big East/ACC Territory and I can tell you unequivocally that the Big East was the MUCH better conference. Fine with the Blue Devils as a No. 1, flip of a coin with WVU and maybe even Ohio State...As for the Cuse, much harder road having to potentially play Kansas in the Final Four then the youthful Kentucky Wildcats...In terms of best chance to win it all, I rank the top seeds Kansas, Syracuse, Kentucky, Duke...

6:13 - Midwest...Wow, a potential Sweet 16 matchup between Ohio State's Evan Turner and Georgetown's Greg Monroe highlights this region. Kansas should be fine getting past the Maryland/Michigan State winner and neither the Buckeyes or Hoyas have the size to challenge the Jayhawks...Not sure why the Buckeyes are considered the last of the two seeds

6:21 - Good draw for Syracuse; Kansas State primarily scores from the perimeter and could have issues with the Orange's vaunted 2-3 zone. Still, both squads have a great chance to make the Elite Eight...Pittsburgh is a fradulent three and will fall to 6th seeded Xavier...Florida, wow. The getting in, a little bit, but more shocked at how high they were seeded...looking forward to Butler-UTEP

6:29 - After seeing the East, what jumps out at me is that Duke is going to get the worst No. 2 seed in the bracket. Unreal...Temple and Cornell were two teams I was likely going to have win at least one game and they play each other in round one...Don't sleep on Wofford, who at wins against South Carolina and Georgia, but Wiscy is a tough high seed to catch sleeping...wait, only five Big East teams are in. Unless three go in the next region, somebody (Notre Dame?) is on the outside. Hmmm

6:48 - Even though I don't agree, I can see Duke over Cuse on the one line. However, if WVU was also inconsideration for the top seed _ as the committee chair said they were _ then how could they a higher seeded Kentucky? By this logic, the committee is saying Nova is ahead of WVU? Baffling...The 10-13 seeds _ St. Mary's, ODU, Utah State and Siena _ are no jokes...time to study, be back soon...