Beaten and Bruised

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I'd love to say that my bracket made it out of the weekend with little to no damage, but that would be an outright lie. The fact is, the legs got basically cut out from under me last night and at this point I have very little hope of winning anything this year. There is still a chance that if Duke comes out on top I will be okay, but given their performance over the past weekend, I am not sure that is going to be in the cards.

Things were pretty good after the rest of the first round games on Friday, but it was Saturday and Sunday with the second round games that really threw me for a loop.

I had Kentucky over Santa Clara and that overtime win by the Wildcats on Friday was the first domino to fall in the bottom half of my bracket. I also had Akron over Texas Tech, so that was another miss on my behalf. Arizona beat LIU Brooklyn and Virginia beat Wright State, so I was still good there. Iowa State rolled over Tennessee State, Alabama beat Hofstra, and Utah State upset Villanova by ten points. Those were all wins for me.

Tennessee dashed the Cinderella hopes of Miami of Ohio and then Iowa had a 9 vs 8 upset of Clemson to put another ding in my bracket. St. John's beat Northern Iowa, UCLA screwed me over by taking down UCF, and Purdue steamrolled Queens University 104 to 71.

Florida massacred Prairie View A&M 114 to 55, Kansas edged out California Baptist, Miami beat Missouri, and Connecticut took down Furman to finish off play for the day.

Like I said, my bracket was banged up a little, but nothing too serious. Most of the games I called wrong in the first round would resolve themselves in the second round if things went according to plan.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case....

I had Michigan over St. Louis no problem, but unfortunately, I didn't think Michigan State was going to be able to get past Louisville. Which is horrible given the fact that I am a Michigan State fan, however, I think that gives me a unique perspective and it just didn't seem they would play well enough to make it this far. Thankfully they did, but it still didn't do my bracket any favors.

I have Duke going all the way, so their win over TCU was nice, but it felt kind of rocky in the first half. I also called Houston over Texas A&M though I had them playing St. Mary's. Like I said, things should have worked themselves out after the first round.

The first real punch in the gut to my bracket was Texas taking down Gonzaga in an 11 vs 3 upset. I had Gonzaga going to the Elite Eight, but I should have known Gonzaga hasn't really been able to win those big games over the past few years. That's my mistake. Illinois beat VCU, and Nebraska proved me wrong and beat Vandy in what was a great game.

Finally, Arkansas put an end to High Points hopes after their big upset win over Wisconsin in the first round.

Yesterday was the day that really ruined me. I had Purdue over Miami no problem as well as Iowa State over Kentucky (though I guessed it was going to be Santa Clara). I even had the St. John's win over Kansas locked in on my bracket, but the Tennessee win over Virginia 79 to 72 in a 6 vs 3 upset pretty much destroyed the bottom quarter of my bracket since I had Virginia going to the Final Four.

Then Iowa obliterated the other bottom quarter of my bracket with their massive 73 to 72 win over number 1 seed Florida. Pretty good for a 9 seed, but man they really hurt me since I had Florida also going to the Final Four.

At this point the Arizona win over Utah State, Connecticut over UCLA, and Alabama over Texas Tech were just run of the mill wins. My final two teams are still in the hunt, but it's going to be a tough road to the winners circle from here. At this point, I think I will just forget about winning anything and cheer on my Michigan State Spartans.

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