Now that the rubber has started meeting the road, the notorious cq (134 points, 41 correct picks) has nosed out ahead of dbsmall (128/41). Veglia’s cruise control (124/38) has worked him into third place just ahead of Hendu (122/39). Next is the right wing clan, starting with norcalfella (118/38) and soildork (118/35) and followed by norcaldoll (116/37) and mwc (112/38). For the Sweet 16, cq, veglia and soildork led the way with 5-3 marks, while mwc struggled with a 3-5. Everyone else was an even 4-4. The most classic moment of the round was Maryland’s Blake proving that white men can’t jump by getting rejected by the rim on a breakaway. The second funniest thing is that from what I can tell only one player has been eliminated from winning the pool based on the “what if” scenarios. That would be me. I guess my only saving grace is that I am doing a lot better in my other pool (wherein I would have 144 points using our scoring system) and that pool is for actual money.

I have to say that this weekend will be filled with great games, and hopefully more people will tune away from the bombings and watch the slams. Kentucky should be able to handle Marquette and extend their winning streak. Arizona has already killed Kansas, but we all know about rematches. A hungry Michigan State squad should test Texas. Oklahoma will be faced with by far their toughest opponent when they meet Syracuse in their stomping grounds of Albany, New York.

In the end, I’m pulling for all four top seeds to win. If I had to rate the chances of an “upset” I would rank Syracuse the most likely to register one, followed by Michigan State, then Kansas and finally Marquette. Should be fun, and as the games unfold there will be more eliminations in the pool.