the field of 65 has now been whittled down to 32, and what a whirlwind couple of days. i'm glad i didn't put any money on my bracket picks, although perhaps if i had i might have done my homework beforehand. i liked #3 kansas for a sweet sixteen schooling by #2 uconn, but that was before i realized that kansas lost their last five and has been struggling with injuries to some key players. in spite of that, few people would have picked #14 bucknell, the team from the league with no first round victories EVER (in 13 attempts) to pull off the upset. props to the little guys out there (as long as they stay away from my acc teams-- well, maybe not unc, lol). another shocker was #13 vermont's ability to crack the orangemen's signature zone D. if only carmelo had stuck around (although he managed to accomplish every college player's dream in a single year so i don't blame him). i was actually debating for awhile whether #1 duke or #4 syracuse would win the bracket and it looks like the biggest obstacle has been removed (no offense to uk fans out there).

other bracket busters: #12 uw-milwaukee over #5 alabama, although apparently the 12-5 victory isn't so uncommon. also, #10 nc state over #7 charlotte (in charlotte, no less) and #11 uab over #6 lsu. nc State seems to have gained some confidence from their acc tourney success. can i say how much i love uab? i first picked up on them during last year's tourney, watching their "40 minutes of hell" routine. what a scrappy group of guys. i picked arizona to win the chicago bracket though, so let's hope that the uab run ends here. sorry!

one last thing and i'm done. promise. while checking the final score for the blue devils' first round matchup, i was quite surprised when i read the recap. oops :-p.