Take A Good Look At This Picture...

I should have blogged about the NCAA tournament sooner than this. As a matter of fact, there probably should have been a post published shortly after the pairings were released to show the world my picks for this years bracket. I'm thankful that I held off because, now that the first two rounds are in the books, one of my Final Four predictions has already bit the dust. That's right. Take a good look at the logo you see at the top of this post. That's about how my face looked on Friday night when the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest were utterly embarrassed by Cleveland State in Miami. That teeth-clinching, angry looking smirk has yet to leave my face even a few days in the aftermath.

I know. I'm my own worst enemy here, and my friends at home and work let me know about my horrible prediction of putting Wake Forest in my Final Four as soon as I informed them I penciled in the Demon Deacons over Louisville. "What?! Are you crazy?!" the voices rained down on me as I returned to work on Monday morning. But all I could do was bow my shaking head in remorse knowing I'd just blogged about the Cardinals' greatness just a week after they won the Big East Tournament outright.

I try not to mix passion with money and sports. Deep inside (and I know most of you know what I'm talking about here) I felt as though if I picked Louisville to go all the way and cut down the nets on April 6 in Detroit, they would somehow stumble in the opening rounds of the tourney, and somehow I would blame myself for it. Sometimes that's just how my luck rolls when it comes to pools and fantasy leagues. Speaking of pools, I'm currently in one run by friends that also includes family members. This pool has about 20 entries, if not more, and the winner will be paid out almost $300 in cold hard cash. See why I'm pouting now???

I still have Memphis, Pittsburgh and North Carolina still alive to make it as three of my Final Four teams. But, then again, so does everyone else in America along with their pen pals in foreign countries. So there is no ground to be gained here.

I thought Wake Forest would have been a decent pick to come out of the Midwest Region and make it to the Final Four. Heck, Seth Davis from CBS predicted the same. Of course he also had Virginia Commonwealth upsetting UCLA and, well, we all know now how that turned out. Sorry Seth. But apparently we both suck this year and so does Wake Forest. My chant from here on out will be to bring on the upsets and GO CARDS!