Wisdom Teeth, and my NCAA Bracket

Wisdom teeth  suck!  Today is Sunday, and I had mine removed on Wednesday at about 8:00 in the morning, along with two other molars.  Thank God that I was given 3 days of "quarters", meaning I didn't have to do anything involving work.  Then, after my 3 days were up, it was a weekend, so I did not have to go into work.  Essentially I have been given 5 days to recover.  I have a phenomenal wife who allowed me to be lazy and whine like a little baby, and she took great care of me.  Here it is though, Sunday at about 5:00pm, and I am still in pain.  I don't know if there is a dry socket, or an infection of some sort, or what, but I have done everything that I was instructed to do in order to prevent those things from happening.  I am thinking that it just hurts.

That having been said, being laid up in bed has allowed me to mourn my horrible selections in the 2012 NCAA Basketball Bracket. So far, I have lost one of my Final Four selections (Mizzou, whom I had losing in the finals), but the other 7 in my Elite 8 are still alive.  I am still competitive with JDaddy, CDog and the 4-year-old, but given the way my early rounds have gone, I don't hold out much hope for pulling it off.

At least I'm not like 8 people from the ESPN bracket challenge.  According to a Mike Greenberg (@ESPNGreeny) tweet, there were 8 people who got every single first round choice wrong.  Click on that link to find the featured brackets of Lebron, Dicky-V, Nick "Used to be married to Jessica Simpson but then I upgraded" Lachey, Phil "The Poker Brat" Hellmuth, and yes, your bracketologist-in-chief, President Obama.  If you selected your own, then take a minute to see where you stand amongst the celebs.

2012 East, Midwest Regions Selections and Final Four Selections

EAST

Round of 64

Syracuse over NC Asheville
Southern Miss over Kansas State
Vanderbilt over Harvard
Wisconsin over Montana
Cincinnati over Texas
Florida State over St. Bonaventure
Gonzaga over West Virginia
Ohio St over Loyola (MD)

Round of 32

Syracuse over Southern Miss
Vandy over Wisconsin
Florida St over Cincinnati
Gonzaga over Ohio St

Sweet 16

Syracuse over Vandy
Florida St over Gonzaga

Elite 8

Syracuse over Florida St

Syracuse is the only 1 seed that I have going to the final four.

MIDWEST

Round of 64

North Carolina over Lamar
Alabama over Creighton
Temple over Cal
Michigan over Ohio
San Diego St over NC State
Georgetown over Belmont
Purdue over St Mary's
Kansas over Detroit

Round of 32

NC over Bama
Temple over Michigan
Georgetown over San Diego St
Kansas over Purdue

Sweet 16

NC over Temple
Kansas over Georgetown

Elite 8

Kansas over NC

Yes, that means I have three Big XII teams in the final four, but I have no particular bias toward that or any conference. I truly gave no thought to their conference while making selections. With that said, here is my ...

FINAL FOUR

Mizzou over Baylor
Syracuse over Kansas

2012 NCAA Championship Game

Syracuse over Mizzou
With my score tie breaker at 77-65.

I think the depth of Syracuse and Boeheim's experience will carry them through the tournament and to an NCAA championship. I have loved watching the Pressey brothers and the other 5 regular players for Mizzou. Their fast paced, high pressure style of play will get them to the finals, but not quite to the top.

I'm sure that after the first round my bracket will be torn to shreds, nevertheless, today, I feel confident in my picks.

2012 NCAA West Region Bracket Selections

Round of 64

Michigan St over LIU Brooklyn
St Louis U over Memphis
NM State over Long Beach State
Louisville over Davidson
Murray St over Colorado St
Marquette over Iona
Virginia over Florida
Mizzou over Norfolk St

Round of 32

Michigan St over SLU
NM St over Louisville
Marquette over Murray St
Mizzou over Virginia

Sweet 16

Michigan St over NM St
Mizzou over Marquette

Elite 8

Mizzou over Michigan St

That means I have Navarro College alum Matt Pressey an his Missouri Tigers winning the West region and taking on Baylor in the Final Four.

The East bracket is next, followed by my Midwest bracket and my Final Four selections.

2012 NCAA Play-in and South Region Bracket

PLAY IN

MVSU over WKU
IONA over BYU
LAMAR over VERMONT
CAL over USF

SOUTH REGION

Round of 64

Kentucky over MVSU
UConn over Iowa St
VCU over Wichita State
Indiana over NM St
UNLV over Colorado
Baylor over South Dakota St
Xavier over Notre Dame
Duke over Lehigh

Round of 32

Kentucky over UConn
VCU over Indiana
Baylor over UNLV
Duke over Xavier

Sweet 16

Kentucky over VCU
Baylor over Duke

Elite 8
Baylor over Duke

That means I have 3 seed Baylor winning the South region headed to the Final Four. The West region will be published next.

My 2012 NCAA Bracket Preview

For the first time in years, I am interested in the NCAA Basketball tourney enough to fill out a bracket. I don't know if being in the high desert, away from all sports, for a month allowed a little more room come March, or what. But for this year, I have filled out a bracket, and am excited to see if my extremely illogical, not-at-all-expert, uninformed selections pan out. Tomorrow I will post my round-by-round selections. However, just for tonight, I will say that I have a few upsets in the early rounds, but my final four appears to be a strong contender for legitimate. It involves top seeds. One of which is a team with a senior who played for the Junior College I used to work for. I didn't have much to do with recruiting him, but I did walk through the steps to admissions with his mom and him when the coach brought him in on a recruiting trip. His new team is a favorite of mine, but not my selection to win it all. So, tomorrow, I will lay it all out, and I hope all 4 of you that stumble across this page will eagerly await that post.