March Madness 2024...

Let's talk brackets. I love a good competition. I love to win. But when I don't win I can typically move on quite quickly from a loss (unless we are specifically talking about Big Six Swim Offs, but I digress.) We have a family group on ESPN for the men's NCAA basketball tournament and it's "high stakes" with no entry fee, a chocolate rabbit for the winner and most importantly bragging rights. While I've never won, nor have I ever been close to winning, I thought I'd share my rationale for my picks through the first round of play. You should not follow this advice but if you so choose to, don't blame me when you too lose out to a cat with it's own bracket.

East Region

UConn 1 v Stetson 16: This is a silly way to start because it's a 16 v a 1 seed and clearly we know the very likely outcome of this game. But if I could, I'd choose Stetson cologne over a Huskie dog because Huskies kind of scare me a little. Regardless I am going with the Huskie.

Florida Atlantic 8 v Northwestern 9: If I remember correctly, Florida Atlantic had a player with a terrible and gruesome leg injury. Or was that Florida? No, I think it was Florida Atlantic. The ESPN guys during the selection show tell me he was one of their best players and it sounds like he is out for the tournament. So I'm going with Northwestern for this game.

San Diego St 5 v UAB 12: What is a UAB? Where is UAB? I do not know the answer to these questions even though I could quickly Google it. On a separate but surprisingly related note, I really enjoyed visiting my grandparents when they'd winter in Coronado Island which is just outside San Diego. Ahh, fond memories. Therefore I have selected San Diego St.

Auburn 4 v Yale 13: This was a toughie for me. One of my favorite shows is Gilmore Girls and one of my favorite characters in the show ends up going to school at Yale. Yale looked incredible although I'm sure they were not truly at Yale but rather a standard brick building with a fire place, coffee shop and books. Then again Auburn is a 4 seed so despite my loyalty to Rory from Gilmore Girls I have selected Auburn to win this match-up. That was confusing, right?

BYU 6 v Duquesne 11: Did you see tuition for Duquesne before aid is around $63,000 a year?! Madness. March madness. I have selected BYU, although I'm sure it's not much cheaper.

Illinois 3 v Morehead St 14: This is very petty of me but that's okay because they're my picks and my blog but I went with Illinois here because the word/name Morehead makes me think of pimples.

Washington St. 7 v Drake 10: I had to go with the local team here. Bulldogs for the win!

Iowa State 2 v South Dakota St 15: Of course I selected the Clones to win this one!!

West Region

North Carolina 1 v Wagner 16: I do not know Wagner and I wish them well but I went with the 1 seed here.

Mississippi St 8 v Michigan St 9: This was a tricky one for me. Michigan State's head coach, Tom Izzo, has a fun last name and reminds nearly everyone of the great Jay Z song, Izzo. I also just learned that Tom Izzo's favorite band of all time is Jackson 5. And while I am not much of a Jackson 5 fan, Matt loves them. So you can see why I'd choose Michigan St over Mississippi St but I just get a bad feeling here for the Spartans. I'm going with Mississippi St.

St. Mary's 5 v Grand Canyon 12: I had no idea a school named Grand Canyon existed but if memory from last week serves me correctly, St. Mary's had to really duke it out to get to the tournament in the first place and at some point a 12 seed USUALLY, but not always, beats a 5 so I'm going with the Grand Canyon.

Alabama 4 v Charleston 13: No real rationale here. Just went with the higher seed. Although if I were to select one of these two locations to visit, I'd hands down choose Charleston but somehow Alabama always has good sports teams. It must be their southern charm. 

Clemson 6 v New Mexico 11: I've always liked Clemson. I don't know whether it's the cute orange cat paw logo or the name that makes me think of delicious clementines, but I'm cheering for Clemson to win. 

Baylor 3 v Colgate 14: Come on, now. Bears v Toothpaste? It's gonna be the bear.

Dayton 7 v Nevada 10: I like Nevada in this match-up for no real reason. You can't always choose the higher seed, right?

Arizona 2 v Long Beach St. 15: A long time ago I bought a cute jacket from the discount rack at Eby's. Remember that sports store? The jacket had a big letter A on it and I thought it was the Atlanta Braves' A. (I don't generally cheer for the Braves but it was a cute jacket on mega sale and I was a cute college kid with no money.) Well I wore the jacket to meet with a professor one day and she said, "Oh, I love Arizona. Do you have family there?" Huh? She pointed at my jacket and noted that I was wearing an Arizona Wildcats jacket. I corrected her (or thought I was correcting her) and she continued to tell me no, it is an Arizona jacket. Well we eventually dropped the argument and got done to the business at hand. I later looked it up and realized that I was in fact wrong. Why did I ever think I'd be smarter than a college professor?!?! After that I don't think I ever wore that jacket again out of sheer embarrassment. Anyway, that is a long way to say that I selected Arizona...and they are a 2 seed so it seems silly not to choose them.

South Region

Houston 1 v Longwood 16: Houston is a tough team. Not tough enough to beat Iowa State last week but I think they'll get Longwood.

Nebraska 8 v Texas A&M 9: Gotta love Hoiberg even if he left ISU for the Bulls (and then the Huskers.) I'm cheering for Nebraska.

Wisconsin 5 v James Madison 12: The ESPN guys told me James Madison is going to do well this tournament season. So I'm cheering for our 4th president. (Don't be impressed. I had to look up when exactly he was in office.)

Duke 4 v Vermont 13: Duke always does well in the tournament. I went with Duke.

Texas Tech 6 v NC State 11: I don't know why Texas Tech has "tech" in their name but it has always bothered me. I mean, no offense to those who attend TT, but I just don't like it. I'm going with NC State.

Kentucky 3 v Oakland 14: Kate and I listened to a podcast about the history of Oakland, CA in the 70s and it was shocking and scary. I don't know why anyone would choose to live in Oakland. I went with Kentucky.  

Florida 7 v I don't know 10: I will always choose Florida. And I don't really know who they're playing. It is a play in game, I believe and it doesn't matter who moves into that spot. I will still choose the beaches of Florida.

Marquette 2 v W. Kentucky 15: Marquette is such a basketball legend school. Or at least that's what I remember. Marquette shall win.

Midwest Region:

Purdue 1 v MTST/GRAM 16: Another play-in game. Honestly I don't think Purdue is going to do well in this tournament. They blew their conference championship game against Wisconsin and I think their season is done.

Utah St. 8 v TCU 9: I felt very unmotivated by this game and I went with the Big 12 school. TCU.

Gonzaga 5 v McNeese 12: While I love a good underdog, I am cheering for Gonzaga because they have a totally fab name and CJ loves them...but only because of their name. Gonzaga for the win!

Kansas 4 v Samford 13: I do not know anything about Samford other than it naturally makes me think of Sanford and Sons which is a show I never cared about. Plus I hear from many ISU fans that refs love Kansas, so I will go with Kansas. Wink. 

South Carolina 6 v Oregon 11: This is a another tough one. We are going to SC this summer and I am so excited about it!!! But those Ducks always do well during March Madness and their jerseys are usually so fun. So I went with Oregon here.

Creighton 3 v Akron 14: Akron is just a terrible name. When a person says Akron it sounds like they're coughing up something I don't want to see. Plus McDermott, former ISU men's basketball coach, is at Creighton and so I choose Creighton to win.

Texas 7 v Colorado St 10: If I remember correctly Texas has given some schools a run for their money this basketball season. I think they can be pretty tough so I'm going with Texas. 

Tennessee 2 v St. Peter's 15: I've always liked Tennessee basketball for no good solid reason and Maddie loves their colors. It's also a 2 v 15 match-up so I had to go with Tennessee for this game.

So there you have it. 2024 first round predictions that I'm really hoping will get me on the path to winning a chocolate rabbit. Hope you have a great time watching March Madness. I know I will. Cheers!