Bungled Brackets

My original forecast.

By the end of the First Round on Friday night - there were 9 perfect brackets out of 17.2 million in ESPN's tournament challenge.

Mine was not one of them.

I had 20 correct choices out of 32.

Saturday was the first day of the second round - I got 7 of 8.

Sunday I got four of the five teams right that were still alive in my bracket (right).

My still Sweet 16: Duke, LSU, Michigan State; Gonzaga, Fla State, Michigan; Virginia, Purdue, Tennessee; North Carolina and Kentucky.

That list includes 7 of my Elite Eight predictions and my last four standing.

There are no Cinderellas left at the dance.  Every team is from a big conference.  Oregon is a 12 seed, but coming from the Pac 12 - they don't fit the slipper.

The opening weekend is all about the upsets - the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight matches are usually about the Blue Bloods.

Keeping that in mind, I am stubbornly holding with my picks for the coming weekend:

In the East, Duke and Michigan State will battle it out for a trip to Minneapolis and I'll go with the plucky Spartans to halt the Blue Devils.

In the Midwest, I see Kentucky escaping North Carolina, and in the South, I will stick with my pick of the Purdue Boilermakers

Out West, Gonzaga still looks good to me as my choice to take home the title.

We'll see what happens next.