Final 4 picks still intact, First Round was a bloody, bloody mess

Thursday, March 21, 2002
John Mesh

How many of you remember that testosteronally-ladened military statement "kill them all -- let God sort them out?"

It's appropriate for the First Round on my NCAA bracket.

It's as if a grenade hit my bracket and scattered it to the Four Corners of the Universe.

With apologies to the Irish band U2, the first day of the NCAA Tournament was "Thursday Bloody Thursday" for me.

Including the play-in round game in which I picked Alcorn State to beat Siena -- and Siena won -- my first-day record was 8-9.

I picked Kent State and Missouri to advance to the second round, but not much else went right.

I picked Charlotte to beat Notre Dame, Utah to beat Indiana and Gonzaga to beat Wyoming. Charlotte, Utah and Gonzaga went down.

I picked the Kansas Jayhawks to win the NCAA title, and darned if the Jayhawks won in a struggled against Holy Cross.

I recovered a little bit on the second day of the tournament, posting an 11-5 record. Thus my overall record was 19-14.

Five of my favorites went down the second day -- Michigan State, Florida, Hawaii, Texas Tech and St. John's.

The Creighton Bluejays, from Omaha, defeated Florida 83-82 in double overtime.

Florida coach Billy Donovan gets the "Big Whiny Baby" award for his performance in the closing seconds of that contest.

He complained that the Creighton players were running on the court with six-tenths of a second after the game-winning 3-pointer was scored and that a technical foul should have been awarded.

Gonzaga's team gets an honorable mention. After whining that they should have seeded higher than No. 6 in the Western Regional -- they should have been seeded at least No. 3 -- the Zags played a lousy game against Wyoming.

The First Round fiasco also ripped my office pool bracket to shreds because I had the arrogance and audacity to pick the same teams.

However after all the carnage, my Final Four teams are still intact -- Duke in South Regional, Oklahoma in the West, Maryland in the East and Kansas in the Midwest.

I posted a 15-1 record in the quarterfinals to improve my overall mark to 34-15.

UCLA's 105-101 double overtime victory over Cincinnati was my lone blemish. But the damage has been done.

The Sweet 16 starts tonight in the South and West Regionals and continues Friday in the East and Midwest.

In the East Regional semifinals at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., Duke (31-3) plays Indiana (26-11) and Pittsburgh (29-5) plays Kent State (29-5).

My picks for the South championship is Duke vs. Kent State with Duke winning.

In the West Regional semifinals at San Jose Arena, UCLA (21-11) plays Missouri (23-11) and Arizona (24-9) plays Oklahoma (29-4).

Look for an Big 12 final between Missouri and Oklahoma, with Oklahoma advancing to the Final Four.

Oklahoma features Ebi Ere, a player I watched for two years when I covered Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kan., and Aaron McGhee, a rugged forward from Vincennes (Ind.) Junior College.

The East Regional semifinals at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse feature Maryland (28-4) vs. Kentucky (22-9) and party crasher Southern Illinois (28-7) from the Missouri Valley Conference vs. Connecticut (26-6).

Maryland will play Connecticut in the finals and advance to the Final Four.

The Midwest Regional semifinals will take place Friday at the Kohl Center in Milwaukee. Kansas (31-3) plays Illinois (26-8) in one semi and Texas (22-11) plays Oregon (25-8) in the other.

As much as I would like to see another Big 12 final, Kansas will play Oregon in the title game with Kansas reaching the Final Four in Atlanta.

Duke will defeat Oklahoma in one Final Four semifinal at the Georgia Dome and Kansas will beat Maryland in the other.

Kansas beats Duke to win the championship.

Then again, I could be wrong. It's happened before. It's happened already. John J. Mesh is the sports editor of the McCook (Neb.) Daily Gazette. Not even Miss Cleo could pick this tournament. E-mail John at sports@mccookgazette.com.

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