Baldy's Bracket

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No time to go into my thought processes. Then again, delving too deep inside my brain is dangerous for man or beast, so let's get right to my NCAA hoops predictions now that the play-in preliminaries have been played. (Legitimate upset picks are in italics.)

SOUTH

Kentucky over Western Kentucky
UConn over Iowa St.
Wichita St. over VCU
Indiana over New Mexico St.
Colorado over UNLV (11-6 upset)
Baylor over S. Dakota St.
Xavier over Notre Dame
Duke over Lehigh

Kentucky over UConn
Wichita St. over Indiana
Baylor over Colorado
Duke over Xavier

Kentucky over Wichita St.
Baylor over Duke

Kentucky over Baylor

WEST

Michigan St. over Long Island
Memphis over St. Louis
Long Beach St. over New Mexico (12-5 upset)
Louisville over Davidson
Colorado St. over Murray St. (11-6 upset)
Marquette over BYU
Florida over Virginia
Missouri over Norfolk St.

Memphis over Michigan St. (8-1 upset)
Long Beach St. over Louisville (12-4 upset)
Marquette over Colorado St.
Missouri over Florida

Memphis over Long Beach St.
Marquette over Missouri

Marquette over Memphis

EAST

Syracuse over UNC-Asheville
Kansas St. over S. Mississippi
Vanderbilt over Harvard
Wisconsin over Montana
Cincinnati over Texas
Florida St. over St. Bonaventure
West Virginia over Gonzaga
Ohio St. over Loyola Md.

Syracuse over Kansas St.
Vanderbilt over Wisconsin
Florida St. over Cincinnati
Ohio St. over West Virginia

Vanderbilt over Syracuse (5-1 upset)
Florida St. over Ohio St.

Vanderbilt over Florida State

MIDWEST

North Carolina over Vermont
Creighton over Alabama
Temple over S. Florida
Michigan over Ohio
N.C. State over San Diego St. (11-6 upset)
Georgetown over Belmont
St. Mary's over Purdue
Kansas over Detroit

North Carolina over Creighton
Temple over Michigan
Georgetown over N.C. State
Kansas over St. Mary's

North Carolina over Temple
Kansas over Georgetown

Kansas over North Carolina

FINAL FOUR

Marquette over Kentucky
Kansas over Vanderbilt

CHAMPIONSHIP

Marquette over Kansas

I didn't start out meaning to sound like the Marquette alum and fan that I am. But as I went along, I legitimately believed my Golden Warriors were good enough to win every game ... so what am I supposed to do? Pick against them?

The last time I picked them to reach the Final Four was 2003, and they did.

Ipso fatso, cash in those 401ks and IRAs and bet it all on Marquette, kiddies!

(Having said that, I hope my lads don't lose their first game to BYU!!!!)
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Only BCS format can save sucky NCAA hoops tourney

NCAA pooh-bahs had better fix the way they crown their men's basketball champion, because, as usual, the tournament has been a horrible bore.

Overtimes, one-point games, stunning upsets, wild finishes, stirring storylines ... yawn ... wake me when it's over, OK?

Obviously, NCAA honchos should have adopted the always-thrilling BCS model, declared Kansas and Kentucky the two best teams in the land, had the Jayhawks and Wildcats wait 4 or 5 weeks until they meet in an overhyped mythical title game, and let all the other teams play in dozens of glorious basket-"bowl" games.

After all, that formula always produces such a satisfying conclusion to the college football season, right?

And while they're at it, they can tell their basketball programs to stop scheduling games against quality opponents before conference play begins. In football, the best teams spend September fattening up on Cupcake U - yummy morsels for the every-game-counts crowd.

It's hard to beat Florida vs. Central Eastern State College for none of the marbles, I always say.

Clearly, following the NCAA basketball tournament model could never work in football.

I mean, who would want to see the best teams from a cross-section of the country go at it round-by-round until a legitimate champion gets crowned?

Kentucky has tradition - but not the best job

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Sunday's final four:

1. Why, why, why on earth would Tom Izzo, John Calipari, Billy Donovan or any other coach who already has built a top-tier program be even the least bit interested in going to Kentucky now that another good coach has been driven away from Bluegrass country?

Izzo is back in the Final Four with Michigan State, which for the last decade has established itself as the premier program in the Big Ten and one of the very best in the country - far better than Kentucky, in fact.

Calipari is worshipped in Memphis, where he is king of Conference USA and where he successfully recruits some of the very best players in the land.  According to several ratings services, he is bringing the No. 1 class of 2009 to Memphis. At Kentucky, the alums and other hard-core fans probably would expect him to do better than No. 1. Who needs it?

Donovan has won two national titles at Florida and continues to bring top talent to Gainesville, where he is revered for having already given the thumbs down to Kentucky once.

As a bonus - a huge, enormous, gigandulous bonus - none of these guys faces the kind of scrutiny and pressure in his current job as he would at Kentucky. As an extra bonus, all are paid the same kind of outrageous salaries they'd get from the Bluegrass boyz.

There are a handful of traditional powerhouse programs and Kentucky is one of them. (Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Indiana and UCLA also leap to mind.) But I'd say that many others, including Michigan State, Memphis and UConn, have pulled alongside - and, in many cases, surpassed - those traditional powers. 

Funny thing about tradition in sports: It guarantees nothing. Just ask the Cowboys how much tradition has been worth on the playing field the last few years. New traditions get established all the time in sports; witness the Red Sox now being clutch winners while the Yankees have become chokers.

Tom Crean left Marquette for Indiana, saying it was a slam-dunk decision because "Indiana is Indiana." Well, Indiana hasn't been Indiana for awhile now, including Bobby Knight's last half-dozen years there, and Marquette - thanks in great part to Crean - has surpassed Indiana by miles. Crean is counting on tradition helping him recruit better players to Indiana than he did to Marquette, but most ratings services say his Marquette replacement, Buzz Williams, will be bringing in a group as good as or better than Crean will to Hoosierland.

Of course, once upon an Al McGuire time, Marquette was one of those traditional powerhouses. 

Yes, Kentucky has tradition out the ying-yang. But so do many other places where the pressure isn't so great a coach feels like killing himself 50 times a year. There are too many other fantastic schools at which a coach can win big without putting himself through the torture.

2. Saturday's Villanova-Pitt game was so good, I found myself actually cheering several plays - something I very rarely do because I'm more of a detached appreciator of excellence than I am of a fan. I must admit: It was pretty darn fun.

3. As usual, the "experts" couldn't stop talking about the distractions facing UConn after word of possible NCAA recruiting violations surfaced before the weekend. Ridiculous. Why would UConn players be even the slightest bit distracted by this? Turns out, they weren't, as the Huskies took down Purdue and Missouri to get to the Final Four.

4. In honor of  Tiger Woods officially being back, it's time to take a mulligan on my Final Four picks. What other choice do I have, since I managed to go a sterling 0-for-4?

As much as I appreciate Izzo's Spartans, UConn can play whatever game Michigan State wants to play - and play it just a tad better. On the other side of the bracket, I'm going with the upset: Villanova's tough, talented perimeter players, augmented by vastly underrated Dante Cunningham, making Carolina blue.

And in the all-Big East title game ... UConn 80, 'Nova 74.

Call your bookies and pull out those wallets, folks. I mean, I haven't steered you wrong yet!

Missing Tiger, whiffing Cubbie

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The Bald Truth

First, he lost in match play to some dude who had to use a long putter, and now he's tied for 40th place at Doral?

Hey, I thought this Eldrick Woods guy was supposed to be good.

The Quote

"If I used a DH today, I would have a big headache, so we'll let Carlos get his at-bats." - Lou Piniella

Oh, Carlos Zambrano got his at-bats in Thursday's exhibition game against the Japan WBC team. Two of them. Result: 2 Ks, 4 LOBs.

Who does Cra-Z think he is? Kosuke Fukudome?

At least Zambrano fessed up to caring deeply about being named the opening day starter for the fifth straight season. He had been saying it didn't matter.

It matters to Carlos. And to anybody who wants to see the Cubs win the opener. In four career first-day starts, Cra-Z is winless and has a 5.59 ERA. 

He has admitted that he puts too much pressure on himself, which kind of makes you wonder why not just let Ryan Dempster take the start this year at Houston.

Maybe Lou just wants Zambrano's bat in the lineup against Roy Oswalt.

THE BALDEST TRUTH

I felt kind of bad after watching my Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles battle back from a 17-point deficit only to lose at the buzzer to Villanova. Then I saw some of Thursday's other scores.

Pitt, the team I declared the nation's best just a few days ago, was smacked around pretty good by West Virginia. Oklahoma and UConn, two other possible NCAA tourney No. 1 seeds, were upset by Oklahoma State and Syracuse, respectively. Kansas lost to Baylor and Clemson fell to the ACC's last-place team, Georgia Tech.

Hey, at least Villanova is one of the best dozen teams in the country.

Yeah, I know: Moral victories are for wimps.

Guilty as charged.

Hoops, hoops and more hoops

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An elite eight's worth of observations from a wild (and wildly entertaining) weekend of college hoops:

1. It doesn't mean they'll win the title, of course, but the Pitt Panthers are the best team in the country. They beat UConn twice, have three big-time difference-makers and lots of fine supporting actors. And they're not coached by Dave Wannstedt.

2. Nine teams can win the national championship: Pitt, UConn, North Carolina, Duke, Oklahoma, Louisville, Michigan State, Kansas and Memphis. I'm already completely psyched for the NCAA tourney.

3. Most assume Oklahoma stud Blake Griffin will be the national player of the year, but the MVP apparently is Dominic James. Before he broke his foot, my Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles were in first place in the nation's best conference, were ranked No. 8 in the country and were 23-4. Without him, they've gone 0-4 and almost surely won't be seeded higher than sixth in the NCAAs. How could we have known that a 5-foot-10 guy who can't hit 50 percent of his free throws could be so valuable? OK, so maybe they would have lost to UConn, Louisville, Pitt and Syracuse even with James, but ...

4. The Big East is the best conference in the country - and the contest isn't close. Even after the beastly Pitt-UConn-Louisville troika, any of the next four Big East squads would have a good chance of finishing in the top two of just about any other league. I like Memphis' style and coaching ... but really, where would the Tigers have finished if they had to play a Big East schedule instead of a Conference USA schedule? 

5. There's a bigger difference between Michigan State and the rest of the Big Ten pack than there is between any other Big Six conference leader and the rest of its field. Aside from Tom Izzo's lads, the Big Ten features several solid-but-severely-flawed teams that won't survive the opening weekend of the NCAAs.

6. On the one hand ... Chris Lowery has demonstrated why coaches want to get theirs when the opportunity arises. Early in his tenure at Southern Illinois, he had great success with Matt Painter's recruits and received some overtures from major programs. Lowery stayed put - after getting himself a nice raise - and now the program is sliding backward. You have to wonder if he has any regrets about sticking around.

7. On the other hand ... Billy Gillespie had it all at Texas A&M - a huge contract, respect in an excellent league, university support and a great pipeline into his state's prep talent. But when Kentucky came a'callin', he simply had to go, right? I mean, after all, it is Kentucky! Well, there's a lot to be said about being rich, winning big and building a program in a less pressure-filled environment. Gillespie is flaming out in Kentucky, and it won't be long before they come a'callin' again - for his head. It's one of those no-win jobs; I don't know why any coach would subject himself to it.

8. Nice try, Northwestern. For a little while there, it was almost as if you were, um, someone other than Northwestern.