Tobacco Road Report

By Staff

We report a brief summary of our March Madness picks in this article. Who do we have rolling into Atlanta and how far do we see the ACC advancing? Check it out here.

We begin with Dave's picks since he had his brackets complete on Monday:

Elite Eight
Midwest: (1) Florida v. (2) Wisconsin
West: (4) Southern Illinois v. (3) Pittsburgh
East: (4) Texas v. (2) Georgetown
South: (1) Ohio State v. (6) Louisville

Final 4:
Florida. v. Pittsburgh
Georgetown v. Ohio State

Championship Game: Florida v. Georgetown
National Champion: Florida

Dave's comments: "I hate my picks, but this is how I see it falling out."

Chris sees the Kevin Durant train heading to Atlanta:

Elite Eight
Midwest: (1) Florida v. (3) Oregon
West: (1) Kansas v. (2) UCLA
East: (4) Texas v. (2) Georgetown
South: (5) Tennessee v. (3) Texas A&M

Final 4:
Florida. v. UCLA
Texas v. Texas A&M

Championship Game: UCLA v. Texas
National Champion: UCLA

Finally, here are Michael's picks.

Elite Eight
Midwest: (1) Florida v. (3) Oregon
West: (1) Kansas v. (3) UCLA
East: (1) UNC v. (3) Washington State
South: (5) Ohio State v. (3) Texas A&M

Final 4:
Florida. v. Kansas
UNC v. Texas A&M

Championship Game: Kansas v. UNC
National Champion: UNC

My thoughts. This was the hardest year for picking the brackets in the last 5-7 years in my opinion. It's true that there is a lot more parity in college basketball, and I see this parity reflected in the top eight or ten teams that could make it to the final game. Furthermore, the new rule that keeps guys like Oden and Durant in college for one year means several teams have quality young big men.

Problem is that no freshman big like Oden has taken his team all the way since some dude named Patrick Ewing. Durant has a more favorable comparison to Danny Manning, but the rest of his team is weaker. Durant will need 30 and 15 every game to take his team to the final four. It's possible, but something tells me that a 2-6 record versus top-50 RPI teams and 9-8 on the road or on neutral sites means Texas doesn't have the mustard to get it done.

I'm probably the only guy in America who's picking against Georgetown and my rationale is that, well, everyone in America is picking Georgetown. I'm counting on Washington State playing lock-down defense on the perimeter and slowly packing it in on Hibbert as the game progresses. Georgetown gets in trouble when the backcourt turns the ball over and can't hit shots.

I chose Texas A&M since they have a lot of firepower and the experience to get on a roll and make it to Atlanta. I wouldn't be surprised to see OSU fall to Tennessee as Chris has projected. Tennessee is the type of team that can get on a roll from the perimeter and pull OSU out of a zone. I think Texas A&M can do that, too.

I absolutely, positively know I will regret taking Kansas so far since they burn me every year. Yet for some reason I watch them during the season, fall in love with their squad, and then pick them to advance well into March again after convincing myself that this year will be different. This year will be different, right? The scribbled out UCLA on my brackets tells me otherwise. I tried to choose UCKU to advance, but couldn't find that team on the bracket.

So why UNC? Because I can't take Florida -- Dave has already done that and repeating is very hard. Because I can't take Kansas -- see my reasoning above. And because I can't take Texas A&M since there's a NCAA bylaw that prohibits an A&M-school from winning it all (isn't there?).

Or maybe I think that Hansbrough's nose will be fine in two weeks, Wright will continue to dunk everything in sight, Terry will use the ACC tournament as a springboard to something bigger, Ellington will hit just enough shots from the perimeter to keep defenses honest, and Lawson will continue to deliver assists without turnovers.

That, or I'm just a homer for the ACC.

What will keep UNC out of Atlanta is the crazy substitution pattern that lets opponents back into games. Depth wins out in the ACC Tournament where the victor plays games in three or four consecutive days. Depth is less important in the NCAA Tournament where two games in a weekend with a day of rest inbetween is the name of the game.