The Madness of it All

The first March Madness match starts in about 36 hours. It all started with Selection Sunday on the 12th when the 34 teams that were not automatic qualifiers were announced. Wisconsin received a 9 seed playing its first game sin Philadelphia. I looked into getting tickets, but the first batch of tickets go to current UW season ticket subscribers and program donors first. I checked the online brokers and I can't justify spending $150+ for nosebleed seats. So I'll just have to watch it on TV. I'm a little nervous though because I feel like UW has lost lots of its steam since winning over Ohio State. And now I’m torn. In fact, I'm actually undecided in whether UW will win its first game against Arizona. I'm a horrible alumnus. And now in writing that, a sudden shadow of guilt and shame has clouded my being. I must predict the Badgers will win against Arizona! And can you imagine if UW did win, defeated Villanova, and made it to the Sweet Sixteen held in Minneapolis this year? The Metrodome would be on fire with Badger red and the roar of the crowd would be heard from as far as Madison.
I’m certainly no NCAA hoops expert, though I must tell everyone that I won my office pool last year of about 15 people. No money was collected last year so as to encourage more participants, so all I won was some bragging rights, and that doesn’t buy crap.
My brackets are subject to change, but these teams are currently in my Elite Eight and my Final Four (bolded): Duke, Iowa, Gonzaga, Pittsburgh, UConn, Michigan State, Boston College, and Florida.
I'm tempted to pick teams based on the way I'd like the tournament to play out. For example, I'd love for Duke to lose in the third round, but I'm putting Duke in the Final Four anyway. Same with UConn. They won the NCAA tournament two years ago and I'd prefer to put a sleeper Big Ten team in its place like MSU.
Anyway, the story about March Madness is that anything can happen which is what makes it so fun.