Thirsty Thirty-Two?

Round 1 went really well for me until the last four games, all of which turned sour in the last few minutes. Just gotta keep it together.

I'm continuing on with my second round picks. Again, I'm giving you the picks on my bracket. If there is a different team than who I picked, they will be in parentheses.

Midwest

1 Louisville over 8 Ohio State (9 Siena)

This OSU miss hurt a lot. Siena played horribly and were able to stay in the game because apparently Ohio State has never practiced breaking a press...or really doing anything. I like Thad Matta, but I'm starting to think that he is a terrible coach.

Louisville will kill Siena. No Cinderella here.

4 Wake Forest (13 Cleveland State) over 12 Arizona

I obviously can't defend this pick because it's impossible. It's rough when you pick a good team and that team declines to try. Thanks Wake. I think I'll take 'Zona here, probably because I didn't get to watch Cleveland State play and I did see a little of Arizona. Both teams beat their opponents like the seeds were reversed (wire to wire wins). Weird.

6 West Virginia (11 Dayton) over 3 Kansas

Son of a bitch! I really thought West Virginia was better than a six seed. I still do! Show up for once! Kansas has overachieved and is over seeded but they will beat Dayton.

10 USC over 2 Michigan State

Look at that...no parentheses! If they play smart, which I'm sure they won't, it seems like USC can out jump Michigan State to a victory. I wish I felt better about this pick.

West

1 Connecticut over 9 Texas A and M

A and M played pretty well for me, I won a dollar off of my waiter at BW3. Hopefully they don't play so well this round.

4 Washington over 5 Purdue

People seem to be getting on the Purdue train, but they really are not that great when they aren't getting phantom out of bounds calls going their way. I liked what I saw out of Washington (the score).

3 Missouri over 6 Marquette

This is the kind of game you like to see. Marquette squeaked by Utah State and didn't look good at all and Missouri crushed Cornell. This is really the first game I've felt good about so far.

2 Memphis over 7 California (10 Maryland)

I could see Maryland winning this game easily. Memphis isn't even as good as they were two years ago. They were good with Derrick Rose and otherwise are not. That's it.

East

1 Pittsburgh over 8 Oklahoma State

Somebody told me that DeJuan Blair jokingly said after the game that they almost lost on purpose so that the starters could stay in. I like your attitude, Pitt.

5 Florida State (12 Wisconsin) over 13 Portland State (4 Xavier)

...I'm taking Xavier.

3 Villanova over 11 VCU (6 UCLA)

My original bracket had VCU going to the elite 8 and I decided that I might as well just blow my nose on my bracket and hand it in. Good thing I didn't do that.

2 Duke over 10 Minnesota (7 Texas)

The Big 12 has overachieved so far. Duke is still bad. Watch out for this one.

South

1 North Carolina over 8 LSU

Rooting for LSU was painful. They played much worse basketball than Butler but won because of the athleticism gap. That gap doesn't exist against UNC. BLOWOUT.

12 Western Kentucky over 13 Akron (4 Gonzaga)

I don't feel wonderful about this. I still don't think Gonzaga is good, but it's not like Western Kentucky is. I'm sticking by it.

6 Arizona State over 3 Syracuse

I love James Harden.

2 Oklahoma over 10 Michigan

Not only does Michigan not have a "reliable post game," they don't have a single post player. Have fun, Blake.