Our March Madness picks: An iffy start, but no bracket busters

Mississippi State standout Jarvis Varnado couldn't will the Bulldogs to victory.

In Wednesday's blog "Our March Madness Picks: A Prelude to Humiliation...," I shared predictions by me and my daughter, Lora, about the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments. Well, yesterday, the men's tourney tipped off, and we didn't exactly get off to a blazing beginning. We finished the day 11-5, with three of our riskier picks coming back to bite us. Lora and I took a flier on Mississippi State, a thirteen seed, because we'd recently seen forward/center Jarvis Varnado deliver a defensive performance for the ages against Tennessee in the SEC tourney -- but the squad didn't put much of a scare into the fourth-seeded Washington Huskies. The regional homerism that led us to give BYU the nod over Texas A&M, and our confidence in perennial Cinderella school Butler, failed to pay off, too. (We feel no guilt in guessing wrong about Western Kentucky, which took out Illinois, and Clemson, a loser to Michigan.) But my UCLA Bruins narrowly managed to avoid a first-round ouster, squeaking out a win over VCU -- and since we had all of the teams that lost falling in round two, our bracket's still largely intact. More or less. To see where we stand, click "Continue."

NCAA Tournament Bracket 2009: Men's

MIDWEST BRACKET, ROUND ONE:

Louisville over Morehead State
Siena over Ohio State
Utah over Arizona
Wake Forest over Cleveland State
West Virginia over Dayton
Kansas over North Dakota State
USC over Boston College
Michigan State over Robert Morris

WEST BRACKET, ROUND ONE:

Connecticut over Chattanooga -- CORRECT
BYU over Texas A&M -- INCORRECT
Purdue over Northern Iowa -- CORRECT
Mississippi State over Washington -- INCORRECT
Marquette over Utah State
Missouri over Cornell
Maryland over California -- CORRECT
Memphis over Cal. State Northridge -- CORRECT

EAST BRACKET, ROUND ONE:

Pittsburgh over East Tennessee State
Oklahoma State over Tennessee
Florida State over Wisconsin
Xavier over Portland State
UCLA over VCU -- CORRECT
Villanova over American -- CORRECT
Texas over Minnesota -- CORRECT
Duke over Binghamton -- CORRECT

SOUTH BRACKET, ROUND ONE:

North Carolina over Radford -- CORRECT
Butler over LSU -- INCORRECT
Illinois over Western Kentucky -- INCORRECT
Gonzaga over Akron -- CORRECT
Arizona State over Temple
Syracuse over Stephen F. Austin
Clemson over Michigan -- INCORRECT
Oklahoma over Morgan State -- CORRECT