I am a huge college basketball nerd.  This cannot be stressed enough.

At the beginning of the season, my good friend Peter and I were discussing how last season I would DVR games while at work, then go home and watch them in their entirety when I got home since I am a night owl.  (Robb Vogel makes fun of me all the time for doing this because I ask him not to tell me the score of certain games or make him mute a game or turn it off when it’s on in the sports office.  Yet somehow he still manages to mention a score to me and spoil a very good game.) 

So my friend asked me how many games I thought I would watch this season and I responded with a fairly safe response of 200.  Peter scoffed at such a low number and challenged me to watch 300.  Since I told him I wanted to have somewhat of a life outside of me going to work, we settled on a goal of 225 games or as we have dubbed it “The Drive for 225.”

We came up with this number by figuring that I would watch at least 30 Badger games, 30 Marquette games, and 75 games during the NCAA and Conference Tournaments.  Add that up and you get 135, meaning I would have to watch an additional 90 games to hit my goal.

During Conference Tournament Week, I surpassed my goal.  With the NCAA Tournament starting Thursday, I have watched 242 college basketball games this season.

To defend the notion that I am not a complete loser and/or hermit, let me say that I have mastered the fast forwarding with the DVR and can usually whip through a full game from the opening tip to the final whistle in about 40-45 minutes.  That includes fast forwarding through commercials, time-outs, free throws, half-time, subs, and any other stoppage of play.  Plus my average bed time is 3:30 so I have a lot of time after work to watch a game or two per night. 

With that said, I have a pretty good idea of what’s going on in college basketball and have filled out my brackets.  As a disclaimer, do not copy my picks and then when they completely backfire, send me hate e-mails complaining how stupid I am.

Here we go with my Elite 8 picks:

West Regional: (5) Purdue beats (2) Memphis

Midwest Regional: (1) Louisville beats (6) West Virginia

South Regional: (1) North Carolina beats (3) Syracuse

East Regional: (1) Pittsburgh beats (3) Villanova

Final Four:

Pitt beats North Carolina

Louisville beats Purdue

National Championship:

Pitt beats Louisville

As you can probably tell, I really respect the strength of the Big East Conference this season, picking five of their teams into the Elite Eight. What do you think of my picks and who do you have in your brackets?

For more in-depth analysis of each bracket, you can check out www.thesportsbank.net where I will be breaking down the four Regionals.

Enjoy the Madness!