They're calling it "The Road to the Meadowlands." I'd prefer to parachute in.
Get your office pools ready.
East
The Selection Committee has a gripe with Stanford, since this is the third straight time the Cardinal has played in the Eastern time zone. And when Brevin Knight and Co. survive Bradley, they get a rematch with No.1-seeded Massachusetts, which whipped them by 22 last year.
The other East rematch is North Carolina and Georgetown. They met in the Sweet 16 last year and will again. Despite their recent slide, the Tar Heels defeat New Orleans and then Texas Tech, the most undeserving No. 3 seed in memory. (No games against ranked teams.)
And don't be fooled by Georgetown's last-second loss to Connecticut in the Big East championship. This is John Thompson's best team since 1989, and the emergence of freshman guard Victor Page, the tournament MVP, makes the Hoyas impossible to defend. They will smash Mississippi Valley State, Kansas State and North Carolina, setting up a date with Marquette.
Yes, Marquette, which has the guard play and discipline to upset UMass in the Sweet 16. The Warriors do not, however, have an answer for Allen Iverson.
Midwest
Rule No. 1 of the tournament is that every champion has one great escape along the way (see: UNLV vs. Ball State, 1990; Duke vs. UNLV, 1991; Duke vs. Kentucky, 1992; UCLA vs. Missouri, 1995).
For Kentucky, that escape comes in the second round, against Wisconsin-Green Bay, the team nobody wants to play. (Just ask Jason Kidd.) The hottest team in the Dallas subregional is Big Eight champ Iowa State, which will prove once and for all that Cal had no business getting an at-large berth.
The happiest team in the Tournament is Villanova, since it's bracketed with the least-talented No. 2 seed, Wake Forest, which has Tim Duncan but not Randolph Childress.
The Wildcats and Wildcats meet in the Elite Eight in Minneapolis, with Kentucky winning handily.
Southeast
The hip upset pick this year figures to be Princeton over UCLA. But that is for office-pool suckers who don't realize that 1) the Tigers have no way of stopping UCLA from scoring, and 2) the Bruins will not pressure Princeton 30 feet from the basket and become susceptible to backdoor layups (see: Georgetown, 1989, and Arkansas, 1990). Rather, UCLA will play a sagging man-to-man and force the Tigers to score from 3-point range.
The Bruins couldn't have asked for a better No. 1 seed than Connecticut, which they beat last year in the West Regional final. But UCLA won't get another shot at Ray Allen, because standing in the way is Mississippi State. And it's a better Bulldogs team than the one UCLA dispatched in the Sweet 16 last year.
The Orlando subregional has two fascinating second-round matchups. One is Cincinnati and Temple, two of the toughest teams in the field, and the other is Georgia Tech and Indiana. Fun as the Yellow Jackets are to watch with their Mar-Barry backcourt, this game is decided on the bench. The Hoosiers advance to the Elite Eight in Lexington, where their surprising run ends against UConn.
West
The Selection Committee has taken pity on Arizona. Bounced in the first round three of the past four years, the No.3-seeded Wildcats will play on their adopted home court, in Tempe, and are bracketed with the worst No.6 seed, Iowa. (The other No.6s are Louisville, North Carolina and Indiana.) Lute Olson has no excuses this year, but he won't need them. The Wildcats go gracefully in a Sweet 16 loss to Kansas.
For all his regular-season success, Purdue coach Gene Keady has reached the Sweet 16 only once in the past seven years, with Big Dog Robinson in 1994. The Boilermakers are senior-dominated, play beautifully together and should win two games this year.
But they lack the raw ability of, say, Memphis, their Sweet 16 opponent. Also, the Tigers are fuming about their controversial loss to Arkansas last year. Center Lorenzen Wright, who many feel underperformed during the season, returns to form and leads the Tigers past Purdue, past Kansas and into the Final Four.
Final Four
UConn over Memphis.
Kentucky over Georgetown.
And by virtue of its stunning loss to Mississippi State in the SEC title game, Kentucky wins the national championship.
Check tournament history.
It says that in three of the past five years, the eventual champion has lost its final pre-tournament game: Duke in 1991, to North Carolina; the Tar Heels in 1993, to Georgia Tech; and Arkansas in 1994, to Kentucky.
Just what coach Rick Pitino needed for his Wildcats to return to reality, which isn't easy in Lexington. Now they can go about their business of being the deepest, most versatile, most talented team in the nation.