NCAA PREDICTIONS

March Madness time! Yay!!!

Taking into account that my picks for success in the NCAA tournament are always skewed by my affection for individual teams, here are my predictions for the Final Four and the ultimate win. And even though I'm relatively comfortable with these predictions, it will probably be some obscure Cinderella team that upsets the applecart.
In the regionals, Villanova will prevail in Minneapolis; UConn in the DC regional; UCLA is going to pull it out over Memphis in Oakland; and NONE OTHER THAN MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE DUKE will win another bid to the Final Four in the Atlanta regional.
Ok...all that said, my pick to win it all this year is Villanova. I'm picking them over UConn because Connecticut has looked weary lately. OMG, how I hate to utter any team's name for the NCAA championship other than Duke's. But the Blue Devils have been looking listless and off their game ever since the loss to Florida State a couple of weeks back, followed by a horrendous loss to North Carolina that same week. They just barely won in the first round of the ACC championship against Miami, had to pull out all the stops to beat a struggling Wake team in the second round, and nearly lost it all to a hot Boston College team in the championship game.
Villanova's senior guard Allan Ray's recovery from an eye injury is key to their going all the way this year, but they've truly had an exceptional year and have been on top of some amazing upsets. As much as I love Duke and Coach K, I can stand to have a team like Villanova win it all this year.
I know, I know. You never thought you'd live to see the day I made such a comment.

(sigh)