First of all, check out this little McSmarty who picked the correct Sweet Sixteen on his bracket for the ESPN Tournament Challenge. He’s in first place, out of the more than 3-and-a-half million people who took the Challenge. Doesn’t even have cable, just did his research.

I did the ESPN bracket challenge, too. I’m in about 2,987,489th place.

But I’m starting from scratch with the Sweet Sixteen. Here goes.

1) Tennessee Defeats Louisville

Why? ‘Cause I like Bruce Pearl’s wardrobe, that’s why.

2) Memphis Defeats Michigan State

I think Memphis is the Number 1 seed that won’t make it to the Final Four. Why? The law of averages. They’ve only lost 1 game this year. It’s time to lose, guys.

I’ll give ‘em this one, because Michigan State has been super flaky this year. But they’re not gettin’ by Texas after. . .

3) Texas Defeats Stanford

I waffled on this one a little, but I keep coming up with Texas winning it. And if Stanford does win it, Memphis doesn’t get by them, either.

4) UCLA Defeats Western Kentucky

The Western Kentucky Whatevers are like lambs to slaughter. Not. Even. Close.

5) Xavier Defeats West Virginia

Because I picked them to.

6) North Carolina (Yawn) Defeats Washington State

But I don’t think I can take much more of the waxing poetic about the Tarheels and their balls-of-brass leader, “Psycho T.”

7) I Really Want Davidson to Win

So I’m picking them to beat Wisconsin. But the buck will have to stop there. Because they’ll have to play the Jayhawks after. . .

Kansas Defeats Villanova

Payback is a . . . well, you know.

North Carolina sails past Washington State, while Tennessee edges Louisville. While I’d love to see Tennessee beat North Carolina, I don’t think it’s gonna happen.

I already said that I’m not going to jinx my Jayhawks by making assumptions about KU beating Villanova and then Davidson (getting one more game out of their Cinderella run with a win over Wisconsin), but I’m definitely predicting both as Jayhawk victories. The Jayhawks are so deep and such a complete team that I don’t see either team keeping them from the Final Four. But I can tell you this: if Davidson was in any other region other than ours, I’d be cheering like crazy for them to get to the Final Four.

What I’m really hoping to see is the media-favored Tarheels going down at the hands of the Jayhawks in the Final Four. Now THAT would/will be a game.

And I can just see the T-Shirts on KU Fans: “We still don’t give a s**t about North Carolina”

In the South, I’m predicting that Texas gets past Stanford and Memphis gets past Michigan State. Then Texas beats Memphis. Yep.

UCLA doesn’t have much to worry about in the West. They should beat Western Kentucky, and then either Xavier or West Virginia (I’m leaning toward Xavier to beat WVa.).

So I’m sticking with my original Final Four: North Carolina, KU, Texas and UCLA. And I’m still predicting an all-Big 12 Final, with KU beating Texas in the championship game.

The first order of business is to congratulate Mt. St. Mary’s for winning the play-in game. In defeating Coppin State, the Mountaineers move on to play North Carolina on Friday night. I feel for you, guys. But enjoy the big dance while you can.

Meanwhile, the family bracketology competition is set.

Snacky’s attempt to get Grandpa barred from the family bracket competition this year was unsuccessful. However, he’s determined to take back the championship. He pointed out that Grandpa only beat him last year by one point, after all, because Grandpa picked Florida to win it all. Snacky says this as if picking Florida represented some insidious form of bracket cheating. But, please understand that poor Snacky was handicapped by his still unexplained hatred of Florida, which resulted in a refusal beyond reason to project them as champions in HIS bracket. So Grandpa rode destiny’s train to the jackpot, and Snacky has been stewing ever since.

(I will note here that Anthony pointed out that Snacky did his brackets all in PENCIL this year. And there have been accusations in the past of eraser marks on certain brackets during the course of the tournament. I guess I’ll take them all to work and make copies. Lots of intrigue surrounds our bracket competition.)

Now, to the point. I know you’re all dying to hear my family’s predictions for the Final Four. Unfortunately, the only ones I have in my possession as of this writing are Snacky’s, Anthony’s and my own. The hubby has been warned that he has to fill out a bracket tomorrow before he leaves for work. No way he gets to waltz in the door at the end of the day with a bracket. Grandma and grandpa are currently in possession of their brackets at their house. I trust them, though — even if Snacky doesn’t.

Quentin should be home any time now, and I’ll have her fill one out just for fun. We usually get a good laugh at her bracket since she doesn’t know anything about basketball. One year, though, she shut us all up by coming in second. Go figure.

Anyway, back to the heavyweight bracketmasters of bracketology. Here’s what we’ve got, and we’ve all got two brackets working.

Snacky’s Bracket #1: He’s got Memphis, UCLA, North Carolina and Kansas in his Final Four. He’s picking UCLA and North Carolina in the championship game, with North Carolina winning it all.

Snacky’s Bracket #2: This is where he shows he’s not a total traitor to KU. He has Texas, UCLA, North Carolina and Kansas in the Final Four. Kansas and UCLA meet up in the championship, with KU winning.

Anthony’s Bracket #1: Exactly the same as Snacky’s #1 bracket, except with UCLA beating North Carolina in the championship game.

Anthony’s Bracket #2: Memphis, UCLA, North Carolina and Georgetown in the Final Four. North Carolina and Memphis meet up in the championship game, and North Carolina wins.

Ant’s not worried about whether we think he’s a traitor to KU. He’s a true bracketologist.

Mom’s Bracket #1: North Carolina, KU, Texas and UCLA in the Final Four. KU meets UCLA in the championship game and gets some payback for last year.

Mom’s Bracket #2: North Carolina, KU, Texas and UCLA in the Final Four. This time KU gets to beat Texas again.

Update: Quentin just got home and filled out one bracket, with Anthony’s help: she’s go UCLA, KU, North Carolina and Memphis. KU and UCLA are going to the championship and KU is winning.

Stay tuned to see if the hubby gets his bracket done before work tomorrow.

Also, plenty of commentary to come as the games begin!

The Kansas Players Elite 5th grade AAU basketball team played in the Kansas City Keys 15th Annual Basketball Invitational Tournament this past weekend. Our boys ended up winning the championship in the fifth grade division. You can look here for a summary of our weekend.

Over the years, the KC Keys tournament has become one of the premier basketball events in the Kansas City Metro area. It’s run by the Kansas City Keys, an organization dedicated to developing youth in the KC area.

As part of their program, the Keys’ consistently field very competitve boys’ and girls’ basketball teams in all age groups, and they hold several highly regarded tournaments throughout the year, which I’d definitely recommend to competitive tournament teams looking for a challenge. Overall, the quality of the competition at the Keys tournaments is very good, with several of the teams entered per age division playing basketball at a very high level. So, no matter how good you think your team is, you’ll probably find a challenger at the Keys Tournament.

The Keys Tournament games are played in several different venues around the Kansas City metro area, and the management of the tournament ensures that those venues are all pretty friendly. The tournament definitely has a down-home feel because the Keys organization pulls together their local basketball family and friends to work their tournaments.

So, if you’re interested in some good tournament action, check out the KC Keys home page for links to information on upcoming tournaments.

We’re heading to Springdale, Arkansas, this weekend for the 1st annual Arkansas Mustang Invitational, hosted by (guess who!) the Arkansas Mustangs, an elite boys’ basketball club. This tournament is by invitation only, and includes some of the best teams in youth basketball. Grades 3-7 will be represented.

Ant’s playing in the 5th grade division with the Kansas Players Elite, from Wichita, KS. There are nine teams in this division, divided into 3 pools of 3 teams each. In our pool, there’s us (obviously), the Oklahoma Storm, and the Texas Titans. We’ll be reporting back on all the scoops from this first ever Mustang Invitational.

Updated

I have to say that the Mustangs Invitational was very well run from an operations standpoint for a first-year tournament. Since the field of teams was relatively small, all of the games were held in the same facility. That made it easy for teams to watch each other — which always builds up the excitement in a tournament. Overall, the referees were solid, which is always a plus.

The best thing about the tournament, though, was the level of competition.

As I mentioned before, there were only 9 teams in our 5th grade division. But they were quality teams: the Texas Titans, the Kansas Players Elite (us); the Arkansas Mustangs; the Houston RYTES Warriors, and the St. Louis Majestics were all in our division. The up-and-coming KC Tarheels made their regional debut at this tournament, as well.

To begin with, on Saturday, we played pool games against the OK Storm and the Texas Titans.

We beat the Storm 41-23, but I’ve got to give big props to their big man — if you’re reading this, you know who I’m talking about. This kid is amazing — and was arguably the best big man in the 5th grade division.

Our second game was against the Texas Titans, a team pretty well known in AAU basketball circles not only for their success on the basketball court, but for the fact that they’re financed (in high style) by a billionaire. There are a lot of people who hate on the Titans for both of these reasons, but I thought they were a class act. They appear to hold themselves to a very high standard, and not only on the basketball court — players, parents and coaches are all showed great sportsmanship and were a lot of fun to be around.

Back to the game. . .

Our game against the Titans ended up being a nail-biter, despite the fact that the Titans had a 15-point lead on us at one point in the game. What could have been a boring blowout turned very exciting as we battled back and ended up tying the game i42-42 with just one minute left in the game. So, it was anybody’s game as the clock wound down. Turns out it was the Titans’ game, as they beat us 46-42 in that final minute. It was a loss we couldn’t feel too bad about though, since it could have gone either way at the end.

I didn’t realize it until after the game ended, but the game had drawn quite a crowd by the time the final buzzer sounded.

Note: Fittingly enough, both the Titans and the OK Storm were staying in the same hotel as we were. That gave some of us the opportunity to meet, hang out and get to know each other a little bit. I was impressed by the people I met from both teams. Shout-outs if you’re reading, Titans and Storm!

On Sunday, we started out playing the KC Tarheels. After beating them, 48-30, we faced the St. Louis Majestics in a tough game that was marred by some real issues with the clockkeeper, who kept playing with the score and letting time run off the clock. The constant arguing over the status of the score and clock killed momentum for both teams. The Majestics pulled out the victory, though, in a pretty ugly game.

The loss to the Majestics left us at 2-2, and unable to compete for the championship. So we played our final game against the Arkansas Tigers, in a game that meant nothing in terms of the tournament standings. I didn’t have a problem with that, though, because the Tigers are a good team, and I figured that any time we spend on the court against another good team is all good.

All good, except for the fact that we lost. To a really good team. . . but still. I hate to leave a tournament with a losing record (in this case, two wins and three losses).

However. . .
See my report on the Keys Tournament for the results of our rematch with the Tigers a month after the Mustang Invitational.

So who won the Arkansas Mustang Invitational? The Texas Titans beat the Houston RYTES Warriors in the championship. Congratulations to both for making it to the championship — and congratulations to the Titans on the championship.