Like Belmont should’ve done Duke yesterday.

Jim Calhoun suffered his first 1st-round NCAA tournament loss as the Huskies coach. At the press conference after the game, he found about a thousand ways to say that his 4-seeded Huskies gave the game to 13-seeded San Diego by playing crappy defense.

Not very gracious. Looked to me like San Diego handled their business.

And that wasn’t the only upset in Tampa today. The 12-seeded Western Kentucky upset 5-seeded Drake.

That means UCLA, if (when) they get past Mississippi State, will face either a 12-seed or a 13-seed in the Sweet 16. Can’t get much sweeter than that for the Bruins. Although

THEN, 13-seeded Siena upset 4-seed Vanderbilt.

By nature, I’m a fan of underdogs, and I love games like these because they put the Mad in March. I can’t even feel too bad about my brackets being all busted up. Cause no one else in the family pool picked all those upsets, so we’re all in the same boat. (I’m sure there’s some geek out there who figured each of those upsets through some mathematical probability matrix or something.)

Now, we’ve got 5-seeded Clemson playing 12-seeded Villanova. In Tampa. And guess who’s ahead? Riiiiiight… Villanova’s up 56-55 with 8:24 left in the game.

Other news while I’m waiting to see if higher seeds are cursed in Tampa. North Carolina put up 113 points on Mt. St. Mary’s. The good news for the Mount, though, is that they actually scored 74 points.

Total dominance by Texas, Tennessee, and Memphis in their games.

The 10-seeded Davidson beat 7-seeded Gonzaga, which is an upset, but not a huge upset. The big news is that Davidson’s baby-faced point guard Stephen Curry (ESPN refers to him as “the guard the big schools didn’t want”) hit 40 points (read it and weep, Michael Beasley). He strapped his team to his back and carried them into the second round, where they’ll face – yikes! – Georgetown. Well, whatever. Davidson might not have an answer for Roy Hibbert, but Georgetown better have an answer for Mr. Curry or it might not matter.

In other news, Indiana fell to Arkansas. Not an upset. But you have to feel for Hoosier nation. After the Kelvin Sampson mess, the new guy, Dan Dakich, steps in and still gets the team into the tournament. Then, what does the University do? They announce this week that they’re putting together a search committee for a new head coach. That’s just bad mojo.

Back Villanova and Clemson. Clemson at the free throw line with 1:55 to go. Ties it up at 66-66. But Clemson’s James Mays just fouled out, following teammate Trevor Booker. So the Tigers’ leading scorers are on the bench. Ouch.

Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds has been the MAN. Not to mention, this has been one hell of a comeback for Villanova: Clemson had been up 36-18 at one point.

Villanova’s up 70-66, with 59 seconds left. Villanova’s got the ball. Missed shot. Rebound Clemson. Clemson misses a 3-ball, and Sykes goes for the tip-in instead of the rebound, but Villanova ends up with the rebound. Clemson foul, Villanova at the free-throw line. James Mays has tears in his eyes — makes ME want to cry, too. ‘Nova makes both free throws and the score is 72-66. Clemson’s Ogilsvie misses on two 3-point attempts. Villanova rebound and another foul. One foul shot made. Villanova up 73-66. Clemson finally sinks a 3-ball with 7 seconds left, and the score is 73-69. Villanova inbounds, Clemson fouls and puts Villanova at the line once again. Two more free throws made by Villanova.

Game over.

History made in Tampa, as four lower seeds move on. Brackets busted everywhere.

Any my Jayhawks, if/when they get past UNLV, will be in the same position as UCLA, facing either a 12- or a 13-seed in the Sweet Sixteen. I said before that it can’t get much sweeter than that, but the other side of that coin is this: any team that makes it to the Sweet Sixteen is for real, and all bets are off.

That’s why I love this tournament.

Yes, hubby got his bracket done. He’s got KU, UCLA, Texas and Louisville (hahahahahahahahaha) in the Final Four, with KU beating UCLA in the championship.

My basketball day started when I watched the KU game at my desk. I’ve got a double monitor, so I had the game going on one screen, while I worked on the other. After a few minutes, I just kept the corner of my eye on what was obviously gonna be a KU victory. Looks like their next match-up will be against UNLV on Saturday.

Otherwise, I just kept track of the afternoon scores. And then went to work out.

By the time I got home. . .

The KState Beasleys were pulling away from USC in the second half. They ended up with a convincing enough victory, in which Beasley scored his 27th double-double of the season. His brilliance in the service of the Wildcat Nation is futile, though. I’d advise Wildcat fans not too read too much into this win.While watching the Michael Beasley show, we’d been keeping track of the Duke game via the helpful little score-trackers at the top of the screen, and the big news was that Duke was in a neck-and-neck nailbiter with Belmont. Once the Wildcats had their game in hand, CBS switched to the Duke/Belmont game.

You may remember that I have a little bias against Duke, which is pretty much in proportion to the media bias FOR Duke. So I was really pulling for the underdog Belmont Whatevers, (even though I picked Duke in my brackets as a practical matter).

Wouldn’t it just be the case that Duke would pull it out, though. That darn Gerald Henderson got himself a coast-to-coast drive at the end o the game. The Other Guys had the same opportunity, but couldn’t pull it off. They got the big game heebie-jeebies.

The Duke win is good for my brackets, but bad for my sense of righteousness.

THEN: UCLA destroyed Mississippi Valley State. When UCLA was up by 37-12, I swear I heard Greg Gumbel say “If UCLA holds on and wins this game, they’ll face Texas A&M on Saturday” ????????? Well, hold on, they did. The final score was 70-29. How is it even possible to only score 29 points in the NCAA tournament?

Don’t answer that. . .

George Mason got beat by Notre Dame. The Mason loss messed me up a little bit in the brackets, and that’s what I get for trying to pick an upset. My usual policy is to stay away from upset picks, but GM had a little recent history going for them in this regard. I think I’ll stick with my policy next year.

Early in the second half, Cal-State Fullerton was rolling right along with Wisconsin, in a nip-and-tuck game. The KState Wildcats were on site, scouting. And praying that Wisconsin bites the dust. The Badgers (what a mascot) widened the gap to 10 points, though, with about 12 minutes to go, and managed to keep a healthy distance for the rest of the game. Bummer for the Travelling Beasleys.

The West Virginia Mountaineers beat the Arizona wildcats, 75-65. They’ll move on to play the Duke Blue Devils. My bracket says Duke will survive another one and then go down at the hands of Xavier in the third round.

As I wrap up this post, I’ll just note that the local Kansas City CBS station is treating us to the very unlovely sight of about a MILLION drunk KState Fans celebrating their victory by screaming and jumping around some bar. How excited they all are! They’re talking about how they want another match-up with KU in the Elite 8. But, hello? Did you all forget you’re in the NCAA tournament? Wisconsin and Georgetown are there to play. Let’s worry about one game at a time, Kitties. Meow.

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 brackets for the men’s NCAA Tournament are out today, and so begins our annual tradition of inter-family gambling. We all fill out 1, or 2, but no more than 2, brackets each and enter them in the family pool at a cost of 5 dollars per bracket. At the end of the tournament, it’s winner take all.

Snacky had been the reigning 3-year family bracket champion until last year, when we let my parents in the pool. Grandpa stole his thunder by winning the pot with a bracket he filled out in about 5 minutes — with his eyes closed. Snacky is trying to get Grandpa barred from our family pool this year, but is garnering NO support for this shady back-door political move.

So we’ll get our brackets filled out and I’ll report on our final four picks.

In the meantime, here’s what’s upcoming.

Day One: Tuesday, March 18

The first game to be played in the NCAA Men’s tournament is the play-in game, to be held Tuesday night. Coppin State(16-20) will play Mount St. Mary’s (18-14) for the privilege of playing the role of cannon fodder for Number 1 seed North Carolina. Good luck, fellas.