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.

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.

All is right in the state of Kansas. Not only did KU win, but the KState Beasleys lost to Wisconsin, in a game that was never really in question after half-time. Early in the day, before the games began, commentators were gushing fantastic about how Michael Beasley and Bill Walker were capable of carrying the Wildcats into the Final Four. Anyway.

KState’s brush with greatness is over. Beasley can start looking for a condo in Miami.

And then there was the one who got away from KState. After leaving KState at the altar last year, Bob Huggins went to West Virginia, where his Mountaineers sent Duke packing, and punched themselves a ticket to the Sweet Sixteen.

Stanford beat Marquette in OT yesterday, with their coach watching from the locker room after being ejected after two technicals.

Texas A&M ALMOST killed their giant. But UCLA squeaked by them with a 4-point win, after being down by as much as 10. It would have busted my bracket completely, since I have UCLA in the Final Four, but I wouldn’t have minded seeing Turgeon’s boys pull out the win. I like what Turgeon did at Wichita State, and think he’s headed in the right direction at A&M. Plus he’s a former Jayhawk. What’s not to love?

And speaking of giant-killers, how about Davidson? Took down the mighty G-Town Hoyas today. I’ll be lovin’ these guys until KU has to face them in the Elite 8. Until then…

Stephen Curry, will you marry my daughter?

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.

My overriding thought during the game was that the Jayhawks will need to have a couple of things go very differently to make a deep tournament run this year.

To begin with, Darrell Arthur needs to stay out of foul trouble and stay in the game, preferably for at least 30 minutes — we need our best big guy. Our ‘Hawks also need to be more consistent with both making AND defending the three-ball. It might not hurt to deploy a 3-2 zone at times, serving the dual purpose of intimidating shooters and potentially keeping Arthur out of foul trouble? Not that I’m gonna do too much second-guessing of a WINNING basketball coach who obviously knows his business much better than I do. . . but what’s the fun of watching a game if you can’t play arm-chair analyst?

Anyhow. . . the game only killed about half of the time we had between games, thanks to a poorly managed division schedule in our tournament. So we went to a mall after the game, and I managed to feel better after buying about $30.00 worth of different chocolate treats for the family (including a chocolate-covered twinkie that I decided I have to try).

I felt even better after we got back to the gym and Ant’s team won their game 56-30, sending them to the championship game.

And the good feelings just kept coming. . . after Ant’s game, I checked my phone and found a text message from Snacky. It said “KState Lost HaHa.” Turns out Baylor beat them 92-86. So at least I can rest assured that the kitties aren’t going to edge past us in any rankings.

But I’ll hand it to KState — they went out with a bang. Michael Beasley broke the record for freshman double-doubles previously held by Carmelo Anthony. Beasley now has 23. He scored 44 points, which is the most points scored ever in a Big 12 game. Beasley’s teammate, the highly expressive Bill Walker, scored 31 points.

If you’re adding, that means Beasley and Walker scored 75 out of 86 KState points. And they still lost. WOW. I’m not even sure how to comment on that, except to say that next year is going to be a GIANT buzz-kill for the Wildcat nation. I’ll also direct your attention to the fact that KState’s AD has resigned and is moving on. Hmmmmmm.

AND finally. . .

The big NCAA basketball news is that previously unbeaten Memphis is no longer unbeaten, thanks to the Tennessee Volunteers. Let’s face it: the fate of every unbeaten team is to get beaten. Of course, I missed that game completely because it was going on while mama’s baby was kickin ass — but I got to see the highlights.

While KState backers are still taking out full-page ads in local papers to celebrate the Wildcats 1-24 record against KU at THEIR HOUSE, the Jayhawks just won another big one.

Yeah, Baylor’s now a BIG one (17-5 overall, and 5-3 in the Big 12). Looking back to the last few years, who would have thought it. . .

But I give credit where credit’s due, and Baylor is the deal this year.

Final score was KU 100 — Baylor 90. Halftime score was KU 36 — Baylor 33. What a second half! Note to Jayhawk fans: that was 100 points, with NO three-point shots made.

Next up for the Jayhawks (23-1 overall, and 8-1 in the Big 12) . . . Texas.

As for Baylor. . . all respect for Coach Scott Drew and his up-and-coming program. Bringing that program from the depths of disgrace to where they are now is an amazing act of leadership. Kudos!

They were all doing the happy dance in the Little Apple. In fact, it wasn’t more than an hour after the victory that Ballard’s Sporting Goods, in Manhattan’s Aggieville, was selling t-shirts emblazoned with the score of the game. A regular season game, mind you.

And here in Lawrence there have been an obnoxiously larger than normal number of people sporting purple Wildcat gear around town in the last few days, daring us to sneer at them, as we usually feel quite free to do — particularly during basketball season.

Well, I didn’t like it at all, but I tried to understand and appreciate the hoopla surrounding this Wildcat victory. As a KU fan, I’ve never had to experience the humiliation of having one of our BIGGEST rivals come and beat us IN ALLEN FIELDHOUSE for 24 years straight. The Wildcat nation has, though, and there was no shame in their game as they rode the high.

To Wildcat fans, I say “Carpe Diem” (that means “seize the day,” guys). Hell, it’ll probably be ANOTHER 24 years before KState can repeat the series of questionable hires that resulted in Walker, and then the incomparable Beasley, gracing the middle of nowhere with their fleeting presences. I have to wonder if anyone in the Wildcat Nation is acknowledging THESE brutal probabilities: Michael Beasley is projected to be the #1 NBA draft pick in 2008 (translation for KStaters: he won’t be wearing a Wildcat uniform next year); Bill Walker will probably enter the NBA draft as well (projected as a mid- to late-first-round pick); the KState recruiting class of 2008-2009 is JUST THIS SIDE OF NONEXISTENT at this point in time.

But it’s still 2008, and the Wildcats have a season to finish. There are games to be played, and won, if January 30, 2008, was any indication.

As it happens, one of those games was played today. The Wildcats headed for Mizzou, hoping to carry the momentum of their HISTORIC win against the Jayhawks with them.

And . . .

They lost. To a Tiger team that was short two of their starters in the aftermath of a recent nightclub after-hours altercation. Now, that’s what I call a buzz-kill.

For Wildcat Nation.

However, it’s probably one of the few times in history that KU fans have cheered for Mizzou.

The Jayhawks, on the other hand, headed for Colorado today for a date with the Buffaloes. Not spooked by the loss that ended their streak of 20 victories, the ‘Hawks were back to their winning ways, beating the ‘Buffs 72-59.

All is now right with the world. And the Wildcats still have to face the music in Allen Fieldhouse on March 1st.