March Madness.

The NCAA tournament is THE best event in the American sports calendar. It' better than the NBA finals, Super Bowl, BCS and the World Series. I just love it though I am not even a big college guy. I prefer pro-leagues and there's nothing like the NBA if you want to watch basketball, but the tourney is just special. I watched a lot of games last weekend and there were not too many upsets and crazy finishes in the round of 64. The usual 5 upsetting a 12 was missing. The biggest upset of the first round was also the best game of the first round as no-11 Virginia Commonwealth beat no-6 Duke 79-77. Many Duke-haters were happy though I am not one of them. I like Duke and coach K, but I am all about the small schools and the tournament upsets. It was a great game.

The "money day" of the first weekend was Saturday. Oh boy! That was one great game after the other. The Ohio State-Xavier game went to OT as OSU won 78-71. Then Texas A&M and Louisville played a dandy as A&M won 72-69. Butler beat Maryland 62-59 in another beauty. But the best game of the day might have been the double OT thriller between Vandy and Washington State. Vandy beat the 3-rd seed 78-74. Just one great game after the other and you are sitting on the couch taking it all in and loving life, wishing every month was March! Sunday was a bit of a letdown, but that's how the tournament goes. You have no idea whats going to happen on any given day and this is what sets this apart from every other sporting event. UNLV upsetting Wisconsin was big on Sunday, but for me, Texas losing to USC was a killer as it destroyed my bracket since I had Texas going very, very deep. Way too much trust in Kevin Durant, which I knew was a mistake, but was carried away.

Now on to the sweet 16. Fewer upsets means more great match-ups in the sweet 16. We got some great games coming up. My ranking of the sweet-16 match-ups from best to not-so-best are as follows.

UNLV - Oregon - UNLV is the closest to a Cinderella in this tourney now. I like the Oregon guards, especially Aaron Brooks.

Texas A&M - Memphis - Tough one to call here. The best name in the tourney, may be ever - Acie Law, the IV-Th!

USC - North Carolina - Tim Floyd is slowly, but surely building a powerhouse at USC. They may become the Florida of the West in a few years given their resources, facilities and access to top-notch talent in the LA area.

Pittsburgh - UCLA - Mentor versus the teacher, both coaches from UC - Santa Barbara of all places.

Vanderbilt - Georgetown - The SEC player of the year Derrick Byars is a stud, but Georgetown is a fashionable pick among experts to go all the way.

Southern Illinois - Kansas - The usually under-achieving Kansas seem really focused this time around.

Tennessee - Ohio State - Bruce Pearl's team likes to run and gun and play a fun style. Lets see if it works against Greg Oden and the Thad-five.

Butler - Florida - Florida should be too tough to handle for Butler, but I'll be rooting for the under-dog like millions of others.