Final Four: Revisiting My Predictions

Tonight the Final Four commences with Duke playing West Virginia and Butler taking on Michigan State. Three weeks ago on the day the tournament started, I published my predictions for this year's championship. How did I do? I got two of the final four correct, five of the final eight, and thirteen of the sweet sixteen. Not too shabby. This absolutely put President Obama to shame, and I consider his picks way better than his policies. But of course I've never compared myself to the special olympics. 

Needless to say, I am currently in first place in all four of my brackets. That's a good reason for everyone to print out my top ten tourney tips and use them to your advantage next year. Here's what I wrote on March 18, 2010:

"As far as my predictions this year, I have to go with the chalk and take Kansas. They are playing at a higher level than almost every other team. After that, I like Syracuse and West Virginia, followed by Duke. That's my final four. I am also singling out Baylor as an athletic team than can do some damage, although I wish they played better defense. Cinderellas I'm putting in the sweet sixteen this year are Washington (11) and Xavier (6). I'm also high on BYU (7) but their game against Kansas State is going to come down to the wire. Finally, I'm taking Old Dominion (11) over Notre Dame and Murray State (13) over Vanderbilt (4) as first round upsets. UTEP (12) is really dangerous on defense and isn't a bad Cinderella pick, although I'm personally taking the favorite Butler. Cornell (12) is also dangerous, before the seeding I liked them a lot, but I have backed off since they got a bad first round matchup with the defensive-minded Temple Owls."

While Kansas is out, so are most of the favorites, including Syracuse, Kentucky, Villanova, Kansas State, and Ohio State. I have West Virginia in the championship game, so if they can beat Duke tonight I will win all four of my brackets. If they lose, I will probably only win two of my brackets.

On Cinderella picks I did exceptionally well. Murray State took out Vandy, Old Dominion upset Notre Dame, Baylor advanced all the way to the Elite Eight, and both Washington and Xavier made surprise Sweet Sixteen appearances. I took Butler for two rounds but didn't see them knocking off Syracuse, and I totally missed Northern Iowa's upset over Kansas (but who didn't?)

I expect Duke to get every questionable call tonight, but I think the Mountaineers can still squeak it out.