NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament Brackets and Picks, and a Quinn’s Quickie

The “Madness” truly begins on Thursday around noon as the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament tips. For fun only, I’ve created a group on ESPN.com for readers to post their brackets. After everything is locked, I will be posting my brackets in the comments. I’ll also be posting any picks for the Tournament below (prior to tip-off) and in the comments for the first four days and possibly through the Championship game. As always, you’re welcome to do the same. Join the group for some fun, and don’t forget to post a screenshot of your bracket in the comments after the first tip-off!

Our group is called: Ink Brackets

The link is here: Link to group

Password: DallasSucks

 

Readers might recall that I picked Connecticut to win the Tournament at +500 for $100 to win $500 in late February. I said the number would drop and it did, but only to +400. Honestly, I thought it would drop more. I still love the pick.

As of Tuesday night, I have a Final Four pick of Houston (+140), Creighton (+500), UConn (+100), and Arizona (+230), at +9404 for $10 to win $940.40. For the record, I got this as a free bet, but will count it in my picks totals.

By the way, as of this post at its original time of publishing, my picks on college basketball this season stand at an “eh” 4-5 for -$7.90. My overall record with picks since the fall reboot is 35-56-3 for +$208.08. Hit the big ones!

A Quinn’s Quickie. I just had to add a note about the teams that turned down the NIT because they felt like they were “snubbed” by NCAA Tournament. These teams – St. John’s, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Memphis, Mississippi, Indiana, and Syracuse – should be banned from both tournaments for the next decade. You’re losers. Simple enough? And whoever the “adult in the room” is who allowed this to happen at each school should be fired. Kids / young people screw up. They make bad decisions. That’s why they have coaches or mentors or whomever. You feel snubbed? Pissed off? Good. Get your ass on a basketball court, do what you supposedly love to do, and prove that maybe you were snubbed. Play the damn game you’re lucky enough to play. Take the extra practice – yeah, we’re talking about practice – and win enough games next season to take the decision that your team makes the NCAA Tournament out of other people’s hands.