Here are my picks.

I don't have a fancy way of posting my bracket, as I'm rather new to blogging, so I'll just go ahead and seperate things out by region. Hopefully this turns out well. Anyways, I've taken into consideration everything that I've posted earlier on how to properly fill out the brackets, except for one thing, and I'll address that in the end. Anyways, here goes, first off with the East Region.

First Round
#1-UNC over #16 MSM
#9 Arkansas over #8 Indiana
*5 Notre Dame over #12 G. Mason
#13 Winthrop over #4 Wazzu
#11 St. Joe's over #6 OU
#3 Louisville over #14 Boise St.
#7 Butler over #10 S. Ala
#2 Tennessee over #15 American

Second Round
#1 UNC over #9 Aarkansas
#5 N.D. over #13 Winthrop
#3 Louisville over #11 St. Joe's
#2 Tenn over #7 Butler

Sweet 16
#1 UNC over #5 N.D.
#3 Louisville over #2 Tenn

Elite 8
#1 UNC over #3 Louisville

Midwest Region
First Round
#1 Kansas over #16 Portland St.
#9 Kent St. over #8 UNLV
#12 'Nova over #5 Clemson
#4 Vandy over #13 Siena
#11 Kansas St. over #6 USC
#3 Wisconsin over #14 Cal St. Ful
#10 Davidson over #7 Gonzaga (more on this one later)
#2 G. Town over #15 UMBC

Second Round
#1 Kansas over #9 Kent St.
#12 'Nova over #4 Vandy
#3 Wisconsin over #11 Kansas St.
#2 G. Town over # 10 Davidson

Sweet 16
#1 Kansas over #12 'Nova
#2 G. Town over #3 Wisconsin (more on this later)

Elite 8
#2 G. Town over #1 Kansas

South Region
First Round
#1 Memphis over #16 Tex-Alrington
#8 Miss St. over #9 Oregon
#5 Michigan St. over #12 Temple
#4 Pitt over #13 Oral Roberts
#6 Marquette over #11 Kentucky
#3 Stanford over #14 Cornell
#10 St. Mary's over #7 Miami
#2 Texas over #15 Austin Peay

Second Round
#1 Memphis over #8 Miss St.
#5 Michigan St. over #4 Pitt
#6 Marquette over #3 Stanford
#2 Texas over #10 St. Mary's

Sweet 16
#5 Michigan St. over #1 Memphis
#2 Texas over #6 Marquette

Elite 8
#2 Texas over #5 Michigan St.

West Region
First Round
#1 UCLA over #16 Miss Valley St.
#9 Texas A&M over #8 BYU
#5 Drake over #12 West. Kentucky
#4 Uconn over #13 San Diego
#11 Baylor over #6 Purdue
#3 Xavier over # 14 Georgia
#7 West Virginia over #10 Arizona
#2 Duke over #15 Belmont

Second Round
#1 UCLA over #9 Texas A&M
#5 Drake over #4 Uconn
#3 Xavier over #11 Baylor
#7 West Virginia over #2 Duke

Sweet 16
#1 UCLA over #5 Drake
#3 Xavier over #7 West Virginia

Elite 8
#1 UCLA over #3 Xavier

Final Four
#2 G. Town over #1 UNC
#1 UCLA over #2 Texas (more on that later)

Chamionship Game
#1 UCLA over #2 G. Town

That's how each one of my brackets sits. As you can see I took all my rules of thumb into play except for two occasions, and each time, I think I have a good reason not to. First my decision for G. Town to beat Wisconsin. While I think what Wisconsin has accomplished this season is pretty amazing, and they are playing close to home in the regionals (Detroit), I just feel like Georgetown is the better ball club. By then they would have beaten Davidson in their own backyard of sorts, and would have rolled through the Big East as the conference best team. I gave the edge to Georgetown, although slightly, as it goes against one of my rules of thumb, to select a "road" team to win in the Regional rounds.

Picking Davidson over Gonzaga. That one was tough for me. I told people to digest all available info on your bracket, and once I did, I realized Davidson was the team to go with. First of all, the game is in North Carolina, and second of all look at the time the game will be played. I'll give you a second to do that... The game takes place before 12:30pm CST, that means it starts before 10:30am on the West Coast. I doubt Gonzaga has played a game this early in the day, on a weekday no less. Advantages go to Davidson, and so does the game.

Picking UCLA over Texas in the Final Four again goes against my criteria, somewhat. I looked at "home" teams in the regionals, not in the Final Four. Had Texas been going up againt Georgetown, I think I would have selected Texas, but UCLA has been there and done that before, when it comes to playing in the Final Four. I went with experience over "home-court advantage" on this one.

Still if you look through the rest of my bracket, I went according to all the criteria. Only 3 #2 seeds reach the Sweet 16, I have a 13 beating a 4, two 11's beating 6's, I have 6 double digit teams winning their first round game (just one more than the avg, but after last years poor showing by the double digits, it has to even out), only one of those double digits reach the Sweet 16 which is about the average as well. my Final Four sum is less than 10, and I do have a #1 seed winning the title. All right, so the last one I'm sure just about everyone could have figured out by themselves.

So we'll see how it goes. The only part of the equation I'm worried about is picking Georgetown over Wisconsin in the Sweet 16. That's the only game on my bracket that I am truely nervous about, because it's the only one that I think makes or brakes my bracket. I was the only one in many of my pools to have the Hoyas reach the Final Four last season, so hopefully my faith in the dogs will work this year as well. Good luck, and I'll have a first round recap ready on Saturday.