Bracket Breakdown: Southeast Region

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Despite being the weakest of the No. 1 seeds, Pittsburgh has the easiest path to the Final Four in Houston.

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If the seeds play out on the first weekend, then the Panthers would have to beat a No. 3 BYU team without its top interior player and an overseeded No. 2 Florida squad that just lost its last game by 16 points.

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Bracket Breakdown: East Region

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Ohio State earned the tournament's top overall seed, but certainly didn't get what should have been the path of least resistance to the Final Four in Houston on the first weekend in April.

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ALSO: Bracket Tips From Charlie Sheen

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This bracket is loaded with some serious firepower. Traditional elites North Carolina, Syracuse and Kentucky follow Ohio State on the top four lines here.

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Chalk Talk: All Four Top Seeds Will Get To Houston

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I gave up picking upsets for the most part a few years ago. That's why they're called upsets, because you can't predict them. Too many people think no one will notice if they hook up a Jay Bilas IV to one arm and a Doug Gottlieb IV to the other on Selection Sunday weekend, then stealing their insights and passing them off as their own knowledge when they turn their brackets into the moderating co-worker who knows they're full of shit.

That's not to say I only pick by chalk, but at the same time, there's a reason why one team is seeded first, another is seeded eighth and another is 15th. In most cases, such rankings signify the best, the second-best and the worst of those three teams. When the dust settles after the first weekend, sure you'll see some 12s and 10s and 9s, but you see more 1s and 2s and 3s. And that will again be the case this year.

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ALSO: Complete March Madness Coverage | Bracket Tips From Charlie Sheen

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In fact, I'm convinced that there's a good chance that all four No. 1 seeds will make it out of their regions and play in the Final Four this year. Here's how:

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Did Selection Committee Truly Reward Ohio State?

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

It's kind of weird how Dick Vitale seldom speaks critically of players or coaches, rarely voices a strong opinion during his excessive ESPN air time for four months, then always comes on the tube every Selection Sunday and drops the hammer on the NCAA Selection Committee. You can count on it every March, like St. Patrick's Day.

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MORE: Bracket Tips From Charlie Sheen

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But even in that criticism his logic is rooted in weak rah-rah fandom. To Vitale, it's all about how sad the kids from two or three wrongfully left-out teams must feel. Aw, poor kids.

The Selection Committee's job isn't to appease 20-year-old boys; it's about choosing the best 37 at-large teams and arranging the full 68-team field in such a way that teams deserving of rewards get those rewards. I expect the Committee to pull a surprise or two every year, and sometimes those decisions are justified a few days later. I don't really care about the poor kids.

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Winning My NCAA Tournament Pool

By CHARLIE SHEEN
One Great Season

March Madness? Let me just say this about March Madness: I don't believe the term is good enough, but when you're bound by these terrestrial descriptions, you must use the best choice available, right?

So if you think about it, dude, it's like you're always 1 for 4 picking 12 seeds in the first round just to be that guy who tells everyone he totally called it. Don't be that guy. To sully or contaminate or radically disrespect the spirit of gambling just for the sake of first-weekend Cinderella moxie dick-measuring with a shameful bracket is something that I will leave to the amateurs and the potato-brained wanks who liked my television show.

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And I just gotta add this cuz there was a whole firestorm Friday about this being the weakest year ever for bubble teams and all of them suck like never before and let me just say this, this is all I'm gonna say about it: where there were four, there are now three. Goodbye Illinois, good luck in your travels, you're going to need it, badly.

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March Madness Notebook: Day 13

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

What a great day to have spent in the living room and in front of the TV with an apartment that smelled entirely of pork. I had the crock pot on all day, rocking the barbecued pork loin sandwiches.

And because I am only one man, there remains much more pork to be eaten. Today shall be another great day. Oh yeah, there's more basketball.

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Big East Tournament Always Better Than The Others

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

One thing I've never accepted in my five years living up here is the long-held belief that everything is better in New York.

But there are plenty of things superior in the Big Apple than anywhere else, and one of them is a college basketball tournament.

I've attended some December ballgames at Madison Square Garden, where the atmosphere even for two out-of-state college teams playing in a pro town is pretty impressive.

And it's 100 times better in March when Big East rivals square off at the Garden, even if it's 2 p.m. on a Wednesday. The energy is outstanding, and I'm glad I've scraped a few bucks together to catch a session each of the last couple of years.

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March Madness Notebook: Day 12

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Wow, Jimmer Fredette's outburst was impressive Friday night. The BYU star made 22-of-37 shots, including seven three-pointers, and finished with a Mountain West Conference Tournament record 52 points. The Cougars avenged two regular-season losses to New Mexico with an 87-76 win, advancing to the MWC championship game against San Diego State today at 7 p.m.

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March Madness Notebook: Day 11

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Poor Cincinnati. After the Bearcats cruised in their Big East Tournament opener on Wednesday, they were trounced by Notre Dame in one of the most lopsided blowouts in the event's storied history.

Fellow alums think I'm harsh on our alma mater; it's not that I'm not excited about the job Mick Cronin has done in his fifth season in Cincinnati. But at the same time, I'm tempering my optimism because I don't think the Bearcats are back, as many of them like to think. They play excellent defense and their scrappy style is reminiscent of those great UC teams of the 1990s. But those teams also had some scoring punch. Currently there is very little offensive firepower, no go-to guy to carry a team, and that's why Cincinnati's exit from the NCAA Tournament will be an early one.

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Pictures From The 2011 Big East Tournament

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

OGS isn't credentialed for the Big East Tournament, but a scalped ticket allowed me to at least get in the building, and a 200mm lens got me a few shots of Wednesday night's action.

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Our group moved around some, but we saw exactly what we hoped for: a big win by Cincinnati in the first game and an exciting one in the nightcap. It would have been nice to see old friend Bob Huggins and his West Virginia Mountaineers advance, but Marquette was too much in the second half of game two.

When we weren't getting booted from seats, looking for better ones or making a beer run, we actually sat down and I was able to snap off a few frames. Enjoy the gallery.

March Madness Notebook: Day 10

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I hit up Wednesday's evening session of the Big East Tournament. Bumping into a couple dozen Cincinnati alums kept our foursome from realizing just how badly the Bearcats were putting it on South Florida. UC was in control of a typically low-scoring first half, but Mick Cronin's crew really blew things wide open after the break. Putting up almost 90 and winning by nearly 30 aren't usually staples of Cincinnati's success this season, but there's no complaining here. Anyway, I'll post a few pictures on OGS a little later.

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March Madness Notebook: Day 9

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I was walking to the train in Midtown last night and I couldn't help but be swept up by the energy around Madison Square Garden. I had no intention of going to any of the Big East games; in fact, I'd just left a University of Cincinnati Alumni social event where I was offered a freebie for the evening session.

But once I saw the Providence team bus pull into the MSG lot, and I heard a scalper bark out "two on the floor" to a man and his teenage son, I was hooked. I watched his sales pitch fail, then asked about a single. We went back and forth, and his price actually wasn't bad. But I had some work to do at home so I turned him down and continued my march to the subway. By the time I got home, I was able to watch the last few minutes of South Florida's upset over Villanova, a game for which I could have watched from a $60 floor seat.

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March Madness Notebook: Day 8

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

A writer friend tried to tell me over the weekend that the Big East is to basketball what the SEC is to football. I'm not so sure of that, since the Big East, despite its stacked lineup of heavy hitters, hasn't won a national championship since 2004. But I will say the league's conference tournament is the best to watch if you're locked in front of your television. Want proof?

Well, feel free to flip on the TV anytime between noon and midnight Tuesday and Wednesday. And really the whole week, because the closer it gets to the championship game, the more desperate the teams are and the more physical the games become.

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2011 NCAA Conference Tournament Breakdowns

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

The best conference tournament of them all begins Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, and the other power leagues begin their events this week as well. Here are the key details and a few bold predictions on the final week of college basketball before the NCAA Tournament:

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March Madness Notebook: Day 7

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Wow. Ohio State's beatdown of Wisconsin was as impressive as it was thorough in Columbus on Sunday. The Buckeyes showed they're clearly the best team in the country, and put the Big Ten on notice that they have no intention of loafing through this week's conference tournament that starts Thursday in Indianapolis.

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+ Indiana State claimed a spirited win over top-seeded Missouri State in the Missouri Valley Conference title game on Sunday. The Sycamores get the automatic bid, while the Bears wait to see if their 25-8 record is good enough for an at-large bid. Without a win over a team from the RPI Top 50, the prediction here is that it's not.

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