West Virginia blew it, and my bracket is the worse for it.

On the other hand, there's probably not another team in the Midwest region that gave me more concern for the Cards than West Virginia. So on balance, I'll take it.

Pitt scared the hell outa me too, but their rude awakening proved to be just that, a wake-up call. I hope the Cards have an easier time of it tonight - I don't think I can take a nailbiter in the first round!

Bumped

The "analysts" on ESPN seem to be in agreement that losing to Syracuse won't cost UConn their #1 seed. Incredibly, they say the big loser is Louisville! Apparently, winning both the regular season and tournament championships of the best conference in the country - a conference Dick Vitale calls the best, top to bottom, that he has seen in his 30 years of broadcasting - wouldn't be enough, in these guys' minds, to earn the Cards a 1 seed.

"You can't fault Connecticut for losing in six overtimes," one of them said.

To which I reply: maybe you can fault them for not winning in regulation time against a supposedly weaker team - and failing to do so in the first overtime, not to mention the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.

And if you can't fault UConn for losing, how can you fault UofL for UConn losing? It's ludicrous!

Let's review. Louisville enters the day as Big East regular-season champions. Two other Big East teams, one of which Louisville defeated in their only meeting, are presumed to be shoo-ins for #1 seeds. Both of these other teams go down at the hands of teams that lost at home to Louisville and went a collective 0-3 against the Cards in the regular season. Meanwhile, Oklahoma, said to be ahead of the Cards in line for a top seed, loses to unranked Oklahoma State to go 2-3 in their last five games; and Louisville easily manhandles a pretty good Providence team. And the sum total of all of the above is said to lessen the Cardinals' chances for respect from the tournament seeding committee?

I'm beginning to hope we don't get a #1 seed. At this point, it would be such a slap in the face, it would make great locker-room material. To borrow a phrase, you don't want to make us mad; you won't like us when we're mad.