My 2012 NCAA Tourney bracket: after Day 1

Just as I expected, I ate that Long Beach State pick. Davidson also fell and Wichita State became yet another five-seed to fall victim to its 12-seed opponent, those rascally VCU Rams. (An apology goes to Bobblehead. I persuaded him to pick Wichita State when he was poised to advanced VCU on his bracket.) Surprisingly, UNLV fell to lowly Colorado, which is now the lone Pac-12 representative in the tourney. I caught a bit of Colorado’s game against either Oregon or Cal in the Pac-12 Tournament and was not impressed. (I was impressed, though, by the fact the school flew a number of its most faithful student fans to Los Angeles for the tourney — a very nice gesture, I have to say.)

All in all, I was 12 for 16. Not bad, but my Davidson and Wichita State picks carry over to the Third Round. Thankfully, I did not have UNLV advancing to the Sweet 16.

With my bracket now deflowered, we move on to the second day of the Second Round. My finalists are scheduled to play today, as well as a couple Cinderella’s. Hopefully Texas will beat Cincy, Xavier will beat Notre Dame, and Saint Mary’s will begin a run to the Elite Eight. I would not be surprised if Kansas falls to Detroit. The Jayhawks love to screw me over.

One game I had no gut feeling about was the Memphis-Saint Louis game. Memphis is not the powerhouse it was and I know nothing about Rick Majerus’ Billikens. (Saint Louis did knock Iowa out of the NIT on a last-second shot in 2004, I think.) The odds are 50-50 either way, so picked Saint Louis.