Happy March Madness!

Ring Out Ahoya!

Welcome, once again, to the most wonderful time of the year!  The NCAA tournament is the greatest sporting event in the world.  Heroes will be born.  Hearts will break.  Cinderellas will rise.  Giants will fall.  And Bill Raftery will, at some point, say “Lingerie on the deck!” “Square the puppies!” and “A little nylon!”  (And his able partner-in-crime, Verne Lundquist, will laugh heartily.)  Meanwhile, Knightly (left) celebrates Marquette’s 3-seed and picks the Final Four:

#1 Kentucky (South).  The question isn’t whether Coach Cal will get to the Final Four again, but rather, will the appearance later be vacated?  His two previous Final Four appearances (with U-Mass and Memphis) have been wiped from the books due to later-discovered NCAA violations, though he, personally, was not “directly implicated in anything.” 

#3 Florida State (East).  After knocking off both Duke and North Carolina, the ACC tournament champion Seminoles (and their ACC coach of the year Leonard Hamilton) are a tough out.

#2 Kansas (Midwest).  North Carolina is too erratic.  The Big Twelve’s regular season champion will emerge from the Midwest.  Now all they need is a new fight song.

#4 Louisville (West).  Kentucky might not even be the best team in, well, Kentucky.  Slick Rick has the Cardinals' press in high gear, and Peyton Siva might be the fastest man on the planet, with or without a basketball in his hand.

Champion: Louisville Cardinals.