1 Kentucky vs 16 East Tennessee St – Hard to pick against Kentucky in the first round, so I didn’t. All four of m brackets have the Wildcats advancing. I figured the Wildcats would maul the Buccaneers, leaving them unable to plunder and pillage the ports (alliteration!) of this fine country. The clean look of Kentucky in blue and white wins out over the blue and gold from East Tennessee St.
8 Texas vs 9 Wake – I got Wake everywhere in this match-up. First off, take a look at Wake’s mascot. A demon deacon may not sound too bad, but that thing is fucking creepy. I’ve also seen Texas stumble in the regular season, so a mild upset here wouldn’t be surprising. And finally, burnt orange is, and always has been, an ugly ass color.
5 Temple vs 12 Cornell – I’m blaming ESPN all day long if the fact that they sold me on Cornell comes back to bite me in the ass. I’ve got them in three of four here. The only loss coming by virtue of having “red and white” as opposed to “cherry and white” like Temple. I feel like I do have to justify my mascot choice her a little bit more than the others. Don’t get me wrong, I freaking love owls. They’re cute, they can turn their heads all the way around, they carry Harry Potter’s mail, but an owl would not be able to take down a color. I’m picking Big Red here because A: it’s funny, and B: it’s one of my all time favorite chewing gums.
4 Wisconsin vs 13 Wofford – Wisconsin 3-1. Badgers are badasses, and I’m pretty sure the Terrier Wofford is talking about is a Scottish terrier, which I’m almost certain wouldn’t be able to weather that fight. Wofford’s black and gold does manage to save face and topple Wisconsin’s cardinal and white to avoid the shut out. I’m kind of wishing I had picked Wofford in my homer bracket because I do have an inexplicable soft spot for the fellows from Spartanburg, but I didn’t, and I’m not changing it now. In the real world though, Wisconsin advances.
6 Marquette vs 11 Washington – All four go to Marquette because Washington got in by virtue of the Pac 10’s automatic bid, in a year that the Pac 10 fell well short of standards. I again ran into my distaste for purple on men, so Marquette gets m vote there while wearing blue and gold. Also picking the Warriors to come out and play-ay over the Huskies.
3 New Mexico vs 14 Montana – New Mexico 3-1 against Montana, only dropping the mascot challenge when the Lobos went down to the predatory Grizzlies. As far as uniforms go, the cherry and silver of New Mexico is a little bit more crisp than the maroon and silver of Montana. the other two brackets just made sens to pick New Mexico.
7 Clemson vs 10 Missouri – I have Clemson in all four brackets, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Missouri pull the slight upset here. Clemson is kind of schizophrenic at times, and has a history of collapsing, so this game could easily go either way. Obviously siding with the ACC in my homer bracket. I overcame my hatred for purple uniforms here because, even though I hate orange, and the color scheme really, really shouldn’t work, some how it’s so heinous that it just does. Since the mascot bout is a tie with both teams being tigers, the higher seed advances.
2 West Virginia vs 15 Morgan St – The cousins take all four in a glorious celebration with burning couches. I have a feeling that the Mountaineers are one of the few mascots in this tourney that could handle the Bears, which makes this an interesting match-up. I’m still despising the orange and blue together, so Morgan St is shit outta luck against West Virginia’s blue and gold. Other two brackets went easily to West Virginia as well.