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MIDWEST First Round: Louisville over Alabama St./Morehead St. No 16th seed has ever upset a number one seed, and Louisville comes into March Madness with a strong Big East tourney win. Siena over Ohio State Siena is dangerous with the combo of guards senior Kenny Hasbrouck and junior Edwin Ubiles. Arizona over Utah Arizona snuck into the tourney, but the Wildcats can beat the Utes, who weren't really tested during the regular season. Wake Forest over Cleveland St. Jeff Teague and Al-Farouq Aminu can lead Wake Forest through tough competition despite a disappointing end in the ACC tournament. West Virginia over Dayton West Virginia can be a big sleeper team after success in the Big East tournament, and a quick win over the 11-seed Dayton will get them started. Kansas over North Dakota St. Kansas may have lost miracle-worker Mario Chalmers to the NBA, but they still find themselves in the position to attempt the repeat. They're playing well on both sides of the ball and shouldn't be ousted from the tournament this early. Boston College over USC USC is coming off a PAC-10 tourney title, but Boston College has been strong all season, especially with the play of Tyrese Rice. Michigan St. over Robert Morris The Spartans have been sitting around the top of the national standings for a while now and should carry that momentum through the NCAA tournament. Second Round: Louisville over Siena Siena is a strong team, but Louisville has been playing its best basketball of the season as of late on both sides of the floor. Wake Forest over Arizona In elimination games, teams with star players are the ones that succeed. Either Aminu or Teague can take over the game at any time to push Wake Forest further. West Virginia over Kansas No bracket is complete without upsets, and the way West Virginia has been playing recently forces us to put them over Kansas. Michigan State over Boston College Boston College can pull off the upset here, like it did to UNC earlier in the season. But Michigan State has been consistent most of the season and won't let that happen. Sweet Sixteen Louisville over Wake Forest Terrence Williams has Louisville set to make a big run in the tourney, and Wake Forest has been way too inconsistent this season. Michigan State over West Virginia West Virginia's run will end here as they lack the consistency to upset the Spartans. WVU has star power with Da'Sean Butlet and Darryl Bryant, but it won't be enough. Elite Eight Louisville over Michigan State Louisville enters the tourney with seven straight wins, a Big East regular season title and a Big East tournament title. They have the offense to overtake Michigan State's defense and the ability to force the Spartans to turn the ball over.

EAST First Round: Pittsburgh over East Tennessee A number 16 seed has never won a NCAA tournament game. Ever. Tennessee over Oklahoma St. Tennessee's frontcourt, stabilized by forwards Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith, will pull off this "upset" over a smaller Cowboys team. Florida St. over Wisconsin The Seminoles lack the balance Wisconsin totes, but mainly because Toney Douglas is throwing it out of whack. Without someone to score in the clutch, the Badgers won't be able to hold on to a lead. Xavier over. Portland St. Portland St. won't be able to make up for Xavier's eXperienced coach and team. UCLA over VCU The Bruins' Darren Collison and Josh Shipp are just too much for a Rams team that is not as good as last year to control. Villanova over American American may be hot, winning 19 of their last 20 games, but Nova will take this game in their hometown. Texas over Minnesota Both teams have proven inconsistent all season. Minnesota actually beat Louisville back in December, but The Longhorns will squeeze this one out. Duke over Binghamton As much as Duke is hated around here, I don't see a first round exit in their future against Binghamton, who's making its first Big Dance appearance. Second Round: Pittsburgh over Tennessee Sam Young, Levance Fields and the Panthers will keep rolling. Florida State over Xavier As long as Toney Douglas performs, the .Noles should pull off this slight upset. Villanova over UCLA Villanova is a veteran squad playing in their hometown for the second straight game. UCLA may not even make it past Virginia Commonwealth. Duke over Texas The Longhorns are yet to prove themselves, and many consider Duke to be on the same level as the No. 1 seeds. Sweet Sixteen: Pittsburgh over Florida State This will be a hard fought battle, but one knows Pitt. coach Jamie Dixon will have some tricks up his sleeve as the Panthers move past the sweet sixteen for the first time since 1974. Duke over Villanova This will obviously be the toughest match thus far for both teams. The guards match up, and neither school has the advantage in experience. The Blue Devils use their ACC championship momentum to take this in a close one. Elite Eight: Pittsburgh over Duke Coach K has just one loss in eleven trips to the region finals and it's time the Panthers knock him down a notch. Fields, Young and the built DeJuan Blair are just too formidable a trio for the Blue Devils to contain. The Panthers move on to the Final Four.

WEST First Round: Connecticut over Chattanooga UConn may have underachieved in the Big East tournament, but who.s even heard of Chattanooga? BYU over Texas A&M This is a close match-up, but BYU's offense coupled with Texas A&M's turnover-prone nature should grant the Cougars a win. Purdue over Northern Iowa Northern Iowa has not been challenged all season long. The Boilermakers are solid on both sides of the ball and shouldn't be upset here. Washington over Mississippi State Mississippi State is coming off an upset of Tennessee in the SEC tournament, but they committed mistakes in the final seconds that could have cost them. Fortunately, so did Tennessee, but Washington won't be so kind. Marquette over Utah State The Golden Eagles have been inconsistent this season, but when they.re on top of their game they are very difficult to beat. The trio of Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews and Lazar Hayward is difficult for any team to handle. Missouri over Cornell Cornell snuck in with an automatic bid, but their tournament life won't last very long. Mizzou is a tough team coming off a Big 12 tournament title. Maryland over California The Terps got into the tourney with a strong showing in the ACC tournament and should avoid a first-round exit. Memphis over California State Northridge California State Northridge sounds like two separate universities. Probably both put together could not even upset Memphis. Second Round: Connecticut over BYU UConn has played well all season, aside from the occasional slip while at the top of the standings. They should easily avoid an upset from BYU. Washington over Purdue Washington is just too good on offense for the Boilermakers to handle. Freshman guard Isaiah Thomas is already drawing comparisons to the ex-Knicks coach of the same name. Missouri over Marquette Marquette is a strong team, but they struggled against good teams during the regular season (only 3-7 against top 25 teams). Missouri has had big wins down the stretch, including handily beating Oklahoma. Memphis over Maryland Let.s be real now. Maryland is incredibly inconsistent (upsetting UNC and Michigan State, losing to Morgan State) and the Tigers have been strong all season. Maryland needs to play well from game to game if they want to make a title run. Sweet Sixteen: Connecticut over Washington Washington does not have the size to match up with Hasheem Thabeet. Their lone big man is 7-foot junior Joe Wolfinger, who has not seen many minutes this season. Memphis over Missouri Memphis has the defense to take the West. Freshman guard Tyreke Evans has been stellar this season and, along with senior forward Robert Dozier, can lead Memphis over Mizzou. Elite Eight: Memphis over Connecticut Memphis has the defense in the guard position to contain UConn's A.J. Price. The Tigers mix up defenses to deny Hasheem Thabeet the ball. They have multiple weapons on offense and should be able to pull the upset.

First Round: UNC over Radford Radford. Wait, who? LSU over Butler Butler's fresh loss to Cleveland St. will prime the Tigers, led by SEC player of the year Marcus Thornton, to squeeze this one out. Western Kentucky over Illinois Even with a name like the Hilltoppers, Western Kentucky has been to the Dance 21 times. Last year, with the same 12-seed, WKU advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, and now they look ready to at least crack the second round. Plus, the Illini will be playing with Big Ten assist leader Chester Frazier. Gonzaga over Akron Gonzaga is just too talented on both sides of the court for Akron to handle. Oh yeah - Gonzaga has won 18 out of their last 19 games. Arizona St. over Temple The Sun Devils will be expecting All-American James Harden (20.8 ppg) to give them the edge in this defensive battle. However, they will need to keep Temple's Dionte Christmas, who's knows how to drop a three-pointer, from decking the halls. Syracuse over Stephen F. Austin The Orange will breeze by this March Madness noob, even if they are still catching their breath from that six-overtime thriller versus Connecticut. Clemson over Michigan For the Tigers, this is more mental than anything. If they can dictate the pace and return to the basketball that led to their 16-0 start, Michigan won.t be able to score enough to keep up. Oklahoma over Morgan St. Blake Griffin will win this single-handedly. Second Round: UNC over LSU Obama has UNC going all the way, so they can surely take down a battered Tigers team. However, the Tarheels will start feeling injuries. Gonzaga over WKU A win in the second round isn't unknown territory for the Hilltoppers, but the 'Zags are too hot for WKU to pull off the miraculous. Syracuse over Arizona St. If the Sun Devils make it past Temple, they will be too rattled to put together a complete game against a very solid Syracuse team. Besides, we need Syracuse to upset UNC. Oklahoma over Clemson Good run, Tigers. Sweet Sixteen: UNC over Gonzaga I want to believe Gonzaga can upset the number one 'Heels but they'll have difficulty beating a healthy UNC. If Ty Lawson is close to 100 percent, he will lead a completely intact starting lineup from last year to the region final. Syracuse over Oklahoma The Orange will complete this upset simply because they're not one dimensional. Other than Blake Griffin, the Sooners have just one player scoring double digits; Syracuse has five. Guard Johnny Flynn has already proved he has stamina, and he'll continue the run by leading the Orange over Oklahoma. Elite Eight: Syracuse over UNC Out of eight ESPN analysts, the only Final Four pick they agreed on was UNC. Well, here at SCO we believe UNC is overrated and liable to fall to a well-structured Syracuse team (sorry, Barack). If the Orangemen can exploit the Tarheels' defensive holes and keep UNC off their three-ball game, they will complete the upset.

FINAL FOUR:

Pittsburgh: A great basketball team has a strength in every category, and the Panthers are exactly that kind of balanced team. Center DeJuan Blair is the intimidator, grabbing over 12 boards a game (good for number four in the country) and dominating down low for 15.6 points per game. He is supported by guard Levance Fields, who has more assists per game than any other player in the tournament, and forward Sam Young, who leads the Panthers with 18.8 points per game. In terms of coaching, Jamie Dixon couldn't have any more motive to get his to Panthers to perform - despite being seeded numver five or higher six out of the past seven years, Pittsburgh hasn't cracked the Elite Eight in that time. In fact, they haven't had three consecutive tournament wins since 1974. Time to end the drought. The Orangemen will have had a terrific run by making it to the Final Four, but adrenaline can only take you so far. Blair is a wall to be reckoned with and a slightly easier road for Pittsburgh will pay off in a Panther win.

Syracuse: The only thing more draining than playing a six-overtime thriller against number one-seeded UConn. would be losing that game. Luckily for Syracuse, this was not the case. Anchored by sophomore guard Johnny Flynn (17.3 points per game, 6.4 assists per game), the Orange pride themselves on sharing the wealth. They have four other players scoring in double digits, including junior guard Eric Devendorf (15.2 ppg) and junior forward Paul Harris (12.8 ppg), and aren't afraid to shoot from downtown. Syracuse would be the biggest surprise of the Final Four, but not by luck.

Louisville: Louisville has been underappreciated for most of the season, taking until the end of the season to crack into the top five before finally reaching the number one spot. But coach Rick Pitino has his team focused and ready to make a run for the national championship. Forwards Earl Clark and Terrence Williams are both two of the most versatile forwards in the nation. Both can run the offense and play like a guard, causing match-up problems all over the floor. Louisville also has two great shooters in guards Jerry Smith and Preston Knowles, both of whom are shooting above 40 percent from downtown. The major problem with Louisville is their size and the lack of a true center. But what they lack in size, they make up for with speed on offense and different looks on defense.

Memphis: Memphis is once again one of the top teams in the nation, despite losing Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts to the NBA last year. The Tigers replaced Rose with another great freshman guard in Tyreke Evans. Evans led Memphis with 16.6 points per game, but his limited range (only 28 percent from beyond the arc) could hurt Memphis. The Tigers are one of the worst teams in the nation in three-point and free throw shooting, similar to last year. But Memphis has a strong inside game with forwards Shawn Taggart and Robert Dozier. Dozier is a huge weapon for Memphis as he can score inside but also stretch the defense, as he is shooting 39 percent from three-point range. Memphis's strong point this season has been its defense. The Tigers are in the top 10 in the nation in blocks and steals per game. Memphis has been able to hold their opponents to under 57 points per game, good for fourth best in the nation.