The UCLA Bruins. I’ve rooted for them as long as I can remember. Tracy Murray. Don MacLean. Legends of college basketball in my childhood.

I was in 7th grade and Tyus Edney went coast-to-coast. George Zidek ruled the paint and Ed O’Bannon was the second coming. Jim Harrick’s team was electrifying.

The UCLA faithful can get a scaled, toothy monkey off its back with a win tonight. By Leahcim506 at en.wikipedia, from Wikimedia Commons

Since Harrick left, UCLA basketball has fluctuated. During first actual game at Pauley Pavilion, I watched a Steve Lavin team beat top-ranked Kansas, led by Kirk Heinrich, Drew Gooden, Nick Collison, and Wayne Simien. UCLA’s ultra-talented team included Jerome Moiso, Cedric Bozeman, Matt Barnes, Jason Kapono, Ray Young, and Dijon Thompson. That UCLA team was supposed to be awesome. They made it to the Sweet 16 under head coach Steve Lavin that season, but could never get over the hump.

When Lavin’s results became untenable, Ben Howland was brought in. Howland led UCLA to two consecutive Final Four appearances. In both of them, they lost to Al Horford and Joakim Noah’s Florida Gators. After a downhill slide that culminated in a home loss to Cal Poly last year, Howland was fired.

Which brings us to Steve Alford, and tonight. In Howland’s shadow — and more importantly the shadow of the great John Wooden — Alford’s team will attempt to avenge the unfulfilled promise of those semi-recent Final Four teams. Florida is a consensus number one and Billy Donovan’s players have always seemed to have UCLA’s number in the past. If Alford’s group were to knock-off the SEC’s finest and get themselves to the Elite 8, the new coach’s first year at UCLA will have been an unmitigated success, and UCLA fans will get that monkey with huge teeth and scales, finally, off their back. Beware though, it will take more than a solid 8-clap tonight.

“Jackie” Pullen?  Jacob?  Whatever his name is, the Wildcats blew it.  I had them advancing out of the Southeast bracket all the way to the Final Four.  Now that they, along with Pitt, are eliminated, the Florida vs. BYU sweet 16 game next Thursday proves vital as to who will be the favorite to reach the Final Four out of that side of the bracket.

6 out of 8 today in sweet 16 picks.  Worse than where I was but still not horrible.  Bring me some luck rainy Sunday.

Saturday 3/20 9:40

In 7th grade, my dad let me enter a March Madness pool he was in. Ten bucks. There were ten people in it, and relative to what I think I know now, I knew very little about college basketball. After I won, I thought I was some sort of savant. And it’s been all downhill from there.

Not to whine, but my brackets have more red on them than a fire truck — a red fired truck. One of my final two teams got bounced today and I have no more possible wins in the Southeast bracket thanks to Pitt’s mind-numbing loss to Butler. Credit goes to Butler, but no way Pitt should have lost that game. I guess that’s the “beauty” of the tournament. Let’s just say there will be nothing beautiful about what will happen if I lose. I think the Boilermakers are my best hope. Let’s go Purdue! — OM

Saturday 3/20 9:34

I knew there was a reason I liked Bill Plaschke. In a column this evening, he echoes what I’ve been saying about this year’s UCLA team all along, If this game had been in, say Chicago, I think the Bruins might have pulled it out. Florida is very good, but dammit UCLA and their fans want to beat them. I guess they’ll have to wait at least one more year.

Saturday 3/20 6:53

…and if you are Owen and had Pitt in the Final, you are also heartbroken… I don’t want to dress like a girl. I feel sick…. — OM

Saturday 3/20 6:41

BYU’s dominance is surprising me. I am taking K.St and Jackie Pullen in the other game. The Wilcats Curtis Kelly: 9 pts on 4 of 5 in the first five minutes. He is making Jim Calhoun wish he never gave up on him.–Loco

Saturday 3/20 6:38 PM

The finish of the Pitt v Butler game was the oddest thing I have ever seen in the March tournament. Two fouls, I said TWO fouls in the final 2.4 seconds occuring from half court and then 3/4 court.  I am happy for Butler and Matt Howard, but if you are Jamie Dixon and Pitt you have got to be heart broken.–Loco

Saturday 3/20 6:35 PM

No, no. Thought “Stevie Wonder,” was a name of endearment. SD St will not survive the round of sixteen. They played ugly and won, but don’t have a consistent offensive game, and lack a true go-and-get-it scorer.–Loco

Saturday, 3/20 – 5:30pm

All of my sweet 16 teams remain at this point, and the first 4 to advance were correctly picked, albeit the San Diego State / Temple game was a close one.  The biggest game today for my bracket will be the Kansas State / Wisky affair.  Kansas State is my underdog, as I have them advancing to the Final Four out of the Southeast bracket.  I think Frank Martin’s face alone could get them there.

“A-Stevie Wonder?”  Are you intimating that I may have made my picks somewhat blindly?  Well, you’d be somewhat right.  Susan from accounting always wins the office pool every year, doesn’t she?  – ADS

Sat 3/20 2:35

Updated Point Totals

A-Stevie Wonder: 26, Loco del Lucas: 25, O-Trainexpress.edu: 22

Sat 3/20 2:28

Ben Howland has himself a nice bunch of youngsters. Next two to three years they will be great if he can get kids like Honeycut, Lee, and Smith to stay put. Now that the Gators got through UCLA, I could realistically see them making a very deep run in the tournament. They are packed with Seniors, have a leader like Parsons, and a great back court with Boynton and Walker.–Loco

Sat 3/20 1:34

Naismath Watch: JaJuan Johnson, Kemba Walker, Terrence Jones, Nolan Smith, and JIMMER! Just hand the kid the damn award already. The rest of these are like flies on the wall compared to the kids godness.–Loco

Sat 3/20 1:28

I just really like players like Reeves Nelson. Why? How can you not? I mean the guy is average athletically and because of that has had to learn the game. LEARN the game. Without Nelson, the Bruins are down ten right now and have no shot today. While the rest of you tragically fall for the athletic leviathon who can’t shoot free throws or play under control, I will gladly give an undervalued guy like Nelson some love. He and the Gators Parsons, are the NCAA’s Kevin Love.–Loco

Sat 3/20 12:56

Decent first half for the Bruins. Gotta love their fight and grit. If everyone stays, UCLA will be in the Elite 8 or Final Four next year. They need to stay mentally tough to have a chance against Florida in Tampa at the end of the game… Loco- who would look uglier in women’s clothes? I think me. — OM

Sat. 3/20 12:47

UCLA and Florida playing a tight game. Gators Senior forward Chandler Parsons is the most complete player on the court. But UCLA’s Malcolm Lee and Tyler Honeycutt are freakish athletes.–Loco

Sat. 3/20 10:33 AM

Aldridge: ” Coach Cal, you shoot 57% and are still down eight coming into the 2nd half.” Coach Calipari: “That is what happens when you have freshmen out there.” That’s it? Last I checked, Kentucky hired you…well, to coach. You are on the biggest stage, a half away from the sweet sixteen, make millions of dollars, and that is all you have to say? Get out.–Loco

Sat. 3/20 10:31 AM

Sorry everyone, fansmanship slept in. This has been fun. Both Main’s and Loco’s brackets have gone to crap. Hopefully we can rally today and tomorrow to make things interesting, and avoid the embarrassment of dressing up as a drag queen at Farmers Market. My wife is evil. She is giggling just thinking about it.–Loco

I know who the champion of this year’s tournament is going to be. Could it be Duke, a number-one seed with all the moxie that a defending national champion should have? Is it Notre Dame, with their rich football tradition and their more-than-budding basketball dominance? Does a team like St. John’s have a chance? They’ve played a really tough schedule all year and proven they can beat anyone. Is there a star ready to emerge? Who is really favorite this year?

The favorite, and undisputed champion of the tournament every year is, in fact, The Unexpected.

Last season, it was Butler, whose poise and talent led them to the final and a half-court heave away from a National Championship. Though the perennial Horizon League heavyweights are always good, they are still from the Horizon League and yet, they still made it to the championship game.

When talking about the unexpected, we can talk all about Bryce Drew’s Valparaiso team making it through to the Sweet 16. Western Kentucky, Davidson, and George Mason all come to mind when talking about tournament surprises. When Princeton beat UCLA, it was my first experience of being, literally, upset by the outcome of a game (Go Bruins).

Upset City?

Though there will be some upsets this year—there always are—I want to make an argument for going “with the chalk” while filling out your brackets. In the 24-hour news cycle sporting world, there is so much information that it’s hard to sort it out. This is the untenable job of the selection committee.

Where there might have been systems in place 20 years ago to ensure correct seeds, it was an inexact science. Committee members had to tout the teams that they saw from their region. Perennial powers were given the benefit of the doubt because there just weren’t as many opportunities to watch basketball or gather the statistical information that is now available.

Like the rest of America, I’m left in the dark about the exact process for seeding the teams, but I think it’s safe to say that the gentlemen in the room have more information at hand than ever before. This is why I am predicting that, starting about five years ago, there was more “chalk” than people expect, despite the parody we have seen in college basketball over the past 10-20 years.

This was my prediction in the past as well. A few years ago, the one 12-seed I picked to win was the only one that lost. While my general “when in doubt, go with the chalk” mantra might not ring true over one year or even two, I think it will start to move more and more that way.

Look out West in 2011

I’m not revealing all of my quality picks (sure to go wrong) yet, but I will say this: The Pac-10 will surprise people. Everyone has been so down on the conference all year, and for good reason. Games seem long, teams grind, and there aren’t a lot of flashy stars. But UCLA, Arizona, and Washington all have a realistic chance of some upsets.

UCLA could match-up with Florida in the second round, and you know that Ben Howland would like nothing more than to get Billy Donovan’s team back for the butt-kickings they took in the championship game and the Final Four in recent years past.

Washington is, without question, the most talented team coming from the Pac 10. Lorenzo Romar and Steve Lavin were both assistant coaches on the 1995 UCLA championship team, and Romar seems to have channeled Lavin in his ability to recruit top-notch talent. While Romar’s teams still manage to lose games they shouldn’t throughout the year, they are too talented to be ignored. Having a very good, experienced, and talented point guard in Isaiah Thomas doesn’t hurt either.

Arizona is on the rise too. While I don’t have them going as far as UCLA or Washington, Derrick Williams (The Whole Enchilada from La Mirada) is a dominant player. Talent usually prevails in the tournament and, like Washington, Arizona has a lot of talent.

Look for the Pac-10 to offer some surprises.

Are there too many teams in the tournament?

While amid conversation this week, I realized that there are games starting on Tuesday night and that the four games that are being played before Thursday aren’t just the eight worst teams. Two of the games will be played by four at-large teams; presumably the four ‘last’ teams to get into the field of 68. I’m still trying to process how I feel about:

a) the first “round” of the tournament now being 6 days long, and..

b) 12-seeds who have to play a “play-in” game.

Call me a purist, but I think I’d prefer to stay with the 64-team field. Long and spread-out events like the NFL Draft (is it 3 days now?) or the BCS, seem to water-down the actual event for me. Part of what makes the tournament fun is that we haven’t had any basketball for a week now, and then there are 48 games crammed into 4 days on the first weekend – all of which are important.

In it’s “new” format, the tournament loses some of that “excitement” and “frenzy,” as the games are spread out over an entire week. I’m 29 and probably the demographic that the tournament committee wants watching the games, but I’m also busy. I have other things in my life, including a job. Being focused on the tournament for six days instead of four is a little too much for me.

I’ll take my four days of joy – tracking who gets upset and who can achieve what every team strives for – to survive. And advance.

owen@fansmanship.com