Watching...waiting

The 2007-08 season is over and now it's time to get ready for the 2008-09 season. That won't start until November 1.

Join the newly created Facebook group and discuss the upcoming season.

Are you a bracketologist and would like to be a part of The Bracket Matrix this season? Please read the following:

1. You need to set up a web site to place your bracket that will be consistent throughout the season. A blog will do. A web site will most definitely do. A bracket posted on a message board will not do. The link will change frequently and will get lost in various discussions, making it difficult for the average reader to find it. (Exception: A message board devoted exclusively to bracketology.)

2. You have to tell me where your site is. I don't have a sixth sense when it comes to finding these things. I rely on you and readers like you to tell me what kind of sites to add to this page.

3. The NCAA sets up procedures and principles for building a bracket. Read them! A seriously flawed bracket won't be posted. However, if your seedings are out of the norm, I'll still most likely post it provided that the principles are followed and you have an explanation as to why you've built the bracket like you did. I reserve the right to not post a bracket with something like a winless team as a #1 seed.

4. Please date-stamp your bracket. Brackets of a certain age will be removed from the list, and if there's no date-stamp, obviously I can't tell when your bracket was updated.

5. To make it easier on me, please format your bracket so that at least half of it can be seen on the screen at any one time. You can make it even easier for me by publishing a seed list of your 65 teams. Only brackets that seed at least 48 teams will be listed in the matrix.

6. No new sites will be added to the 2009 page after March 1 unless you have appeared in previous versions of this page, in which case, you will be grandfathered in. In addition, no bracket will be accepted to the final matrix of the season after the beginning of the Selection Sunday show.

7. Your bracket will be updated in the matrix only once per day at a time of my choosing. Exceptions to this rule are brackets with a national following and the top 5 performers in the Bracket Matrix from the previous season according to the Paymon rubric. More details will be forthcoming in January.

8. I'm only one guy. If this could pay me what I get at my regular job, I'd update this site 24/7. That simply is not the case. If someone else can do this better, I'll gladly step aside, but from the looks of it, I'm the only (crazy) one. So if you don't see your site on here, an update hasn't been done for a while or I don't respond to you, I hope you'll understand why.

The Final Four and the Championship Game

Mike Montgomery lands at Cal. Like I said before, good fit.

The games have already started. So here, in order of likelihood, is who I think will win it all to close out the season.

1. UCLA
2. North Carolina
3. Kansas
4. Memphis

2008 Bracket Project Predictions - Elite Eight

I, like a lot of people, love the work Gus Johnson does when he announces games. Who can forget that Gonzaga-UCLA game? Anyway, this year, the tournament has dealt him a bad hand. In the 8 games he has broadcast, the closest margin of victory has been 11 points. Hopefully, Kansas-Davidson will give us some magic. Now, the picks:

North Carolina over Louisville
UCLA over Xavier
Texas over Memphis
Kansas over Davidson

2008 Bracket Project Predictions - Sweet 16

Before we get to the Sweet 16 picks, some news from my alma mater. Ben Braun was "relieved of his duties" as head coach at California and I wish him a fond farewell from his lair at Cal. He was the right man to lead the team after the Todd Bozeman scandal. But 12 years passed and so did the rest of the Pac-10 around him. But he won a national championship!!! Yeah, but that was the NIT. I'm sure with the system he has, he will land on his feet in no time at another school but his knock was that he couldn't develop the talent around him and that was no more apparent than this year with two, possibly three, NBA draft picks on the floor but a 9th place Pac-10 finish to show for it. Mike Montgomery seems to be the top candidate out there and that wouldn't be a bad move.

On to the Sweet 16, where in my bracket below, my Final Four is still possible so that's good, right?

EAST

North Carolina over Washington State
Louisville over Tennessee

MIDWEST

Kansas over Villanova
Wisconsin over Davidson

WEST

UCLA over Western Kentucky
Xavier over West Virginia

SOUTH

Memphis over Michigan State
Texas over Stanford

Bracketology on Wikipedia

UPDATE: Bracketology has been taken off the articles for deletion list.

I guess technically there really isn't a term to describe what me and 50 other people do over the course of a college basketball season but the most accepted word is bracketology which has its origins from Joe Lunardi at ESPN.

Obviously, the concept is very popular and rightly deserves its own Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracketology. However, there is a push to delete the page off Wikipedia. It is, as you probably know, a community-run site. If you would like to add your voice to the discussion, go to the page above and click on the links on top. Keep in mind it isn't a majority vote on whether or not to keep it, rather a forum for discussion with a decision made on a later date.

The Bracket Project Predictions - 2008 2nd Round

Wow, that 1st round was fun. I feel sorry for the guy in the ESPN tourney challenge who was 28 for 28 heading into the final four games of the night. Sure, he got Louisville and Memphis. But he missed Arkansas. And then, Villanova won, which really screwed him over since he had Clemson winning it all.

Now for the second round:

East

North Carolina over Arkansas
Washington State over Notre Dame
Louisville over Oklahoma
Tennessee over Butler

Midwest

Kansas over UNLV
Villanova over Siena
Wisconsin over Kansas State
Georgetown over Davidson

South

Memphis over Mississippi State
Michigan State over Pittsburgh
Marquette over Stanford
Texas over Miami (FLA.)

West

UCLA over Texas A&M
San Diego over Western Kentucky
Xavier over Purdue
Duke over West Virginia

2008 Bracket Project Predictions

These picks should be good for at least a few hours I hope. (Seriously, Yahoo could give away $5 billion for a perfect bracket...I don't think it's ever going to happen.)

This year, with the weak bubble, I'm not so sure about the number of upsets this year. I think it'll be chalky like last year. Siena over Vanderbilt looks enticing as does Winthrop over Wazzu but I'm not picking them. So here we go.

First Round

East

North Carolina over Mount St. Mary's
Arkansas over Indiana
Notre Dame over George Mason
Washington State over Winthrop
Oklahoma over St. Joseph's
Louisville over Boise State
Butler over South Alabama
Tennessee over American

Midwest

Kansas over Portland State
Kent State over UNLV
Clemson over Villanova
Vanderbilt over Siena
USC over Kansas State
Wisconsin over Cal State Fullerton
Davidson over Gonzaga
Georgetown over Maryland-Baltimore County

South

Memphis over Texas-Arlington
Oregon over Mississippi State
Michigan State over Temple
Pittsburgh over Oral Roberts
Marquette over Kentucky
Stanford over Cornell
St. Mary's (CA) over Miami (FLA)
Texas over Austin Peay

West

UCLA over Mississippi Valley State
Texas A&M over BYU
Drake over Western Kentucky
Connecticut over San Diego
Baylor over Purdue
Xavier over Georgia
Arizona over West Virginia
Duke over Belmont

Second Round

East

North Carolina over Arkansas
Washington State over Notre Dame
Louisville over Oklahoma
Tennessee over Butler

Midwest

Kansas over Kent State
Clemson over Vanderbilt
Wisconsin over USC
Georgetown over Davidson

South

Memphis over Oregon
Michigan State over Pittsburgh
Marquette over Stanford
Texas over St. Mary's (CA)

West

UCLA over Texas A&M
Drake over Connecticut
Xavier over Baylor
Duke over Arizona

Sweet 16

East

North Carolina over Washington State
Louisville over Tennessee

Midwest

Clemson over Kansas
Wisconsin over Georgetown

South

Memphis over Michigan State
Texas over Marquette

West

UCLA over Drake
Xavier over Duke

Elite Eight

North Carolina over Louisville
Wisconsin over Clemson
Texas over Memphis
UCLA over Xavier

Final Four

North Carolina over Wisconsin
UCLA over Texas

National Championship Game

UCLA over North Carolina