And now... Deep [Tourney] Thoughts

Some early impressions:

-- They couldn't have made the road to St. Louis any easier for Duke if they'd tried (okay, they could have put the over-seeded UConn Huskies in Duke's region rather than Kentucky).

-- Washington/Pittsburgh should be very, very interesting.

-- Louisville is under-seeded as a #4.

-- I'm having trouble picking anyone to come out of the Austin region, which means I'll probably settle on Duke.

-- There really are no snubs this year, which just goes to show how strange this season has been.

-- ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb has been rather outspoken about whether or not Iowa deserved to be in the dance. For several days he's been saying that the Hawkeyes needed to win the Big Ten tournament in order to get in, and that if they didn't, they had no business in the field. I disagreed mostly because of their strong RPI rating, and it looks like that rating put them in good shape with the committee (they're a 10-seed, so they weren't necessarily even among the last four in).

-- It's a shame that Georgia Tech will run into Louisville. I like the Jackets, but I can't see them getting past the Cardinals.

-- Wake/Zags in the Sweet Sixteen...how fun would that be?

-- I'm leaning towards picking Arizona to win the Chicago region.

-- These 8/9 games are tough this year. Stanfraud or the enigmatic Mississippi State? Minnesoota, eh or Iowa State? PJ Tucker-less Tejas or the other Pack? Yeesh.

-- Potential bracket busters: New Mexico, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, LSU.