One of the great sports holidays is upon us. I’m talking about March Madness, The Big Dance, The Road to the Final Four, The NCAA … Good God, this thing has too many names.

Anyway, the men’s basketball tournament is here and that means filling out brackets.

First a note for the kids: gambling is bad and you should also stay in school, don’t do drugs and maybe refrain from chewing on the telephone wire.

OK, so onto the actual bracket itself and let me tell you, this was a difficult bracket to fill out. There are like 6-10 teams that could easily win this thing, but then there are like 40 other teams that are sort of all right. That’s right, 40. So I’m exaggerating, but I think you get what I’m saying, or at least I’m going to assume you do.

This was also a year in which being No. 1 in the polls seemed to be anathema to every team so it’s even more difficult than usual to do this bracket with any precision.

East — Ohio State
Congrats to Ohio State on getting the overall No. 1. As a reward, they get to play in the toughest bracket. Does the committee know what reward means? Because I’m pretty sure getting punched in the gut isn’t too great of a reward. At least it’s not in my top five.

With this being said, I think Ohio State will pull through as they are easily one of the most talented teams in the country. I have them beating Syracuse in the Elite 8. The only other thing of note here is that I have Washington making the Sweet 16.

I really have no faith in this, but I hate North Carolina and would like to see them lose. Let’s hope that spite works for the first time ever.

Southwest — Kansas
This section hurts my brain less than the previous one, and I think Kansas has it easy at least until the Elite 8. This is where it gets sketchy. I think Notre Dame or Purdue can easily make it and both are evenly matched, but I give the edge to Purdue.

I don’t have a lot of faith in the Irish’s coach Mike Brey partly because of his coaching ability and partly because he wears too many mock turtlenecks. I think it cuts off oxygen to his brain or something. It’s a very dangerous situation.

My only big upset is 12 seeded Richmond making the Sweet 16. These spiders could be too venomous for Louisville … ugh, really sorry about that, but I had no choice.

West — UConn
I’ll let you in on a secret: I’m a fan of Duke. Yep, go ahead and get your pitchforks, but my dad has always liked them, so I inherited that from him.

My liking of Duke makes this so hard and also the fact that apparently Kyrie Irving may be coming back after the first round. That makes it very enticing to pick them.

However, there is also UConn. Kemba Walker is so good. He is “Parks and Recreation” good. He is Culver’s good. Despite that intense Big East run, I don’t think they’ll be too burned out. I think that they will take out the Blue Devils. This is a weak section though and I’d be surprised if both teams don’t meet in the regional final.

Southeast — Florida
I hate this section. I hate it more than somebody should hate a grouping of words and numbers on lines. It is “Outsourced” bad. I don’t like Pitt and I don’t like Florida either. BYU was a nice pick, but a certain honor code got in the way and I can’t pick them.

I ultimately picked Florida because Pitt is too much like Wisconsin and unfortunately, Wisconsin is a bad tournament squad. Florida plays a really good, cohesive team game so they will advance.

Another note on the Badgers, I love ‘em. I love ‘em to death. Bo is a great Big Ten coach, but he doesn’t have the greatest tournament system. Or at least he doesn’t seem
to care.

Winner — Kansas
I think Kansas will beat the Buckeyes in the final. They are the best team and will — yes, I’m about to say it — cut down the nets in Houston. Well, hopefully this bracket won’t suck too much for me or at least be entertaining for you all to laugh at.

Check out 3 different Spectator brackets filled out by Sam Rosenberry, Kris Kotlarik and Frank Pellegrino.