My NCAA Brackets....with a Twist

For many years, we have wanted to fill out the NCAA brackets simply based on the teams we liked best, or the teams that we would like to see in the Final Four.

So, this year, I decided to make a 'real bracket,' in which top-seed Syracuse prevails over the 16-seed underdog of underdogs, the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs from the Big South Conference, and one in which the Bulldogs pull the college basketball upset of the century.

There is a dose of reality in my 'fantasy bracket' as I just picked the Bulldogs as the lone 16-seed to knock off a Goliath. In addition, I have the 15-ssed Norfolk State beating the two-seed Missouri Tigers.

Thus, when all is said and done, my Elite 8 comes down to the unlikely match-up of ten-seed West Virginia, with Turkish player Deniz Kilicli, and 12-seed Harvard with Brandyn Curry from Huntersville, NC, in the east region. In the midwest, my dream match-up is not too implausible as it has 3-seed Georgetown taking on the top-seed UNC Tarheels (in the 'real version' two-seed Kansas plays North Carolina).

In the south region, there is a very realistic match-up between one-seed Kentucky and two-seed Duke. But, in the west, we have another fantasy match-up between ten-seed Virginia and 13-seed Davidson, a team that did in fact shock the world and make the Elite 8 a few years ago.

Thus, the 'dream Final Four' pits Harvard against Georgetown, and Duke against UVA. And, the final comes down to Harvard and UVA, with the Ivy Leaguers from Cambridge, Mass., winning it all.

Of course, it would be fittingly ironic if my fantasy bracket turns out to be more true than my 'real one!'

SIDEBAR: A fair number of the 68 teams in the NCAA tournament (actually as of writing, there are 66 remaining), have competitive teams in other sports. In wrestling, from the schools in the field, Ohio State, Misouri, Michigan, Lehigh, UVA and Purdue are all nationally-ranked.

In men's lacrosse, UVA, Loyola (Md), Syracuse, Notre Dame, UNC, Lehigh, Duke and Georgetown are all ranked.

Similarly, in women's lacrosse, UNC, Duke, Florida, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, UVA, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Georgetown and Loyola (Md.) have teams ranked in the top 20.

Sports Desk- Vikings and Spartans Victorious in Virginia

Yes, a Spartan mask from a museum was not our initial choice for an image for this blog, but all the marching band photos were either too big or unavailable for legal reasons.

As it is, my alma mater Glenvar High School from Salem, Va., was not in action, but 'the big school' Salem High School was. And, the Salem Spartans defeated the William Byrd Terriers 27-13 in a home game.

Up the road, the visiting Northside Vikings beat the Hidden Valley Titans 21-17. Hidden Valley High School is one of two Roanoke-area high schools, including Eastern Montgomery High School, which did not exist in the 1980s, when I was a star quarterback for the Glenvar Highlanders (that is a joke, our real quarterback was a guy named Barry).

Here is a rundown of other high school scores from the Roanoke/Lynchburg/Blacksburg region:

Cave Spring 34 Lord Botetourt 18
Christiansburg 47 Bassett 0
Galax 43 Radford 0
Magna Vista 28 Franklin County 26
E.C. Glass 21 William Fleming 20
Martinsville 44 Liberty 34
George Wythe 31 Floyd County 19

SIDEBAR: We learned recently that an alum of Glenvar High School named Liz Trinchere plays volleyball for Virginia Tech. The Hokies were victorious over their arch rivals the University of Virginia Cavaliers by a 3 sets to 1 score in Blacksburg. Cara Baarendsey, a junior from Mason, Ohio, scored 13 kills and 16 digs for the Hokies in the home victory.

It was a mixed bag for the UNC Tarheels in women's volleyball this weekend. The team hosted the Tarheels Classic, and they scored wins over St. Louis and Miami (Ohio), but the 'Heels feel to Tulsa 3-1. Kaylie Gibson of Apex, NC, and Aleksandra Georgieva of Bulgaria combined for 13 kills despite the loss.

Conversely, my alma mater Radford University fell in a road game to UNC-Greensboro in the Spartan Spiketacular in straight sets on Saturday in front of 311 spectators. Radford Highlanders senior Carly Fleming of Manassas, Va., did become the school's all-time solo blocks leader (50) in spite of the defeat.

Karrian Chambers, from College Station, Tex., helped guide the Spartans to their victory and she recieved all-conference honors as well.

Happy Apocalypse Not Day

Yeah, we don't think volcanic eruptions and nuclear warfare is going to be happening today, either and we would love to make more fun of Harold Camping, the radical extreme evangelists who started this 'the world is going to end on May 21, 2011,' campaign, but frnakly, we've got to start watching a Japanese horror film double-header on TCM Underground here in (yikes!) three minutes.

Unless, the world does start coming to an abrupt end tomorrow, we expect that the University of Virginia's NCAA quarter-final men's lacrosse game against Cornell, which will be played in Long Island at noon, will go on as scheduled. The game will be broadcast on ESPN-2, unless they have to break away to coverage of aliens invading Baltimore.

Status Update_ Today, I Learned What the Third Largest City in Uzbekistan Is

...And, the answer is Namangan. The city located in the northern edge of Uzbekistan in the Fergana Valley has a population of about 441,300 people according to Wikipedia.

In his new book "The Googlization of Everything," University of Virginia professor/author Sani Vaidhyanathan (and, I thought my last name Gokbudak was difficult!), we can effectively ask Google anything, and it will in 99 percent likelihood give us the answer. Of course, this has a dark side as well which the authro explains in great detail which would take a long time for us to go into (ok, it is actually a bit over our heads, but fascinating!).

Author Elif Batuman, a fellow Turkish-American whom I've never met, wrote about her adventures in Samarkand, Uzbekistan's second largest city behind the capital Tashkent, in her excellent memoir "The Possessed" which also talks about her affinity for Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy ("War and Peace.").

I would write more, but the line for hamburgers at the deli is growing! In a future entry, we are hoping to post about the geographical distance between Wilmington, Del., and Lynchburg, Va.

Last year, we tried to do our own version of GeoQuiz, a feature on the NPR show "The World," but few people really seemed interested in learning about things like major tourist attractions in Slovenia. But perhaps one day we may bring the series back from the dead!