By JIMMY D / Busted brackets and arm alarms | Jimmy's archive

One of these years, I am gonna nail the correct No. 12 seed upsets in the first round.

Every year since 1988, a No. 12 has taken out a No. 5 during the Madness. Every year, Jimmy picks at least one, but do you think I can figure it out?

It happened twice last week, but not Utah State. Jimmy had the No. 12 Aggies over Washington, while it was No. 12 Texas A&M smucking Syracuse and 12-seed Montana bucking Nevada.

But all was not lost during the first rounds of March Madness and Jimmy’s advice on No. 2 seed Tennessee was right on the mark. We predicted they might fall to Winthrop and surely would not make it past the second round. Presto, they beat the No. 15 on a buzzer beater and then beat it out of town thanks to a loss to Wichita State.

Speaking of the Shockers, Jimmy correctly pegged the MVC squad to make the Round of 16.

In many cases, we pegged the first round upset, but didn’t have the guts to pick that team to pull it off twice. We had George Mason over Michigan State, but never imagined they would take out UNC.

And our Pitt-to-the-Final-Four theory busted out Sunday when the Panthers lost to Bradley, the lucky No. 13 who banged Kansas and Pitt back-to-back. In all, three teams that Jimmy thought would be dead in the first round – Bradley, Georgetown, Washington – moved on but he retains 11 of his 16 Sweet Sixteen calls.

Here’s what happened and what will happen.

Atlanta
What Jimmy said: “Jimmy sees this as the safest bracket to pick faves.”
Check. Aside from the Northwestern State shocker against Iowa (who Jimmy predicted would lose in the second round anyway), Duke, LSU, West Virginia  and Texas move on as predicted. We have Duke making the Final Four over Texas, who we see beating the Mountaineers easily.

Oakland
What Jimmy said: “Indiana, Marquette and UCLA join the Tigers in the round of 16.”
OK, so Jimmy fell for the Gonzaga-will-choke-again trick, picking Indiana and their lame-duck coach Mike Davis to win. He also had Marquette beating Alabama, which didn’t happen. Memphis, the No. 1 seed, faces Cinderella Bradley and you can bet a former NBA coach (John Calipari) with a superior team and five days to prepare will not falter.
Emotion and the element of surprise can work in the first rounds of Madness, but it won’t work after that. The Tigers make the Final Four after handling the Gonzaga/UCLA winner.

Minneapolis
What Jimmy said: “This is another bracket where Cinderella is not welcome. These top four teams are heads and shoulders above the rest of the field.”
Except Georgetown, that is, who took out No. 2 Ohio State. Jimmy likes the Philly school to come out of here, so pencil Villanova over BC (the team that beat them in January) and Florida over the Hoyas.

Washington, DC
What Jimmy said: “UConn is a lock at the top of the bracket and No. 3 North Carolina is safe at the bottom. Everything in between is up for grabs.”
Not exactly, Jimmy. George Mason ruined that theory and has a chance to make the Round of 8 when it faces Wichita State, a team they beat 70-67 on Feb. 18. We are fairly certain that the Huskies will win the UConn/Washington tilt because, well, both teams are nicknamed Huskies.
UConn will prevail over the Shockers for a spot in Indianapolis.

Baseball Arm Alarm

Some injury news this week that affects your starting pitcher draft lists.
First, John Smoltz is not hurt, and the 39-year-old says he doesn’t plan to get hurt. This is good news and bad news. He says he will skip starts if his shoulder or elbow starts acting up.

“I couldn't keep going with the philosophy that I had to pitch no matter what. I just couldn't do it anymore,” he told reporters last week.

Second, Ben Sheets has a sore back and will miss the start of the season.
Or maybe it’s all in his head.

The Brewer ace left a spring training start early, which prompted some curious commentary from manager Ned Yost.

Nothing to worry about, the skipper opined, despite the fact a sore back also shelved Sheets last September.

“It was not a knifelike pain, just a dull ache,” Yost told reporters. “He has some scar tissue back there, and it could be he popped some of that, which would be a good thing. There's some concern. But major concern? Not really. Some of it could be a little mental too.”

A little mental? A strained back is a little mental? What is that, some sort of Jedi mind trick to hurt his own back? Someone is a little mental alright, but it’s not Sheets. Sheesh.

There is also some injury-non-injury news on Jays righty A.J. Burnett. He left a start with elbow pain, but docs believe it is scar tissue in the wake of his 2003 Tommy John surgery three years ago. Keep an eye on this situation.

And under the guise of mentioning an injury situation, Jimmy also sneaks in a gratuitous mention of one of his favourite names from 2006 so far.

Kansas City closer Mike MacDougal (he might never even get any save opportunities with the woeful Royals, but that’s another story) is expected to be out for a month, which opens the bullpen door for Ambiorix Burgos to get some innings.

Ambiorix! Now, that is a great name. I mention MacDougal just in case there is fantasy evil lurking in his future, since his Yahoo! player identification number is 6666.

No joke.

That’s all for this week.

NHL is winding down, baseball is winding up and the Madness will keep wind in your fantasy sails this week.

In the meantime, stay busy and stay lucky.

Jimmy D