Wow, I'm a battered human, a shell of my former self, dead to the world, or any other pathetic clich? you can come up with for what happened to me and my bracket last weekend.
If you can find it in your hearts, please disregard the "four truths" column I gave last week, when I proclaimed Duke, Villanova, Gonzaga and U-Conn. as the Final Four teams. They're all in class and their coaches are playing golf, while John Brady, Billy Donovan Ben Howland and Jim Larranaga prepare their overachieving teams for this weekend's Final Four.
Since I stepped out my element last week, we return to the conventional format this week and hope for a return to respectability.
Truth: Louisiana State will beat Florida for the national title. I refuse to jump on the George Mason bandwagon. Florida, with Joakim Noah leading the way, will be too much for the Patriots. They're a wonderful story, but undermanned, and their glass slipper breaks here.
On the other side of my demolished bracket, Big Baby Glen Davis is the best player in the game, and he and Tyrus Thomas will be too much of a force for the streaky Bruins, who are susceptible to weak shooting from their otherwise-talented guards.
In the title game, the paint will be the place to be, with Davis and Noah matching up in a colossal battle of talented big men. Expect Davis, with a better supporting cast, to win one for Katrina-rattled Louisiana and knock off the Gators.
Truth: Terrell Owens will be the next great Cowboys receiver. Yes, I'm a Cowboys fan. Let's get that out of the way. But, completely unbiased, T.O. and the Cowboys are a perfect fit.
If anyone can control T.O., it's the micromanaging maniac Bill Parcells. If there's anywhere T.O. wants to go and succeed, it's Dallas, where he gets a crack at the Eagles twice a year and gets to dance on the star he made famous almost weekly. Heck, he may play cornerback and try to pick off Donovan McNabb if the opportunity arises.
His huge contract from Jerry Jones gives T.O. the money and the incentive to succeed, as he can be released after one year and lost the $15 million more he'd have coming.
Playing on the opposite side of speedster Terry Glenn, catching balls from uber-strong (yet not always accurate) Drew Bledsoe and with weapons Marion Barber III, Julius Jones and Jason Witten on offense, all the tools are in place to help T.O. to break out and be the Pro Bowl receiver he once was.
Lie: The World Baseball Classic was good for Major League Baseball. This may have been my best call since I've started writing this column.
In my first installment, I said a player would get injured and miss the season. And sure enough, right in our backyard, one of the most important players on the Washington Nationals, setup man Luis Ayala, is done for the year with an arm injury. He was the Nats' most reliable pitcher last year and one of the best setup men in baseball, and now Frank Robinson's crew is without their most dependable bullpen arm.
In addition to that injury, the U.S. team got embarrassed, as did the Dominican and Canadian teams, which both featured the most major leaguers.
If Bud Selig is smart, he should pull the plug on the WBC and stick with the offseason. While it had potential, there were too many potential hang-ups and unfortunately, they all came to a head.
