By WHITNEY MATHEWS
Special To One Great Season

While I'm smarter than the average girl bear when it comes to college hoops, I'm completely irrational when it comes to the Kansas Jayhawks. Just ask JPW.
 
Last year I told him (with a straight face) that he was a total idiot for not coming to one Kansas football game during his One Great Season college tour. KU went on to lose seven games in a row and our coach "resigned" for being too fat and grouchy to recruit effectively. Whatever.

So, every year I fill out two brackets, one with Kansas as the national champion and the other a little more realistic. Speaking as a somewhat educated yet ridiculous fan, both of my brackets this year have the Jayhawks victorious on April 5.

Why will Kansas win? The level of talent is just unfair. Similar to the 2008 title team, there is an answer for every question on the court. Take it anywhere near the rim, and you'll see the Minnesota Not-So-Nice of Cole Aldrich. He's changed the game defensively in the Big 12 since his KU fans got a glimpse of his capabilities during the 2008 national semifinal against North Carolina. (P.S. - As a KU fan, was that a great night, or the greatest night? I go with the latter.)

Here are two words: Sherron Collins. Here are two more words: Tyshawn Taylor. The backcourt is in good hands.

Every national title team has to have a white guy who can make threes. KU has two! Tyrel Reed (white guy, not-so-white name) and Brady Morningstar are solid perimeter shooters. Did you see Reed's two game-changing threes in Saturday's Big 12 Championship game defeat of Kansas State?

The X-Factor, Xavier Henry, is a probable one-and-done who was cold during the first part of conference play. But if he finds his groove, God help you. He can contribute from nearly anywhere -– especially in the cute smiles department –- and has averaged 15 points per game since early February.

What else makes KU so dangerous? (Sing it with me) ... And twins. Marcus and Markieff Morris. Easily the two most improved Jayhawks from 2008-2009. It turns out an extra 20 pounds of muscle and working with Danny Manning for a few hours every day is a good thing. And if they don't get you with their basketball skillz, they'll confuse you with their matching tattoos. Tricky.

Bottom line? KU is so talented across the board that we don't need a John Wall. Our John Wall is Henry, who has embraced the unselfish, experienced style of play that defines the current era of Kansas basketball. It will get KU fans where we need to be. It has before.

I will say my gut reaction to the Midwest bracket is "what kind of f**kery is this?" Both teams who straight-up pwnd the Jayhawks this season (Tennessee and Okie State) are in the Midwest, as is Michigan State, which ousted KU from last year's Sweet 16. It’s like going to a party and 20 percent of the dudes there are your ex-boyfriends.

I won't complain about a competitive path. Bring it on. Like Coach Bill Self said Monday morning, whomever comes out of the Midwest has earned it. I'd rather my team earn a Final Four than have it gift-wrapped in $100 bills and served up in a bejeweled chalice by 40 virgins <cough>Duke</cough>.

Anyway, is it Thursday yet?

Mathews is a KU grad and works for the Lawrence Journal-World.

By BEN JACKEY
Special to One Great Season

Two horses have been stablemates for years. Every time the two hit the track, the younger horse beat the older, more experienced horse. One day, as the older horse neared his inevitable fate as pet food or glue, a dog wandered up to the young horse and asked, "Why don’t you just let the old guy win one?" The young horse responded, "Would you look at that? It's a talking dog."

Experience is great when it comes to brain surgery, base jumping and intimacy. When it comes to putting synthetic laminated rubber in a hoop, however, it means squat. If it did, Chuck Barkley would still be throwing down dunks instead of Burrito Supremes.   Talent > experience. Kentucky Wildcats  > the field.

The same analogies could apply even to Kentucky’s coach, who's certainly no Tom Izzo on the chalkboard. I once heard John Calipari say, "We don’t have scouting reports. We don’t worry about what other teams do."  Pause for astonished silence.

That guy's won 32 games this season and something like 100 in the past three seasons. Wisdom and knowledge appear to be as overrated as Big Ten sports.

John Wall might be the most talented point guard ever to wear a collegiate uniform. More importantly, he might be as clutch as any player to wear a collegiate uniform. DeMarcus Cousins is as talented as he is immature. Patrick Patterson is as talented as he is mature. No one can match Kentucky when it comes to raw ability.

However, even the most obnoxious (yes, there are varying degrees) UK fan donning blue tinsel hair while playing hooky from the unemployment office and wearing a matching off-brand UK2K shirt with their spouse would admit Championship No. 8 will not be an easy task. The Cats' success will largely depend on the answers they get from their fifth "starter." Can Darius Miller score seven or eight points? Can Darnell Dodson make three or four threes to keep a defense honest?

Also, consider that Kentucky's second-round opponent could be the most talented team the Cats will have played all year thanks to an incredibly soft schedule. If that team is Texas, in nearby New Orleans, it could prove to be a stiff test. Playing quality opposition is, perhaps, the one place where experience would help these youthful Cats.

On the first Saturday in May in Kentucky, we crown the most talented young colt. But on the first Monday in April, just up the road in Indiana, we will crown a group of young thoroughbreds. Then we will take that talking dog behind the barn and shut him up Old Yeller-style.

Ben Jackey is a die-hard Kentucky fan who lives in Louisville.

You may have a co-worker who comes in to the office on Mondays during the fall lamenting having started this guy or benching that one on his boring fantasy football team.

Or you might actually be that annoying colleague.

If you are that person, chances are good you're the same type of douchebag who likes to pick upsets galore in his office pool, knowing that for every 10 "this is the year a 16 beats a 1" picks, there's one Siena or George Mason that you might get right. And subsequently boast to those co-workers with logic you stole from Joe Lunardi's latest column.

So instead of trying too hard to look like the smart guy, why not just focus on winning the cash in your office pool?

If that's something you think you might be interested in, then just follow these five tips below:

1.) Don't pick many first-weekend upsets. Upsets are called upsets because they are surprises that are difficult to predict. Not many people picked Davidson in 2008 because they either hadn't heard of Davidson, hadn't heard of Stephen Curry or had no idea he was going to play lights out. When you pick some upsets, you'll get most of them wrong, and then the upsets you don't pick will actually hit, so it's a double-whammy, all for the sake of a few early round points that you don't necessarily need. The real value is earned in the later rounds.

2.) Don't pick the heavy favorite to win it all. This advice would have ruined you last year because everyone knew North Carolina was by far the best team, but this year might be a good year for you to try it. Everyone is understandably jocking Kansas right now, but are the Jayhawks as good this year as North Carolina was last year? No. If you're heading into Final Four weekend as a contender and everyone around you has Kansas, but you have Kentucky, guess who takes home the pile of cash and the loose women if the Wildcats win, which is hardly a ridiculous notion?

3.) Approach your bracket the way coaches prepare their teams for the tournament. Don't look at the empty white sheet and assume you have to have a bunch of bluebloods in the Elite Eight and Final Four. Break your forecasting down into two-game tournaments and think about the matchups within the matchups. Who wins the subregional? Who wins the regional? Who advances in the Final Four?

4.) Pick some upsets. I know this mostly runs contrary to the first point above, but you don't need to load up on one- and two-point wins on the first weekend. If you want to stay in the hunt for the loot, pick a couple of 3 and 4 seeds to beat 2 and 1 seeds on that second weekend.

5.) If you disagree with me so far, then I only have one tip left for you: Have the secretary who doesn't know anything about college basketball fill out your bracket. A gal I met recently told me one of her girlfriends won $10,000 -- yes, $10,000 -- in her office pool last year despite knowing nothing about the sport.

If you have some tips to share with the tens of thousands of One Great Season readers, please click here to share them.

As they always do, the fine folks at CBS interviewed the Selection Committee Chairman immediately following the release of the NCAA Tournament field of 65 teams.

Here's a bullet-pointed list of soundbites from this year's chair, Dan Guerrero, as spoken to Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg:

On Duke getting a higher No. 1 seed than Syracuse:
+ "As we evaluated the top four teams, we actually threw West Virginia in the mix. All five of those teams had terrific resumes. We looked at the body of work (for all of them). We put a lot of value on the way Duke finished."

On where Duke would have been seeded had it not won the ACC Tournament:
+ "We had some contingency plans put in place. There was a possibility that could have occurred. We knew there were a lot of teams that were going to be in the mix. We wanted to give every team consideration."

When asked how many teams, Guerrero replied: "Two hands."

+ "(We were) looking at everything. The tough part of this deal is selection. We wanted to make sure we gave everyone a fair shot."

CBS analyst Greg Anthony didn't try to be polite when he asked what many on Twitter were thinking throughout the 6 o'clock hour: "How could you possibly see (Duke) being a better seed than Syracuse?"
+ "The big center for Syracuse got banged up. The reports we were getting back from Syracuse have been positive, but winning their conference tournament carried the day (for Duke)."

On having to shut out bubble teams:
+ "I feel for every one of those teams; there's no question about it. But we look at a number of things. And it's not necessarily how you finish, but it's how you do throughout the course of the year."

On how the injury to Robbie Hummel affected Purdue's seeding:
+ "The Hummel situation was unique because we had an opportunity to see Purdue play without him. We had to be certain we placed them where we thought it was most appropriate. Without him in the lineup, Purdue is a very different basketball team. There's no question about that."