Here I sit again, the Monday morning after the opening two rounds of the men's NCAA basketball tournament, and what have I got to show for it? More than you'd think….

We have a new color printer this year that we didn't have last, so my brackets have an admittedly Christmastime kind of tint to them, what with all the incriminating red slashes through my duds and the happy green of tea leaves read right.

My heart is feeling fitter after racing through most of the action on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Thursday was sort of a snoozer, I'll give you that, but I started getting my annual dose of cardio-work after that, watching my upset in waiting, Illinois, biff a 13 point lead to VPI, bouncing around the living room while Ohio State sleep walked through most of its second-rounder against Xavier (?!), choking back my disbelief as a pro-team of my youth, UNLV, made my second-seeded Badgers look sorely vulnerable without Brian Butch, and finally letting myself breathe again when Sean Singletary's three-pointer to tie rattled in and out at the buzzer giving Tennessee the win I needed to maintain cohesion in my South region bracket.

I got to see more of Kevin Durant than I had all regular season, which was as much of a treat as I'd been led to believe. The kid's the real deal and, Danny Ainge and the Celtics' nettlesome meddling aside, will be well served to come back to Texas next fall and try again. What, you thought Ainge, the Celtics' Executive Director of Basketball Operations, wound up sitting right next to Durant's parents purely by some serendipitous twist of fortune? In the NBA, Boston and Memphis are slugging it out to see who can play a more wretched brand of basketball all in the hopes of securing the number one pick in this year's lottery. If I were Durant or Greg Oden, the freshmen favorites to be that pick if one or both come out early, the very possibility that I'd have to play for either Boston or Memphis would be enough to send me straight to the library after the tournament so I could catch up on my studies.

The Dukies and Coach K made their earliest exit from the tournament in, oh, forever. Even better, they lost to Virginia Commonwealth, a classic mid-major that too many people, clearly even most from Durham, too easily overlooked.

A buddy of mine who prefers to remain nameless (I'll call him Lason Jersch) sent me a classic email on Friday helpfully pointing out the fact that not only was I losing to him in our pool but that I was also losing to my wife. I love my wife. That has nothing to do with the fact that I've known heads of cabbage with a better basic understanding of collegiate and professional sports than she. So imagine my happy surprise when I found my friend, Lason Jersch, hovering just slightly north of life support in our pool's standings this morning.

This year's tournament is the first in 11 years, the first since 1996, in which no team seeded lower than nine, no team seeded 10-16, made it to Sweet Sixteen. For some strange reason I had Old Dominion running into Florida in the Sixteen, but other than that even I kept all of my goofy upsets in the first round. If anything, I got bitten by a weakened number one seed (thanks Wisconsin) and a young Texas team that ran into a smart USC team that got what most other teams didn't this season; by accepting that Durant will light you up and focusing on holding his supporting cast in check, you can make Texas, at least in 2007, a very beatable team because they're so young. If all those freshmen come back to Austin in the fall, though, look out next year.

I feel good about the rest of my picks, at least for now. By the time this goes to press, I'm sure I'll be ringing my hands, gnashing my teeth and wailing with the best of the gloom and doom-ers. Before my spine completely deserts me, here's how I see things playing out…

In the East, I'm still looking for Georgetown to come through in one piece. I don't see Vanderbilt upending them, but I am admittedly nervous about the UNC-USC game. Either of those teams can give Georgetown trouble, but I'm gonna stick with my local guns here.

Down South, I have Ohio State and Memphis facing off in the round of eight, and I have Ohio State coming out of that game on top. A secret part of me just wants to see Roy Hibbert and Greg Oden duke it out in the Final Four, a big-man's battle not seen since Ewing and Olajuwon that would be a game of the year type of match-up, and we'd all be lucky to see it.

Out West, I'm looking for Kansas and Pitt to run into each other, although UCLA makes me nervous, particularly playing what's essentially a home game for them. Regardless, look for Kansas to beat the winner of that game and actually make it to the Final Four.

In the Midwest, I have Florida and Oregon butting heads. The way they're playing, UNLV could well trip up Oregon, but I don't see either of those guys trumping Florida's experience and Joakim Noah's energy.

In the end, I like Florida and Georgetown to meet in the Championship Game. Look for Florida to repeat.

uda24@yahoo.com