CERRITOS, CA (smt)- I'm exhausted. In one of the best games since Arizona-Gonzaga's thriller in 2003, #7W-West Virginia may have paved #1W-Washington's way to the Final Four by outlasting #2W-Wake Forest, 111-105 (that's 216 points! That's like 5 Laker games) in double overtime. Of course, Wake could've folded late in regulation to spare those of us prolonged hope and agony. But it wasn't the reckless charges, the traveling or carry over violations, or the dependency of Eric Williams in regulation and Taron Downey in overtime (doesn't WF put 5 players on the floor?)... nope, it was the dreaded free throws. WF missed 12 of 36 free throws. Done. Fin. Stop telling us you deserved a #1 seed.

Gonzaga is starting to become the new Cincinnati. The Bearcats have failed to make the Sweet 16 9 of the past 10 years, despite being ranked #1-4 six times. The Zags, after making the Sweet 16 three straight years as a #10 or #13 seed, has failed to reach it the past four years (as #6, 9, 2, and 3). As it was cool to pick Gonzaga as a Cinderella favorite, it's now in vogue to pick Gonzaga to lose early, and with great success, mind you.

#6W-Utah had 20 turnovers but took advantage of a poor #3W-Oklahoma shooting team to hold them to a season low 58 pts in a 67-58 win. Even a false alarm that rang in the arena with 12 minutes left in the second half couldn't kick start the Sooners, who took 29 more shots but still ended up making one less FG than Utah. #12MW-Wisconsin-Milwaukee played played pressure defense for virtually the whole 40 minutes to stun #4MW-Boston College, 83-75. BC had 22 turnovers and missed 10 free throws (UWM made 20 of 22). All 4 upsets occurred in Tucson and Cleveland.

The Pac-10 flexed its muscles as both #1W-Washington and #3MW-Arizona put on clinics to advance to the sweet 16. #1MW-Illinois had a little trouble but won going away. #2S-Kentucky and #7-Cincy had a big "cat"fight but the Wildcats were able to outlast the Bearcats, 69-60.

My two favorite players now are Bogut and Gansley. Utah's Andrew Bogut is a big man who knows how to pass the ball and is everything Vlade Divac thinks he is. He was fun to watch. After the fact, now that I've forgiven him for single-handedly taking down Wake Forest (yes, it's just a game), WV's Mike Gansley had the clutch performance of the tournament. He had 19 points in the 2 five-minute overtimes. 19. That's 8 more than New Mexico had in the first half on Friday. In fact, each team scored more points (18, 16 for WV; 18, 12 for WF) in a 5-minute period than NM had in a 20-minute half (11).

Did I say I'm exhausted (especially watching two games at once on TV (one on regular TV, one on HDTV))? Well, a lot of you are probably, too, wondering if you should tear up your brackets yet. Instead of speculating, here are the facts. LUCKORBUST is now our leader with 67 pts, one point ahead of BIRTH-ILLINI-DEATH, who vaulted from a tie for 20th by going 6-2 today. LEAH'S LEAP OF FAITH and UTAHPICKS were two of 13 entries to go 5-3 and sit tied for 3rd with 65 pts. SUZNANA, USC, and MKULTRA also went 5-3 to go from a tie for 20th to a tie for 8th. WOODEN_SOLDIER (77th, 48 pts) and NOMEX (81st, 46) went 2-6 for the low for the day. TEAM SAMURAI continues to sit in last with 43 pts.

Bracket busters? Wake Forest is the first Goliath to fall as 8 picked them to win it all and a total of 47 had them in the Final Four. Also, BIG RED (34th-Tied, 59) lost their champ Oklahoma and 10 had Gonzaga in their Final Four. DBCHALMERS (68th-T, 53) and RAW DAWG (39th-T, 58) just have one (Illinois) Final Four team remaining while 17 still have all 4.

Sunday will bring another day and hopefully better results. As bad as it may seem, it won't be officially bad until the elimination/possibility scenarios come out. You might be surprised that you still have a chance while someone in 12th place may find out he/she is eliminated!