By Thomas "LA" Lewis

With the first games kicking off tonight, I wanted to get my biggest preseason prognostications officially documented before it was too late to call them "preseason" predictions.  History tells me 5 of these will be spot on and 5 of them will so far off it will laughable at season's end.  But which 5 are the good ones?  Check back in on January 9th...

It seems like an eternity since the last games were played on Sunday.  Many articles have been written analyzing the why and how some teams won (Western Kentucky, Davidson, Villanova) and how some teams lost (Duke, Pitt, Georgetown).  All in all, it doesn't really matter, as what matters is what you do on the court.  And if the games from last week (Stanford, UCLA, WKU) are any indication of what is going to happen this weekend, then we are set for a fun ride.  On to the matchups...

One and done.  That is the reality that 32 teams are having to deal with after being ousted from the tournament the last two days.  The first day brought one of the biggest "almost" upsets, but at the end there really wasn't much to talk about in the way of Cinderella teams.  Day 2 brought a different story as many of the underdogs came to the forefront to become the one Cinderella at the ball.  The biggest upsets all came from one site though (Tampa).  For the first time in NCAA Tournament history all the underdogs from one site won and advanced.  And we're not talking about 8 vs. 9 seeds, we are talking about two #13 seeds upsetting #4 seeds, and then two #12 seeds upsetting #5 seeds.  So, if your bracket happens to have two sets of #12 vs. #13 matchups in the 2nd round, then you are a better bracket picker than me.  With 8 games today's let's get on to the matchups that peak my interest.