Written by Zach Harper | 22 March 2009

It's the most wonderful time of the year, college hoop fans. Well it is unless you had West Virginia going to the elite eight, as many of my friends did. Then you're slamming your head against the wall like Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys.

In continuing with the movie analogy, this weekend was filled with moments that belonged on the big screen. With any luck they would be better than the Hank Gathers Story, a film that I pray none of you have had the misfortune of seeing. Actually, go IMDB it and rent it. But before we stray too far down the path of poor sports films, let's focus on the task at hand. Like Coach K, I am determined to take this article one game (paragraph) at a time.

The tournament brought us a Cinderella Story, without Hilary Duff this time, as Cleveland State flat out used Wake Forest. Sadly, their carriage turned to a pumpkin quickly as the Arizona Wildcats defied expectations, even by my Chase Budinger loving standards, and made the Sweet Sixteen. What in the Miles Simon is going on here?

Even with multiple 12 seeds knocking off the 5's, as we knew at least one would, the tournament at this point feels more like the ending of the Blair Witch Project than The Sixth Sense. The East Tennessee States of the world find themselves running through a house, thinking they have a chance to advance. They get 5 minutes away from one of the greatest and most compelling endings ever and then they walk up to Levance Fields standing in a corner of the court. Bam! DeJuan Blair lays a screen and knocks them out. The end. In fact, why the heck hasn't CBS let Raftery do a segment on guarding Blair off a screen called The Blair Switch Project? That is money.

The opening round of the the Mens' Tournament also brought us a Wild Hogs moment as Bill Raftery and Verne Lundquist (Two of my favorite announcers. Verne gets love for being from my alma mater, Texas Lutheran University) gave each other a hand pound. There is just something disturbing about seeing guys that should be hanging with my grandfather pulling moves out of Entourage. I would also like to make it clear that I have never watched Wild Hogs. I value the hours of my life more than that. I would sit through Gigli before that trash, if only to make Ben Affleck comments.

And did anyone else get the feeling that Verne and Bill were imitating Jason Segel from I Love You, Man when it came to Blair? They were two rebounds away from grabbing his butt. Of course, I have to admit that I was falling for Blair at the end of the game against Oklahoma State when he shot, misses, muscled in for the board and made the next shot. The guy, as Raftery would say best, has onions!

For all the talk of upset bids, we got more of the Usual Suspects advancing than Rocky upsetting Ivan Drago. There won't be any George Masons this year and you know what? That is okay. We are still on course for a Duke and North Carolina matchup that looks to be as epic as Luke Skywalker vs. Vader, Eric Devendorf is doing his best Scarface impersonation, walking with a swagger only Al Pacino could match, and we still might have a chance to see Tom Izzo rip his shirt off, flex his abs and give a primal scream of, "This is Sparta!" before their match-up against Kansas.

See, tournaments and movies don't always end the way we expect them to. That doesn't mean they can't be ones that are just as entertaining. In the end, it is often better to let the underdogs stay on-screen and let the Empires of the world duke it out for supremacy. Still, there is no way I will ever turn to the Duke Side.

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