tourney time

It’s short notice, but I’ve set up a group for PopRox readers to fill out NCAA Tournament brackets on ESPN.com.

Call it the PopRox Bracket Challenge. It’s free, it’s fun, and I’ll see if I can find some prize sitting around the Pocono Record offices to give out to the winner if we get enough people. I’m sure I can dredge up something.

You have to sign up for ESPN.com (it’s free and pretty quick, don’t worry), but other than that, no strings attached. So make sure you fill out a set of brackets or two by noon tomorrow. My set of brackets in the group is called Here Comes the Funcooker, for those of you who watched 30 Rock last week. Maybe I’ll see if I can find a prize for the best bracket name, too, but I doubt anyone’s beating mine.

I dare you to even try.

If the links don’t work, btw, the group is called PopRox Bracket Challenge, you can do a search for it on the ESPN page.

When it comes to making those picks, last year I gave a bunch of rules when it comes to filling out your tournament brackets (in the archives, March 18, 2008). In practice they may not work all the time. I told everyone to avoid Davidson only to watch it come a hair away from making the Final Four. But the theories are sound.

Some quick advice for this year’s tournament using those theories:

HIGH SEED TO AVOID: Duke — and not just because I stay up at night wishing bad things on anyone associated with its basketball program. They rely too much on the 3, they can’t rebound, they have point guard issues and they looked pretty average most of the year before getting a great draw in the ACC Tournament. I’ll throw Syracuse in there too, they don’t belong anywhere near a 3-seed.

FIRST ROUND UPSET: The best way to pick a first-round upset you can be proud of is to find a game where you’re positive even if the upset doesn’t happen, that high seed that wins has no chance in the second round. That makes Portland State a great choice — balanced scoring attack, nearly won at Washington in December and plays a Xavier team that’s dead in the water against Florida State come the weekend.

AVOID THE POPULAR CINDERELLA PICK: This is where I said to avoid Davidson last year, so what do I know. I’m hearing a bunch of Cleveland State chatter, and I don’t get it. So a guy throws up a 60-footer to beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome in December. So what?

In case you’re wondering, I’m hitting up Carolina, Villanova, Memphis and Louisville for my Final Four. That reminds me, I won’t be blogging on Friday, I’m taking the day off to watch games, just like I do every year.

Some non-basketball links I’ve been meaning to post for a while:

Like the PopRox Twitter site! I know, I’m shameless. Just follow it so I can stop typing it, please.

I’m slowly and sadly becoming addicted to these Mental Floss quizzes. It’s sad, really. There needs to be some kind of Mental Floss quiz support group. This seems like the perfect time to mention I’ve scored perfect on just about Simpsons quiz they have, except for the Mr. Burns one. That one is pretty bad-@ss.

Contrary to popular opinion, Funny or Die is not the end-all, be-all, cure for the ills of mainstream comedy. Sorry to break it to you. But every now and then they do come up with some funny stuff. Whaddya know, one of the recently funny things involves Jon Hamm. The guy should be in the mix for every part sitting in Development Hell right now.

I’ve fallen for a couple of these kinds of Web sites.

Looks like I’ll have a chance on Friday to do one of my favorite things — watch the last five minutes of a long-running, respected TV show I’ve never watched one second of previously. Hello, Battlestar Galactica!

What, because I don’t waste enough time on IMDB?