NCAA: I hate this time of year. After paying little attention to college ball for months, I feel compelled to pick four teams, if only out of pure force of habit. In college (at a perennial also-ran for the NIT invite), it was an absolute, a ritual. My roommate would make a huge blowup of the brackets to hang on the wall, on which he would make copious notes, record scores, and write down mysterious phone numbers -- such as that of a certain "Uncle Louie." Like someone who lives with a devoutly religious person, I learned certain phrases, magical incantations, and the hoops equivalent of last rites when 400 clams was on the line, UNLV was on a tear, and Louie wasn't about to let you roll your losses into the next round . . . again. (As someone who had previously confined his money-losing activities to cards, ponies, and tech stocks, it was a very strange feeling, at least for this cat, to pick a team for the final four, only to be betting heavily against them several nights later, based on a choky near-loss against some ridiculous play-in team.) Anyhow, I've managed to strike a balance between picking sentimentally and realistically -- go long enough to keep it fun, stay short enough to have at least one of my teams stay in beyond the first round -- based on little actual love for college basketball (though I admit its superiority to the pro version) and zero practical knowledge. Pick, then enjoy the side action.

Enough. My picks: Kansas; Cincinnati; Pittsburgh; Maryland.

A couple of sentimental picks: Seton Hall over Duke in the second round; Georgia Tech over Gonzaga in the St. Louis regionals; Wake over St. Joe's in the Jersey regionals; Dayton over UConn in the second round. Total dark horse to win it all: Manhattan, Princeton. Top seed most likely to get bitch-slapped: Duke, if there's a god.

Have at it, lads.