Selection Sunday has come and gone, and UCLA has fallen from the top. As I predicted a few days ago, the Bruins dropped to a #2 seed after consecutive losses to U-Dub and Cal, two teams that failed to make the tournament. The #1's went to Ohio State, Florida, Kansas, and UNC. This puts us on a collision course with the Jayhawks, quite possibly the deepest team in the nation. In my bracket, of course I picked UCLA to win it all because I'm a huge homer and have no shame. I have Georgetown going down to us in the championship game, so there. If the Bruins flop, then I've got the Hoyas on top (My best Al Sharpton impression).

Sleepers? In each of the last six years (or something like that) a 12 has upset a 5. If it's gonna happen again this year, it'll probably happen with Illinois over Va Tech. I also like Winthrop to get by Notre Dame. The Eagles are riding an 18 game win streak and their only four losses came to top teams UNC, Wisconson, Texas A&M, and Maryland. I was sad to see Santa Clara fall in the WCC championship game to Gonzaga, as I would've taken them as a sleeper had they gotten in. Did I really believe in Santa Clara? No. But I find it funny that they don't play any black guys.

THIS IS SPARTA!!! - 300 was absolutely fantastic. If you haven't seen it, go see it. If you have seen it, see it again (I probably will at some point). Visually, it's absolutely stunning. The battles feature the best hand-to-hand combat scenes I've ever seen in a war movie. The story and dialogue may be way over the top, but that's what a movie like this should be like, as all the cheesy, prideful one-liners work to perfection. It is impossible to not feel fired up after watching this film. I'm placing it in my top 5 war movies list, which looks like:
1) Band of Brothers (not a movie, but still)
2) Saving Private Ryan
3) Breaveheart
4) 300
5) Platoon

Be warned, however: It's just a tad bloody. I'm pretty sure 300 features more beheadings than all the films made in the last 10 years combined.
A couple strange things about the film:
- Seeing Carl from Love Actually play Xerxes. It's quite an interesting role for him. He looks weird: bald, gold plated, a ridiculous amount of piercings, and sounds weird: loud booming god-like voice. I dunno if this works for me. When I think of this guy I still get the picture of him in the Chanel commercial looking across the street at Nicole Kidman and saying, "Her perfume...". Not exactly god-king like.
- The roided up cast. Every single person in the film is ripped out of their minds. I'm fairly certain the producers were just handing out steroids and HGH to every cast member. It's that ridiculous. If BALCO had a mascot, they would definitely be the Spartans. Or the Bondses.