Come March, we’re all NCAA masterminds. Your buddy from high school claims to hold all the “inside information,” while your nemesis in your tournament pool scoffs at your pick of a Pac-10 team to win the championship.

You’ve called your friends and told them of your “feelings” about Weber State being this year’s Cinderella team. But you never really told them about your real upset specials — like Mississippi State and Holy Cross. Those really panned out.

It’s heartbreak, it’s turmoil — it’s broken lamps, kicked in doors and grown men crying. It’s only 11 a.m. and the sleeper you had dancing all the way to the Sweet 16 has already been knocked off, while the No. 2 seed you had beating that sleeper team was just upset by some school you’ve never even heard of.

You might as well let the roosters on campus pick your No. 8 and 9 seed games, since they are so unpredictable — of course, make sure they are smart roosters. So forget about Oregon’s choke against Utah — you most likely had them losing to Kentucky anyways. The key now is to root for the teams you have in the elite eight and final four. Hold on to those gems, and you’ll make up more than enough points to catch that friendly idiot leading the pack because he had Auburn moving to the Sweet 16, but got greedy and had them knocking off Oklahoma too.

Too many March basketball fans emphasize the score after the first two rounds when the points total counts the least. Overlook the score right now, because any genius can incorrectly guess the unpredictable, and any dumb kid can get lucky.

So don’t trash talk your high school buddy just yet, or rip that guy with the gambling problem you seem to see at parties every Saturday.

Because it may finally be Roy Williams’ year, but it probably won’t be. Because Kentucky may keep running through teams, but they just might get upended by a tough Pittsburgh team.

This is the only time of year, when it’s OK to jump on and off bandwagons, and Butler is your new favorite team.

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