My brackets are busted, but that’s not going to stop me from picking all eight winners in this weekend’s games.

-St. Louis Region

In the St. Louis regional, UAB will be taking on Kansas and Georgia Tech will be taking on Nevada.

To give all of you a nice long laugh at my beyond busted brackets, I’m going to let you in on who I had playing in these games.

In the game in which UAB and Kansas are playing, I had Kentucky beating Providence. I’m sure I’m not alone in my picks in that regional.

Who’s Pacific? We now know them as the team that eliminated Providence in the first round of the NCAA tournament. UAB over Kentucky? Give me a break! Kentucky was a number one seed and UAB was a measly nine. That doesn’t happen! Stay tuned, it gets worse.

In the Georgia Tech versus Nevada game, I have Georgia Tech beating Gonzaga. I don’t think anyone expected the Zags to go out and lose to an unknown Nevada team by 19 points, but that’s what the NCAA tournament is all about. The Gonzaga game didn’t hurt me too bad, but I’m sure it busted quite a few brackets.

I’ll take Kansas over UAB for no particular reason and I’ll take Georgia Tech over Nevada because I like bumble bees.

-East Rutherford, N.J. Region

I had two of the Final Four teams still alive in this region. I had Charlotte beating Texas Tech in the first round and then going on to beat St. Joe’s in the second round. I had Florida beating Manhattan and then losing to Wake Forest.

In the St. Joe’s versus Wake Forest game I have Charlotte playing Wake Forest. But I’ll stick with Wake Forest. I don’t think St. Joe’s is for real and Wake Forest will prove it.

In the Pittsburgh vs. Oklahoma State game, I had Pittsburgh playing Memphis. I wasn’t too far off there. I predict Pittsburgh to beat Oklahoma State because I like Pittsburgh. Why? I’d like to take this opportunity to once again thank the Pirates organization for giving us Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and Randall Simon for last year’s playoff run.

-Atlanta Region

This one’s sad.

In the game in which Duke and Illinois are playing, I had Arizona beating Cincinnati to move into the Elite Eight. Not only did I pick Arizona to upset Duke, I picked Murray State to upset Illinois in the first round. Translation: BUST! But I’ll take Duke over Illinois.

In the Texas vs. Xavier game I picked Princeton playing Mississippi State. Ugh!!!

Princeton!!! What was I thinking? I had Air force beating North Carolina then Princeton beating Air Force. I did have Xavier beating Louisville but had them falling to Mississippi State.

I’ll take Xavier over Texas because Texas has too many pretty boys who comb their hair before the games.

-Phoenix Region

This is by far my worst region of the NCAA tournament this year. Ouch!

I had Southern Illinois beating Alabama in the first round. I had Brigham Young (BYU) over Syracuse and Texas El Paso (UTEP) beating Maryland.

The madness continues.

I had N.C. State beating Vanderbilt in second round action. Then I settled down, took a deep breath and penciled in Connecticut over my beloved DePaul Blue Demons in the second round.

In the game Vanderbilt plays Connecticut I have Connecticut beating N.C. State and in the Alabama versus Syracuse game I have Stanford beating BYU. Oh Stanford, lord of the bracket buster.

I’ll take Connecticut over Vanderbilt because I love saying Emeka Okafor, and I’ll take Syracuse over Alabama because I like orange.

I figure it could be worse. I could be Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, who had N.C. State in the finals against some other scrub team. I still have three of my final four teams in Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Connecticut. I have Pittsburgh beating Connecticut in the finals. I took some chances this year, and so far it’s not looking so hot. But anything can happen and it usually does.