Everybody was telling me to wait one more day before I announced my picks for the NCAA men’s tournament.  I even had a feeling in my gut telling me the same thing.  All I had to do was listen and I’d be okay.  But NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  (A little John Belushi humor there.)

I had to go ahead and post my picks last night, feeling clever that I picked the one number one seed that nobody else would go near to win it all.  (See MARCH MADNESS — QUICK PICKS (BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND), 3/12/12.)  And how did I get repaid for my eagerness?  Syracuse’s starting center, Fab Melo is declared inelegible for the tournament.  What impact will this have on Syracuse’s chances?  Let’s review.

The young man won the Big East’s Defensive Player of the Year.  The only regular season game that Syracuse lost was the one that he did not play in.  I think this might have a mild impact on the Orangemen!

So much so that I am finding myself forced to change my picks ever so slightly.  Okay, a whole bunch, but in fairness, I will not make changes to any game that did not have Syracuse involved on my original pick.  Here’s how it impacts my picks:

The South, West and Midwest brackets remain unchanged.  The East, however, will be impacted considerably.  I now am showing Wisconsin beating Syracuse, Ohio State is still beating Cincinnati, then Ohio State will beat Wisconsin.  The final game will still have the lone remaining #1 seed, Kentucky, but now they will beat Ohio State 76-68.

Okay, I’ve used my mulligan, so if any more players fail their classes, or get caught taking bribes or steroids or whatever else you can think of, I’ll stick with the picks I’ve made here.

Why not, they’re guaranteed to be right and…..oh never mind!