My hand was cramped from note taking. My eyes were bloodshot. My legs felt like they had atrophied to nothing. Writing was the last thing on my mind.

Somewhere, I got it into my head to take as many notes as possible on the first 48 games and I did. And something will be coming from them. More research needs to be done, but they will see the light of day on these pages.

A couple of things to hold you over until the Sweet Sixteen preview:

• Here is Scoop Jackson's article after he did the same thing I tried to do. His experience sounds much different from mine.
• The MRI got 24 of the 32 first round games correct. Teams not making the MRI field were 3-5 in the first round with one of those wins being guaranteed (Alabama vs. Marquette), and the other thanks to San Diego State forgetting how to play over the final three minutes. The second round saw Indiana and Alabama bow out which took away two more of the MRI-hated. That leaves, for the second year in a row, West Virginia, thanks to Iowa totally blowing a game against Northwestern State that they had in hand with silly defense, turnovers, and missed free throws. With ten minutes left in that game, I made the comment in my notebook that Iowa was letting Northwestern State take as many three point shots as they liked. At the time, the Demons weren't hitting them. And when the shots started to fall, Iowa continued to stay with the big line-up and let the threes rain on them. I even wrote as the 17-point lead was cut to five: "Is Alford going to blow it?" And he did. So Northwestern State provided an easy opponent for the Mountaineers, instead of the giants that Iowa would have thrown at them. Now West Virginia gets Texas, who barely woke up in time to beat West Virginia earlier in the season. Let's hope they are more focused this time around. So final results over four days for the MRI-hated: 4-7. Not terrible and better than I expected, but still nothing to make me think that any of the teams, potentially outside of West Virginia, deserved a bid.
• Notable upsets the computer picked: Bucknell over Arkansas (Arkansas was Ken Pomeroy's sleeper pick), George Mason over Michigan State, Texas A&M over Syracuse
• Notable upsets that came out of nowhere: Northwestern State over Iowa, Montana over Nevada
• Biggest upset of the first two rounds, by the numbers: Bradley over Kansas by a small margin over the Demons' upset. That doesn't mean I didn't tell you to pick it though. And the Braves' win over Pittsburgh in the second round was the biggest upset for that slate of games too.
• Picked before the tournament, the MRI still has nine teams in the Sweet Sixteen and can win all but the Wichita State vs. George Mason contest. Every Final Four team for the computer is also intact.
• If the MRI was allowed to pick over starting at the second round, and including the results from the first round and the NIT in the formula, the MRI would have selected 11 of the Sweet Sixteen.
• Missouri State is showing that they got hosed by the Selection Committee with their performance in the NIT. Oh, and don't forget about the two Colonial teams that are still going strong, Old Dominion and Hofstra. This might be the mid-majors' year to get a final four team in the NIT and potentially a champion. For more information on the Hofstra run towards New York City, check out Josh Stewart in the Long Island Press. He even uses the F-word!

More to come folks, stay tuned.