At least, Airbus hopes so.

The Sweet Sixteen looks set:

Sorry for the lack of objectivity in the title, but the Gators play today, taking on the Boilermakers of Purdue at 2:15 EST.

The full slate on the other side.

Update [2007-3-17 14:54:48 by Big Tent Democrat]: Xavier up 6 8 9 at the under 10 8 5 mark and OSU go to overtime. Lewis with monster 3 to tie. Oden 3 4 fouls out. The Bucks could be in serious VERY serious trouble. Bucks up 8 in OT. I call ballgame. Great win for Ohio State.

Today's other games - Butler/MD, Vandy/Wash. St, L-ville/Tex A&M, VCU/Pitt, UCLA/Ind, BC/G-Town, UNC/Mich St. My picks are in bold.

It was bad enough when the $100 hamburger appeared, but a $1,000 pizza? Could it be any better than the $12 pepperoni, goat cheese and banana pepper pizza at Greenbush? Or, for that matter, your local favorite?

I'm pretty much out of pocket today. So far today, Virginia is cruising over Albany, UNLV jumping out on G Tech, and 2 seed Memphis struggling with 15 N. Texas.

Give us your thoughts on the tourney so far. Most intriguing performance so far for me is Vandy's blowout win. I will watch the SEC closely today to see if there is a hidden strength in the SEC we might have missed.

Right now, if you have Stanford making an improbable run in the Tourney, you are looking none too good. The Cardinal trail the Cardinals by 25 in the first half.

Davidson is giving Maryland a real tussle, down 1 at the half.

BC leads Tex Tech by 2 at the half. Please update in the thread. I am out of pocket this afternoon.

History tells us that no one below an 8 seed can do it. Applied history tells us that the likelihood of anyone below a 3 seed winning it all is rather slim.

Here is the history since the 64 team tournament began 22 years ago. Before that, UCLA always won. Just kidding.

The 64-team field began in 1984. The lowest seeds to win since the 64 team field was implemented were:

1985: Villanova - #8
1988: Kansas - #6
1997: Arizona - #4
1989: Michigan - #3
2003: Syracuse - #3
2006: Florida - #3
4 champions seeded #2
13 champions seeded #1

In the 23 years of a 64 team tourney - 17 winners were 1 or 2 seeds. 20 of 23 were 1, 2 or 3 seeds.

You do the math.

Today's schedule, with my picks in BOLD:

East Regional:

Boston College vs. Texas Tech, 12:25 p.m.

Georgetown vs. Belmont, 30 minutes after previous game.

Marquette vs. Michigan State, 7:20 p.m.

North Carolina vs. Eastern Kentucky, 30 minutes after previous game.

Washington State vs. Oral Roberts, 2:30 p.m.

Vanderbilt vs. George Washington, 30 minutes after previous game.

In addition to sleep-driving, sleep-eating emerging as side effects of Ambien, Lunesta and similar hypnotic-sedative sleeping pills, there is also sex while sleeping.

The FDA is asking the makers of Ambien and similar drugs to strengthen the label warnings on the drugs to disclose these and other risks.

More....

At ESPN, Bill Simmons does a March Madness Countdown, ranking in inverse order his choices for the tourney. I liked that approach and decided to adopt it here.

But first, let me tell you who I pick to win it all - the Florida Gators. In large part, because the Florida Gators are my team - grew up in Florida bleeding Orange and Blue (and no I did not attend the university) - I am a blind partisan charter member of the Gator Nation. But I also think there are good reasons for picking the Gators. Andy Katz lays them out:

the Gators have -- when they're playing up to their potential -- the top starting five in the country in juniors Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green and senior Lee Humphrey. They have the experience of winning a title. They have a coach in Billy Donovan who won a title a year ago and coached for the championship in 2000. But there's more here than the numbers. This selection goes deeper. The reason the Gators will win the title is because of their kinship. Sure, there have been plenty of other tight teams, but in the past 17 years, I don't remember seeing one this enmeshed . . .

Gators win it all again, because they are ALL team. Now for my countdown on the flip.

So the March Madness controversy du jour yesterday was the "unfairness" of the play-in game last night between Niagara and Fla. A&M (Niagara won). The argument goes like this - these small school won an automatic bid but are not being treated as if they are in the tourney. There is some merit to this argument I suppose. But the fact is these are teams that history tells us will lose the next round anyway. No 16 seed has ever won a game in the regular tournament. So my sympathy is rather limited here.

The argument continues that the last two at large teams should be in the "play in" game. This year presumably it would be Illinois and Arkansas. That would be fine by me. But then they would whine. Someone always does in these things. More.