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Finally it is time for the greatest sporting event in America, Round 1 of March Madness. This year I have North Carolina, headed back to the promised land, despite Ty Lawson being a little dinged up. Give me Danny Green, Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansborough and Lawson in a six game tournament and I’ll take them anytime. Florida State also is going to make a deep run into the tournament. Led by superstar Toney Douglass, they are playing as well as anyone in the nation right now and have a lot of length in their frontcourt. As you can see I am an ACC homer, and by looking at my pics I give the Big Ten very litttle respect. I’m going along with the Eric Maynor bandwagon picking VCU over UCLA. Also the golden rules of bracketology are as follows (ignore last year’s tournament) never pick all #1 seeds, and always pick a 12 seed to defeat a 5 seed. I take it one step further, my 12 seed winners will get to the sweet 16. Thats right, Western Kentucky, and Northern Iowa will be this years cinderellas. There you have it, my NCAA picks for 2009. All Duke hating aside, they sure have an easy draw, dont they only Villanova stands in their way of the elite 8.