THE LATEST LINE: NCAA HOOP TOURNEY OFF TO WILD START

My NCAA Tournament bracket is already a mess, but I really don't care. I just love seeing all those upsets, which make the 64-team basketball extravaganza the most exciting few weeks in all of sports.

You've got to love it when a Southwest Missouri stifles Wisconsin, a Creighton beats Louisville, a Weber State stuns North Carolina or a Gonzaga makes the Sweet 16.

It's those kinds of results that give all the smaller programs across the country plenty of hope.

The early upset aside, however, I've still got to go with Duke to win it all. I'm really stepping out on a limb there, right? I'm sure the Blue Devils are penciled in as national champions in more than 90 percent of the brackets around the country.

But the beauty of the NCAA Tournament -- with its single-elimination format -- makes Duke winning the title far from a cinch. Heavy favorites in the past have been bitten by the upset bug.

My Final Four picks are Duke, Connecticut, Kentucky and Maryland. And I've got Duke beating UConn to win it all.

But don't bet the house on it. With the unpredictability of the NCAA tourney, you might end up looking for a place to sleep.

* While on the subject of the NCAA tourney, it's great to see Iowa move into the Sweet 16 in its final season under classy coach Tom Davis, who has been curiously forced out despite a highly successful run with the Hawkeyes.

Davis is the father of one of SEMO's assistant coaches, Keno Davis.

* Sure, it would have been great if SEMO had received a bid to the NIT.

But before all the SEMO fans get too carried away with their cries of `foul,' they have to look at the facts and realize that squads on this level simply don't generally get into the NIT unless they have unbelievably dazzling records.

For example, nine other squads that won at least 20 games this season were left out by the NIT. And most of those have been Division I a lot longer, and have had a lot more Division I success in the past, than SEMO.

Sure, it made SEMO fans angry that .500 teams like Georgetown and Georgia Tech, along with a bunch of other barely-above-.500 teams, received NIT bids when their 20-9 Indians didn't.

But that's just a fact of life for the low-major Division I programs. It's been that way for a long time and nothing that happened this season is anything new.

It's just that this year, SEMO had a good enough team to at least be an NIT possibility.

Which meant that, for the first time, Indian fans had a reason to scrutinize the tournament fairly closely.

* SEMO's gymnasts will have their final home meet of the season today and it would be great if a big crowd turned out to bid a fond farewell to the Otahkians' seniors, led by Erin Chenier, who will go down as one of the top gymnasts in school history.

The meet against Auburn will begin at 2 p.m. at Houck Field House.

* Bell City senior Courtney Brockmeyer has been selected to play in the seventh annual Missouri State High School All-Star Volleyball Match, to be held March 21 at Jefferson College in Hillsboro.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian