Hlas: Finally, bracket racket gets muted on Sunday

Psychology, meteorology, fermentology (the brewing of beers) - they and every other 'ology” are more useful than bracketology.

Thankfully, ESPN's Joe Lunardi and his fellow bracketologists can go quietly into the night Sunday after the real brackets of the NCAA men's basketball tournament have been revealed.

Lunardi will brag, as always, how he got 67 of the 68 teams correct. Maybe 68 out of 68. As if anyone with the time to waste couldn't figure out this stuff once all the hay is in the barn.

Along the way, though, it's all been quite a bit of hooey.

From his preseason poll of Nov. 12 all the way through Sunday morning, Lunardi has had Iowa playing ...

Cincinnati, Colorado State, Dayton, George Washington, Georgetown, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Providence, SMU, Stanford, Virginia Commonwealth, Xavier, and late Saturday night, BYU in Portland.

Not counting the Dayton play-in site, the only one of the eight opening-week slots he hasn't had Iowa slotted for at some time was Jacksonville, Fla. Which is just as well, considering the city holds no allure for Hawkeye fans after January's TaxSlayer Bowl.

Lunardi's Saturday morning scenario had Iowa as the No. 7 seed and playing Larry Eustachy's Colorado State team in Seattle.

I preferred the Saturday morning predictions of Fox Sports' Stewart Mandel, who had both Iowa and Iowa State in Omaha. Plus, Mandel is a writer/reporter, not a full-time bracketologist, so that makes him of actual use to society.

If Omaha turns out to be correct for the Hawkeyes, it would be the first time Iowa had anything resembling a home-court advantage in the NCAAs since it played East Tennessee State and Duke in Minneapolis in 1991.

Iowa hasn't played an NCAA game in the Central time zone since Nashville in 1993.

Alas, on Sunday Mandel had shifted Iowa to Charlotte.

What about Iowa State? On Saturday morning, Lunardi had the Cyclones as a No. 3 seed playing UC Irvine in Louisville. By Saturday night, after ISU's spectacular second-half comeback victory over Kansas in the Big 12 tourney title game, he still had the Cyclones a No. 3 seed playing UC Irvine. But in Pittsburgh.

The Anteasters are one of 14 teams that bracketologist has paired with Iowa State this season, the others being Central Michigan, Eastern Illinois, Georgia State, Iona, Long Beach State, Louisiana Tech, Murray State, New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, UC Davis, UTEP and Wyoming.

And on Sunday morning - just to cover every base, I guess - Lunardi had the Cyclones still a No. 3, but facing New Mexico State in Louisville.

Mandel bumped ISU to a No. 2 Sunday, sending it to Columbus, Ohio, to play Coastal Carolina. Which isn't actually one of the Carolinas, but that's for another day.

As for Northern Iowa, through Saturday night Lunardi had 19 different teams pitted against the Panthers including Harvard and Yale, who met Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia to determine the Ivy League's NCAA representative. Harvard won.

His latest opponent for the Panthers is Wyoming, in Seattle.

On Saturday morning, Joey Brackets had fourth-seed UNI playing Keno Davis' Central Michigan team in Seattle. Davis, the former Drake coach, was the Mid-American Conference's Coach of the Year.

Then Central Michigan lost to Buffalo in Saturday night's MAC championship contest in Cleveland and was headed for the NIT.

This is all great fun to think about and all, but what comes from the NCAA's selection committee Sunday will surely be something altogether different.

By the way, Lunardi's preseason brackets had UNI playing ... no one.

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