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I am sure most of you, by now, have seen the first major upset of championship week. The 12-18 Oakland Grizzlies, from Rochester, Michigan, defeated Oral Roberts and are on their way to the NCAA tournament for the first time. Keep in mind that Oakland University has only been a D-1 program for seven years. But, the best part about their stunning upset victory is who orchestrated it, 6-1 junior guard Pierre Dukes. Down two points with less than two seconds to go, Dukes' drained a three to win the game for his team. I had the good fortune of being able to watch Pierre Dukes all through his high school career in Grand Blanc, Michigan. He was a fantastic ball-handler, a great shooter and a hard-nosed defender--in short, P-Dub was the man. If I am not mistaken, Dukes led the Big Nine conference his senior season in scoring at better than 25 points a game--unheard of in the conference.

I hadn't seen much of Pierre since he started playing for Oakland University, and I had already begun to question whether or not it was a good fit for him. When I watched him play at the Flint Pro-Am at Northwestern High School in the summer, he looked very impressive. But, his game had not yet translated to the college level. Recently, another hometown boy, Kris Kryzminski, left Oakland for reasons yet unknown and this might have been the opportunity Pierre had been looking for. Kryzminski's departure left a lot of minutes for someone coming off of the Grizzlies' bench.

Oakland University's triumph over Oral Roberts to get into the tourney for the first time is just part-and-parcel to the greatness of college basketball. In short, there is no better time to be a sports fan than in March. 95 percent of these kids are playing for the love of the game, for a chance to win a national title. Only a relatively small handful will ever make millions in the NBA; for most, this tournament truly is their "one shining moment" in sports.

We know full well that Oakland University will get mollywhopped in their opener, probably versus Illinois--but t hey made it nevertheless. What follows is my breakdown of the NCAA tournament, the 2005 edition:

Once again this year I think we are dealing with a very top-heavy tournament. I fully expect to see no less than three one seeds in the final four. If I were doing the choosing, the number one seeds would look like this:

(1) Illinois
(1) North Carolina
(1) Kentucky
(1) Wake Forest

The only team I forsee losing out of those four is Kentucky. I do not think they have been tested as often as North Carolina and Wake Forest, regular-season testing makes a team tournament tough.

There are, however, a few darkhorses this year. These are basically the teams that inconsistently amazing, teams that could beat anyone on a given night. Teams like Villanova, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Alabama, Wisconsin, Florida and Georgia Tech.

Once again, I think this will be a year of mild upsets with the behemoths rising to the top.

If I had to pick a national champion right now, I will say North Carolina. No team is as loaded with talent as the Tar Heels. Even without the services of their best player, Rashad McCants, North Carolina has been winning games by huge margins--averaging over 90 points a game. Once McCants is healthy, they will have the most potent team in college basketball. They have the five must-haves:

1.) A dominant big man in Sean May, the best in the country
2.) A solid point guard, Ray Felton
3.) An athletic scoring on the wing, Rashad McCants
4.) Solid reserves
5.) Great coaching, Roy and the boys

Anyone who saw how Sean May dominated Duke's Sheldon Williams knows how much of a force this guy can be. In the tournament, in my opinion, center is the most pivotal position. It was for UConn last year with Emeka Okafor and this should be no different. Duke is very thin in the post, and teams will try to exploit that.

Look for a team like Oklahoma to make some noise. They have a good bench, some nice guards, and a power forward named Taj Gray, last year's JUCO player of the year, who can dominate at times. That, along with a tournament-tested coaching staff should make them a tough out. All-in-all, it will be an exciting March.

Go Spartans.