On the verge of a Final Four swing

The sound coming from the secret lab was strange, to say the least. Bracket Boy had muted Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas during the second half of the UCLA-Kansas game - this, of course, was no surprise.

But what was that music?

Was that ... a swing band?

“One, two, three, four ... one, two, three, four ... one, two, three, four ...” our resident expert kept repeating as the UCLA Bruins pulled away from Kansas in the final minutes last night.

He has never revealed this to his loyal readers, but last summer, Bracket Girl forced him to take a swing dancing class. He certainly never considered himself much of a cool customer on the dance floor - “I might be Gene Kelly with my picks, but I’m as smooth as Vitale once the music starts,” the boy said - but he learned a valuable lesson in this class.

Count those numbers again.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Last spring, he was in this very same position in his office pool. He picked LSU to advance to the Final Four as a No. 4 seed, and the Tigers did. He picked the UCLA Bruins to advance as a No. 2 seed, and he did. He figured, for the first time in his esteemed career, he had correctly pegged the Final Four.

After all, he had both No. 1 seeds the next day - Connecticut against George Mason and Villanova against Florida. And, well, we all know how that worked out for him.

So this year, facing the same situation, BB is going to take it slow. He picked Ohio State (one) and he picked UCLA (two) but he is still two big steps away with Florida (three) and North Carolina (four) from achieving one of his career goals: Pegging the Final Four.

Both teams are favored, yes. But North Carolina has to figure out how to deal with Georgetown’s patience and size, while the inconsistent Florida Gators face a red-hot Oregon team. Neither game is a gimme.

One. Two. Three. Four.

“Will anybody dance with me?” BB said with a smile. “After all, I have been practicing.”

READER MAIL

Wow: A half-dozen readers have inquired about a certain letter on the court at the Meadowlands. “Why is the Rutgers’ red R on the floor of the Continental Airlines Arena when it is Seton Hall’s home court?” Tracy Gottlieb asks.

“Correct me if I am wrong,” adds Allen Reilly, “but those games were played at the Meadowlands Arena, not the RAC - the Scarlet Knights’ home court.”

Bracket Boy responds: “Rutgers is ‘hosting’ the East Regional, which means in addition to extra hours for their exhausted athletic department employees, they can put the ‘R’ on the court to remind everyone that the Scarlet Knights haven’t been to the tournament in 15 years.”

Meanwhile, an interesting item has arrived from an inquiring mind! “I am a journalism student at West Morris Central High School,” James Kratch writes. “In class, we often cover interesting aspects of local newspapers, and I have recently began to focus on Bracket Boy.”

Bracket Boy responds: “Is it me, or is the curriculum at our schools not quite what it used to be?”

Young James continues: “I understand that it is a very effective way of giving a fresh angle to the NCAA Tournament, and is very popular since I can remember it existing for as long as I have been filling out brackets (about eight years). But my question is, who is Bracket Boy? Whomever writes or compiles the feature, why don’t they put their name to their work and their picks?”

Bracket Boy responds: “Grab a pencil, Jimmy. This is your lesson for the day, and you won’t learn this in your textbook: The first rule about Bracket Boy is, you do not talk about Bracket Boy. Stay in school. Kiss your mother. Never listen to Packer. Give a hoot - don’t pollute. Who am I? I am BB, hear me roar!”