Lions and Mastodons, and, um, Waves and...Anteaters...oh my?

Just to touch base, it's UC Irvine vs. Penn State, and Pepperdine vs. IPFW in the men's Final Four starting Thursday in Columbus, OH (Buckeyes didn't make it. Bet that home court advantage would've been cool. Whoops.).

Considering last year's upset of Irvine which opened the door for UCLA to pop Penn State in the nose for Al Scates' bazillionth title, we'll go ahead and assume Marv and Speraw get in the finals, with Speraw taking home the goodies. You can only have a non-MPSF miracle so often.

But that doesn't mean Ft. Wayne newspaperman Blake Sebring can't dare to dream. He lists a number of factors that should work in IPFW's favor, including a "time advantage: 5 p.m. at Ohio State is like 2 p.m. for Pepperdine."

And as everyone knows, 2 p.m. for Pepperdine is like 4 a.m. for normal humans. The Waves are so screwed...

But here's the part I love, care of ncaa.org:

A printable bracket? For four teams? Really? Don't you think people could, you know, draw one themselves?

And is there a real need for a printable bracket for the men's Final Four? I know as Americans we love our brackets, but I think it's a little optimistic to assume a huge demand exists for a printable men's volleyball bracket. Kinda like a bagpipe player with a beeper.