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The bracket has only been out for a couple of hours, but it is never too early to take a shot at figuring out the Final Four. If this year is like the last dozen or more then I will change my opinion a million times between now and the first tip on Thursday (I prefer to think of it as refining my opinion than changing it), but these are my Final Four picks as of here and now.

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The first thing that jumps out when I look at this bracket is the difficulty of it. There are a lot of very good teams, but none that stand out flawlessly like there has been in past years. That makes it easier to pick the bracket in some ways - I don't see a lot of upsets from lower seeds, and I am fairly confident that the members of the Final Four will be made up of teams from the first four seeds. The challenge is figuring out which one of those seeds it will be in each region. We'll take each in turn:

East

North Carolina did pretty well for themselves here. They'll obviously crush the play-in winner, and I don't expect them to have a lot of problem with an Indiana team that hasn't been the same in the last few weeks. Washington State is the most over-seeded team in the whole bracket, and I don't like their chances against Notre dame. As much as I like Luke Harangody, I don't like the Irish chances against North Carolina either. That puts North Carolina in the Elite Eight.

Butler may be the most under-seeded team in the whole bracket. They are going to have a war with Tennessee. I'm not sure which team will emerge, but I am going to have faith that Louisville will start playing like we know they can again and take out the winner. They will be reasonably unchallenged in their first two games, and that will give them a chance to get over whatever has been plaguing them the last week or so.

I like Louisville a lot, but I don't see what answer they have for Tyler Hansbrough the way he is playing right now. North Carolina is the pick here, and I think that that is reasonably safe, though I would feel a bit better if they had managed to cover a spread in the ACC Tournament.

Midwest

Kansas doesn't deserve to be a No. 1, and they certainly don't deserve the break they got with their bracket. I like UNLV, but I think that this spot is a bit much for them. The four teams playing in Tampa - Clemson, Villanova, Vanderbilt and Siena - are as weak as a group can be. Unless something goes very wrong Kansas will cruise to the Elite Eight.

I am very high on USC, but they couldn't have a harder draw. They start with the explosiveness of Michael Beasley and K-State, have to shift to the numbing defensive intensity and total lack of pace of Wisconsin. I'm not sure how to handle Georgetown. I was down on them for much of the Big East season despite their success, begrudgingly respected them when they beat Louisville, and then watched them struggle in the conference tournament behind pretty poor play from Roy Hibbert before bowing out too early. In the end, I am going to go back to where I started and choose not to believe in them again. Davidson is hot and they play two games in their backyard, so I'll go out on a limb and pick them to beat Georgetown.

So how does it all play out? I'm not sure, but I'm not sure it matters, either. I guess I'll give credit to USC to survive their brutal stretch and end up playing, and perhaps beating, Kansas. It doesn't matter because no one from this group is getting past North Carolina.

South

I like Memphis a lot more than some people seem to. In fact, I'll cut the suspense and put them in the Final Four right away. Pitt is the only team that could give them a real scare on the way to the Eight. On the bottom Texas and Stanford will cruise through to a showdown that the Longhorns will win. Texas and Memphis will be a great showdown, but I like the Tigers - they have more depth, Chris Douglas-Roberts is poised for a huge tournament, and Derrick Rose will win the battle of the stud young point guards.

West

Injuries to Mbah a Moute and Love are a concern for the Bruins, but they shouldn't have to break a sweat until the second weekend. That's when things might get interesting. I think that UConn is ready to be upset. If it doesn't happen in the first round then Drake will get it done. That will put the greatest story of the tournament up against the greatest tournament team of all time. UCLA will come out on top, but it will be fun.

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I'm not happy with how Xavier came into the tournament, but their draw will cure them. Georgia's remarkable run will end after they have a week to crash back down to earth and remember that they are the Bulldogs. Xavier is deeper and more experienced than Purdue, and they will survive that interesting game. Duke absolutely should not be a No. 2 seed, and I don't like how they have played at all over the last 10 games, so it is terribly frustrating that they will win their first two games. I have high hopes that Xavier will beat them - they can match up well with the Blue Devils in terms of depth and style of play.

Xavier will have killed a giant, but they won't be able to do it again. UCLA is just too good, and they will go to the Final Four under Ben Howland for the third time.