East and South First Round Winners/Preview of March Madness

Hey everyone, it has been a very uneventful few weeks in the world of sports, as far as anything big happening. Yay for MAAC, NEC, Big Sky, and SWAC title games! (Note the sarcasm)
Now for the actual big dance, which has a few surprise teams in it, like Houston, who knocked off UTEP in the C-USA title game, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff in the big dance for the first time ever. But, the big thing to note is that there is no Arizona, which snapped its 25 consecutive years of dancing. Also of note is that there is no Connecticut, North Carolina, UCLA, or Indiana for the first time since 1966, or since Lydon Johnson was president. Says something about how bad those teams were this year and about the parity involved in college basketball in today's era.
Now, for all the talk of expanding the tournament to 96 or 128 teams, STOP IT!!!!!!!!!! The field is great as it is, there is no need to have the NIT champion in the field, because they have no more of a shot of winning it than Wofford. I love the tournament the way it is because it allows for talk of bubble teams and it allows small schools like Oakland to play on national television and get great exposure.
Finally, the picks for the east and south regions in the first round. I will give a reason for each team winning, except for the 1 vs. 16 matchup. The reason for each number 1 seed winning is as followws: no 16 seed has beaten a number 1, and there is no reason to see why that trend will stop this year. I also do not know a whole lot of college basketball, so I may just pick winners and not give a reason. This is all in fun anyway, let's just see how bad my picks are.
EAST:
1Kentucky vs. 16East Tennessee State: Kentucky
2West Virginia vs. 15Morgan State: West Virginia won the Big East conference tournament, arguably the toughest in the nation.
3New Mexico vs. 14 Montana: New Mexico is senior laden and had best season this millenium.
4Wisconsin vs.13Wofford: Wofford is proven, and Wisconsin tumbled down the stretch.
5Temple vs. 12Cornell: Temple is from Philly, and I'm a homer.
6Marquette vs. 11Washington: Washington went far in the Pac-10 tournament, and they are deep.
7Clemson vs. 10Mizzou: Mizzou
8Texas vs. 9Wake Forest: Wake Forest, as Texas stumbled down the stretch big time, losing 8 of 14 games after starting the season 18-1.

SOUTH
1Duke vs. 16Winthrop/Arkansas-Pine Bluff: Duke
2Villanova vs. 15Robert Morris: Villanova, barely, as they also really stumbled down the homestretch, but do not be surprised if an upset occurs. 3Baylor vs. 14Sam Houston State:Baylor is in my final 4, so I cannot bail on them.
4Purdue vs. 13Siena: Purdue has lost their best player Robbie Hummel with a torn ACL, and Siena has proven itself in the dance 2 years straight, no reason to see why they'll stop here.
5Texas A&M vs. 12Utah St: Utah State, as they were ranked most of the season, and 12 over 5 happens all the time.
6Notre Dame vs. 11Old Dominion: ND went far in the Big East tournament, ad they have been going strong since former all Big East player Luke Harangody went down, but ODU just has something for me to go with the upset.
7Richmond vs. 10St. Mary's: Richmond, as SMU has not won a game in their past 7 tries.
8Cal vs. 9Louisville: Louisville can be a strong team, and that's exactly what can make them beat Cal and Duke inthe first two rounds.

Midwest and West region previews come Wednesday.