DTH picks of the week

Once again, we are off.

The spring semester basketball picks kicked off with Sports Editor Pat James and Assistant Sports Editor Logan Ulrich notching spectacular 8-1 starts to establish a benchmark for the competition to follow. Both James and Ulrich were creeping up on the leaders during football picks in the fall, and their momentum seems to have continued.

“As expected,” James said, flashing his trademark Cheshire grin.

Following the two leaders, Senior Writer Carlos Collazo, the reigning champion of fall semester, failed to defend his crown — finishing the week in second place much like his preferred choice of expedient Mexican fare. 

Much like Chipotle, Collazo failed to add the requisite zest of queso to his picks that his competitors did, missing upset picks of Notre Dame over Duke and Florida State over Virginia.

Meanwhile, Senior Writer Brendan Marks, fresh from his Spanish semester of adventure, was clearly still feeling the jet lag. Marks compiled a 6-3 record, the same as the guest picker, Daily Tar Heel Editor-in-Chief Paige Ladisic — who continued to use her mascot cuteness strategy to blistering effect.

Finally, Assistant Sports Editor Jeremy Vernon, the goat of last semester (and we don’t mean the greatest of all time), picked up where he left off in last place with a 5-4 record. 

But when asked if he was concerned at all, the lovable, whimsical Vernon simply flashed the patented left eye wink that’s made him the darling of waitresses up and down Franklin Street and said:

"(Expletive) no."

This week's guest picker is Bret Strelow, who covers ACC basketball for The Fayetteville Observer.

	Pat James	Carlos Collazo	Brendan Marks	C Jackson Cowart	Logan Ulrich	Jeremy Vernon	Bret Strelow
Record to date	8-1	7-2	6-3	7-2	8-1	5-4	6-3
UNC at Virginia Tech	UNC	UNC	UNC	UNC	UNC	UNC	UNC
Pittsburgh at Florida State	FSU	FSU	FSU	FSU	FSU	FSU	FSU
Duke at N.C. State	Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke	N.C. State
Syracuse at Virginia	Virginia	Virginia	Virginia	Virginia	Virginia	Virginia	Virginia
Oklahoma at Baylor	Oklahoma	Oklahoma	Oklahoma	Oklahoma	Baylor	Oklahoma	Oklahoma
Providence at Villanova	Villanova	Villanova	Providence	Villanova	Villanova	Villanova	Villanova
Maryland at Michigan State	Michigan State	Michigan State	Maryland	Maryland	Michigan State	Maryland	Maryland
Texas at Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas
Purdue at Iowa	Iowa	Iowa	Iowa	Iowa	Iowa	Iowa	Iowa