As usual, Lunardi's bracket close to perfection

HE ISN'T KNOWN as the nation's premier bracketologist for nothing.

On Nov. 12, Joe Lunardi published his first NCAA Tournament bracket. Yesterday, the selection committee revealed the teams that go to the Big Dance.

In comparing then and now, it was revealed that Lunardi - 4 months ago - selected 40 of the 68 teams or 58.8 percent. And that includes Northeastern and Robert Morris.

Granted, that was down from last year when he correctly penciled in almost 65 percent of the final field early in the season, but it's still noteworthy.

In November, Lunardi had Villanova finishing as a No. 3 seed. The Wildcats are a No. 1. He was spot on on the rest of the top seeds - Duke, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

By the time he got around to his final bracket, released yesterday just before the selection committee's official picks, he had all four No. 1 and No. 2 seeds correct and two of the No. 3s. Overall he had 66 of the 68 teams, leaving out UCLA and Indiana.

"I missed on Indiana; they missed on UCLA," Lunardi tweeted last night.

Last year, in his final bracket, he correctly picked 67 of 68 teams that went to the tourney.

Just before the field of 68 was announced last night, Temple's Will Cummings tweeted: "Stressful Sunday."

Then, while the selection committee continually announced teams other than the Owls, someone posted the following words on Temple's Twitter account: "Perseverantia Vincit."

It means "Perseverance Conquers."

Most of the time, yes.

Last night, no.

Hall of Fame quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, who led the Eagles to the 1960 NFL championship, died in 1983. Yesterday would have been his 89th birthday.