Don’t be shy. You know you want to brag. I mean, come on! How many people in the history of the college basketball loving world have picked a perfect bracket? Not too many, that’s for sure.

But this is your year. You did it! You’re going to win so much money. That office pool for 67 bucks? Yours! That blog pool with all those witty transients you comment about offbeat barely-related-to-sports stories with a John Scheyer bobble-head for a prize: Yours! One in 7.2 million trillion? Good odds for any Spartan.

I’m sure that’s how we all felt on Monday morning when we first filled out our brackets. But I know how you felt as the week went by and you started to…doubt yourself…just a little.

Monday

9am: You just filled out your first bracket. Genius. Nobody else is going to see George Mason beating Notre Dame. I doubt anyone has else has even heard of George Mason. This is the perfect bracket.

10am: Nope, on second thought Oregon is definetely going to be able to handle Mississippi State.

10:25am: Mississippi State has this one. They’re due.

Noon: Lunch

1:13pm: Stanford is pretty good, but Cornell’s alums are very convincing.

2:55pm: You enter your 4th online pool.

4:49pm: Your first full day of bracetology comes to a close. You start to wonder if this is the year that a 16-seed gets a win.

Tuesday

9:17am: You enter your 7th pool. This one is on MySpace. Winner gets to meet Tom.

11:02am: Austen Paey has looked good this year. You based this on the highlights you saw from their conference tournament last week.

Noon: Lunch

2:05pm: So what Vanderbilt is a top-25 team: You literally, live right down the street from Siena. You’re going to be rooting for them anyway… (What? Just me?)

3:45pm: You notice The Sports Gal’s picks are up on ESPN.com. Despite the fact that she writes just like her husband you still disagree with her on the UNLV-Kent State game.

3:46pm: You find this sentence in “The Sports Gal’s column:”

For the first two rounds of picks, Bill jotted down the notes for what I said to myself as I was making the picks, then e-mailed those notes to me and I rewrote them into what you’re about to read.

3:47pm: Aneurysm.

3:48pm: Seriously, the previous sentence was written in at least the 6th or 7th person.

4:52pm: You’ve talked yourself into Portland State, but decide to sleep on it.

Wednesday

4:25am: You can’t sleep – This is Portland State’s year! You have to get the pick in just in case the brackets are locking early this year.

9:26am: You’re too tired to function at work. You’re muttering incoherently about Stephen Curry.

10:39am: Sent home from work for shouting at co-workers who don’t think San Diego is a Elite Eight team.

Noon: No time for lunch – you need to research Western Kentucky.

1:03pm: Fall asleep face down on your keyboard.

7:12pm: You wake up and find you’ve changed your Final Four to Duke and three 15-seeds…in all 12 of your pools.

10:25pm: Digger Phelps informs Bob Knight he is now part of the media. Finish off bottle of

Thursday

9:15am: Send e-mail to your boss threatening legal action if BYU knocks out your sleeper, Texas A&M.

10:05am: You make your final adjustments. It’s beautiful. You’ve done it. The perfect bracket. All you have to do now is sit back and watch the wins pile up.

10:16am: These are the last changes. Done. Looks great.

11:01am: Just a couple more changes. Oklahoma to the Final Four!

11:12am: Why is this going so slow!? Update you piece of crap! You’ve got to get Oklahoma out of there!

11:15am: Angry call to the IT guy.

11:43am: You’ve decided to stick with The Sports Gal – North Carolina over UCLA.

11:55am: Phew! What were you so worried about? Simmons is an idiot. UCLA will look good cutting down the nets.

12:08pm: Why are the brackets locked! Why didn’t anyone tell me Kevin Love has back problems? Arghh!

12:20pm: Tipoff. You’ve never felt so confident.

12:23pm: What the hell? How is Portland State down 12 already?

[Odds: Vegas Watch via Deadspin]