National Champions All-Stars Bracket: Please read this time

Sometimes I worry about you guys.

I spent a good portion of last Wednesday's column -- exactly 123 words -- explaining in detail how only players with national title rings would be eligible to compete for their respective schools in this National Champions All-Stars Bracket.

Sean May and Raymond Felton advance to take on UCLA. (Getty Images)

But just in case that wasn't enough to make things clear, the fine editors at CBSSports.com also put the words "Read the Rules!" in a link and placed a picture of J.J. Redick in the text of the column with a cutline (caption, to you uninitiated) that explained Redick was not eligible for Duke's roster because he "failed to win a national title."

Guess what happened? I got an e-mail from a man named Jim. Naturally, it made me want to slam my head through my desk.

Gary, you ignorant slut! How can you miss Wilt Chamberlin at center and Jojo White in the backcourt for Kansas? Do you know anything about Kansas basketball?

Yes, Jim, I do know something about Kansas basketball, specifically that neither Chamberlain nor White won national titles, rendering them ineligible for the National Champions All-Stars Bracket.

(Deep breath)

Now let's move on. The higher seeds won the first-round matchups.

No. 3 seed Indiana (56 percent) beat No. 6 seed Kansas (44 percent).
No. 4 seed North Carolina (63 percent) beat No. 5 seed Duke (37 percent).

The first result didn't really surprise me but the second did because I thought Duke's roster of Bobby Hurley, Jason Williams, Grant Hill, Shane Battier, Christian Laettner and (sixth man) Carlos Boozer was pretty damn good. I mean, Williams, Battier and Laettner are former National Players of the Year and Mike Krzyzewski (three national titles) has more rings than Dean Smith (two national titles) despite coaching eight fewer seasons.

But the readers have spoken and now we've got No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 4 North Carolina and No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 3 Indiana, and I think Kentucky could fall victim to age discrimination; three UK starters and its sixth man played before 1955.

Thus, four people on UK's roster were never seen by most of you about to vote in this contest, which might make Indiana a slight favorite based on the strength of its backcourt (Isiah Thomas and Steve Alford) and Scott May's afro.

But again, it's up to you ... so go vote.