Sports Talk: A College Basketball Bracket Contest Plus Winter Rewind

It's bracket time — will you pick with your heart, your head or entirely at random?

We here at Hartland Patch thought we'd offer an opportunity to add to the fun with a game we're organizing right here through the CBSSports.com site. And we invite everyone to join in to compete for Hartland area bragging rights and a chance to win a $25 Speedway gas card.

So, we thought we'd have this week's version of Sports Talk set up to explain the contest, which you can enter through noon Thursday by following these steps:

1. Click on this link.
2. Enter our game with this password: start123.  (You may need to register a free account with CBSSports.com first).
3. E-mail me (christofer.machniak@patch.com) your name, age and e-mail you'd like us to use to contact you during the contest or if you win. You must do this to be eligible to win. In addition, it's not required, but we'd appreciate that you include where you are from, as well.

Some additional rules: Please enter only once (no bracket stuffing — this mostly just for fun) and you have to be at least 18 to play. (Please see attached PDF for complete contest rules).

For the next several weeks, we'll talk about the tournament here and maybe interview some participants. At the same time, I and some of our Hartland Patch contributors will also play (although we can't win the gas card). Can you outpick us?

Since this is Sports Talk, let's hear about your bracket strategies. I usually favor teams where I went to school, but is going with Michigan State a good pick this year? What about Michigan? It's the first time for them in awhile? And Oakland University — where Hartland's Matt Poches will be playing next fall — is in. Will "buying" local help or hurt?

And if you don't want to talk men's collegiate basketball, let's talk local sports. Here's a quick update on some of the high school teams:

each in the state tournament on Feb. 11.

completed state finals Monday with the and a  member of the boys team also competing.