Final Four Round Up

Mighty Casey Has Struck Out

With a mighty thud, the tournament’s top seed, The Louisville Cardinals went down in a blaze that was all but glorious.  On the surface such a sound defeat is shocking…until you examine it a little more closely.  Who did Louisville play in rounds 1-3?  Moorehead State, who had to win a game just to earn the right to get smoked by Louisville; Siena, who gave them a semi-test, but still, far from a contender; and Arizona, whom we found out, in the words of Bryson Davis, “They are who we thought they were.”  Let us compare that to whom Michigan State faced in rounds 1, 2, and 3.  Robert Morris – ok, no much to talk about there; USC, the PAC-10 tournament champion; and Kansas, the defending NCAA champions (minus notable players, of course).  Add to the mix the media debasement of the Big 10 and praising of the Big East, and the Spartans were simply better prepared to play at a level necessary to win.  Tonight’s result further solidifies another of my March Madness iron laws, one that I often repeat, and seldom obey: never pick against Tom Izzo in March.  Simply put, the man is a winner.  How many times has Tom Izzo taken a team of seemingly inferior talent to the Final Four.  This is as at least twice in my recollection.  I can all of you Sparty’s doing the victory dance all the way to Detroit.

Speaking of Detroit…

There’s no place like home, but if you can’t play at home, close to home will do just fine.  Michigan State playing in the Final Four in Detroit should not be overlooked.  They definitely have a shot.

Sooner or later, it all comes crashing down.  What happened?  I slept through the UNC-Oklahoma game.  Literally.  What I thought was going to be a titanic clash turned out to be colossal trash.  After dominant performances, Blake Griffin and Oklahoma looked completely inept against Hansbrough and North Carolina.  UNC and UConn seem to have established themselves as the favorites at this point, but Villanova may be the hottest team of the four.  Michigan State appears to be the underdog, but underestimate them at your peril.  Something tells me Jim Calhoun will not make that mistake.

With the Final Four set, it is time for our round four awards.

Awards

The This Is How The West Was Really Won Award goes to six contestants who were the only ones to pick all 15 games correctly in any region, re-picks included!  Curiously, these folks picked all 15 games correctly in the West region, while no one picked all 15 games correctly in any other region in the tournament.  The winners are Angie Crone, Bill Bailey, Bryson Davis, Gene Pollastro, Holli Heffner, and Megan Risner.

The Beasts Of The East Award goes to six contestants who were 14-1 in the East region: Zach Richardson, Dave Wilson, Laura Ramirez, Joey Inskeep, Ben Crone, and Mark Vandre.

The Heartland Award goes to only two contestants who were 14-1 in the Midwest region: Paul Alexander and Neal “Get Out Of The Top Ten Already” Cunningham.

The Mouth of the South Award goes to a platoon of folks who were 14-1 in the South region: Jon Blair, Megan Risner, Tom Kline, Steve Fifield, James Wells, Frank Riviera, Scotty Wilson, Joey Inskeep, Billy Brundage, Jacob Brundage, David Brush, Stan Feldman, Mike Brown, Stephen Borkowski, and Chuck Sage.

The What Demented Imbecile Invented This Cockamamie Scoring System Award goes to Dave Moritz.  Dave accomplished a genuinely noteworthy feat.  He is the only contestant – one out of 465 – who picked all four Final Four teams correctly.  He did so with original picks, but that is just icing on the cake.  No one else got the Final Four right, re-picks included.  Dave’s ranking?  274!

The Jeff Is A Genius Award goes to Señor Underdog, a.k.a. Dave Barndt, who is barely above .500 but in 19th place because of 46 bonus points, second-highest in the contest.  Dave will receive an autographed picture of me, which I am sure his sons will cherish forever.

The Worst To First Award goes to Mason Gallmeyer for his stratospheric rise in the contest standings, climbing from 431st to 44th!

The Desperately In Need Of A Bailout Award, sponsored by AIG, goes to Cheri Rayles, whose stock has fallen further than an investment bank with all of its holdings in subprime mortgages.  Cheri was once in 2nd place.  Today she is 458th, seven spots from dead last!

The You Must Be Either Vulcan Or The Incredible Hulk Award goes to the green-blooded Chris Randazzo, who has fed me a steady stream of Michigan State woofing and propaganda over the last week or so.  Chris did send me a clever comment today.  “There are many happy Spartans in the motor city who are elated to see their team play a ‘home game’ at Detroit’s Ford Field.  Besides basketball, Detroit fans are starving for the home team to win a game in that place!”  And the people said, “Amen!”

The Coach Croojawooski Award goes to the highest ranking contestant with the most difficult to pronounce Polish last name, Mike Martynowicz, now in 5th place.  I’m thinking Mike has to be a Duke fan out of sheer national loyalty.

Finally, the If You’re Going To Lead The Contest, Pick A Less Disgusting Alias Award goes to Mike “poops” Brown.  Dude.  Ick!  Ahem, Mr. Brown is in first place with 123 points, but he is not untouchable, especially with two huge scategories bonuses remaining to be claimed if Villanova wins one game and/or Michigan State wins 2.  I find myself really enjoying this year’s contest more than any other in recent years, because the final outcome is truly still up for grabs with only three games left to play.

With the, the Wizard will step back behind the curtain until next Saturday.  Many thanks, once again, to all of you who take the time to send a comment, a compliment, and even a jab or two via email.  If you’re wondering “what’s in it for me” as far as doing this contest goes, one of the joys I receive is seeing the steady flow of emails and nickname changes as the contest unfolds.  It has become your commentary, of sorts, and the fact that so many take the time to actually do it shows me that it’s worth it to do this craziness every year.  As totally unimportant as a leisure activity like this is in the grand scheme of things, it means a lot when folks show their appreciation with their most valuable asset, their time. 

Time to sign off before I get all sappy or something stupid like that.

Best Games Yet

No awards tonight.  Just a few quick comments.  I had considered skipping the commentary altogether, but I realize some of you are addicts by now, so here is your quick fix.

This Is How You Lose A Close Game

Undoubtedly the Missouri Tigers were undersized and undermanned against the aptly named UConn Huskies.  Still, they made an excellent game of it through frenetic defense and good shooting.  They were near 30% from 3 point range, shot a respectable 42% from the field, had 21 assists and 10 steals contributing to a whopping 17 turnovers for UConn.  Unfortunately, none of these stats were key to the game.  Missouri got to the line only 12 times, and made only 6.  UConn spent all afternoon at the line, making 26 of 32.  They only won by 7, folks.  Missouri makes all their freebies, a couple more attempts, a few less attempts for UConn…if, if, if. Still, UConn is a freight train.  No matter how you try to stop them, it isn’t going to be very effective. 

On the other hand…

This Is How You Win A Close Game

Actually, this is how you win, nearly lose, and then win at the last possible instant.  If you didn’t watch the Pittsburgh-Villanova game, you missed the game of the tournament so far.  Unlike the aforementioned Tigers, thesecats made 21 consecutive free throws before missing one, finishing the game 22-23 at the line.  The finish was one for the ages.  Up by four with less than 30 seconds to play, Villanova went into prevent defense.  They triple-teamed the three point shooter, leaving the monstrous DuJuan Blair under the basket for an easy dunk.  Up by 2 with 10 seconds to play, Nova spends it’s final timeout to set up a foolproof out of bounds play to seal the game.  Get the ball in.  Get fouled.  Shoot free throws perfectly like you have all night.  Game over.

Not exactly…

Unable to get the ball in bounds with no timeouts remaining, Nova throws 93.5 foot pass on a 94 foot court.  Receiver of the pass tries to throw it off Pittsburgh player, but whiffs.  Pitt drives down for the win or the tie, and Nova fouls with 5.5 seconds left.  Two free throws later, it’s a tie ballgame.  Suddenly I’m rubbing my eyes and wondering at exactly what point my best pick of the tournament managed to lose this game.  That’s when Nova runs the old picket-fence-Bryce-Drew-Valpo-Classic-Pacer-play with the Tyus Edney finish.  Half court pass, tap to the guard, drive to the basket and and lay it in with 0.5 to go.  Unbelievable. 

Parting Shots

With that amazing finish, 267 contestants lost one of their Final Four picks, our contest leader dropped to second, a new leader emerged, and my hopes of finishing in the top 20 stayed alive.  I know this sounds like hype (Who, me, hype up my contest? Never!), but I don’t remember a contest ever having this much dramatic potential this close to the end.  There are three very large scategories bonuses remaining, and they are all very much a possibility.

A Villanova win in the national semifinals is worth 21 points to 9 contestants, including yours truly.

A national championship for Sparty (Michigan State for the uninformed) is worth 30 points to 17 contestants.

A national championship for The Oklahoma Fighting Griffins is worth 30 points to 14 contestants.  (Curiously, the griffin is a mythical creature, half lion, half eagle, if I remember correctly.  If you watch Blake play, that’s a fairly accurate description.)

Check the Possible Scategories Bonus report to see if you qualify.

Tomorrow night I will hand out a copious number of awards for the regional finals.  More news later.  Film at 11.

From Sweet To Elite

Onesie Twosie

If you are a fan of symmetry, or if you are just plain OCD, then you should love this year’s Elite Eight, consisting of all four 1’s, two 2’s, and two 3’s.  Not only that, but the bracket is perfectly balanced, with the 2’s and 3’s diagonally adjacent.  This makes it theoretically possible for the championship game to be 1 vs 1, 1 vs 2, 1 vs 3, 2 vs 2, 2 vs 3, or 3 vs 3. 

Which of these four things does not belong?  Tonight’s games consisted of three butt-whoopin’s and a close one.  Louisville and North Carolina looked absolutely dominant, and Oklahoma wasn’t far behind. As boring as these games were, they do inspire a few quick awards.

The Screaming Meemie Award goes to Louisville, who apparently cannot dunk the ball without yowling like a Marine charging the hill. 

The Boneheaded Award, not to be confused with the Boneheaded Play Of The day Award, goes to Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin, who knocked his melon against the backboard whilst attempting to tear the rim from it.

The I Don’t Belong Here Award, brought to you by Switchfoot, goes to Arizona.  I still maintain that their two wins in this tournament mean nothing.  They faced inferior opponents each time.  When presented with a quality opponent, they looked like the 12 seed they were, or worse.

The Choke Artist Award, sponsored by Reggie Miller, goes to the Kansas Jayhawks, who had Michigan Stateon the ropes, but were simply out-coached down the stretch.  Kansas looked lost and confused on every play in the last three minutes.  Instead of feeding the ball to their monster in the middle, Cole Aldrich, they gave it to Sherron Collins and prayed for a miracle as he dribbled out the shot clock. 

Completely Off Topic

When you watch a lot of basketball, you see a lot of commercials.  Most are forgettable.  Even the best ones get annoying after the umpteenth viewing.  There is one I saw tonight, however, that made me laugh every time.  It is one of those E-Trade talking-baby commericials.  In this particular skit, the baby is talking trash to some old dude in the locker room at the golf course.  The old dude complains that the baby moved his ball, to which the baby responds, “It was on the cart path.  Why don’t you try reading the rule book, Mr. Shank-o-potamus!”  Hilarious!  I’m going to use that one on the golf course this year, guaranteed.

Round 3 Awards

By this time in the contest, it becomes difficult to come up with sensible awards.  So tonight, I have decided that most of the awards will be utter nonsense.

The We Are All Sick Of Seeing Your Name On The Leader board, Tiger Award goes to Neal Cunningham, the only contestant who correctly picked all eight teams in the Elite Eight with original picks.  Neal is in second place and three points behind the leader. 

The You Say That Every Year Award goes to Brad Schafer, who told me today that if the aforementioned Mr. Cunningham wins the contest again, he’ll never play again.  See you next year, Scurvy.

The It Must Be The Tacos Award goes to Joey “Roscos Tacos” Inskeep, who has cracked the top 10 for the first time that I can remember.

The It’s Not Working Award goes to Jamie “helping to pad your standings” Prime.  Jamie’s rank – 23rd.  Whose stats, exactly, were you hoping to pad?

The QED Award goes to Amber “know nothing about basketball” Sprague.  Remaining winnable games = 0.

The Goin Down Award goes to Anthony Goin, whose rank keeps goin down, down, down.

The Perhaps You Need Glasses Award goes to Rebecca “Pick Em As I C Em” Davis.  Rank – second to last.

The Reluctant Winner Award goes to Traci Murray.  In 20th place, Traci confessed she’d rather trade ranks with her son, Elliott Murray, for whom the contest is much more important.

The Don’t Count Your Chickens Award goes to our continued contest leader Dave Wilson, who picked Memphis for the Final Four.  With so many scategories bonuses still in play, the final outcome is all but certain.

That’s all I have in the tank for today, folks.  Check your brackets, your scores, and root accordingly this weekend.

Round 3 Halftime Report

1’s and 3’s, Please

The top seeds held serve, while the two seeds double-faulted in tonight’s Sweet Sixteen match ups.

Thabeet Goes On – UConn’s Hasheem Thabeet put thabeetdown on the Purdue Boilermakers, who have never beaten a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.  So far the Huskies certainly are the most impressive of the 1 seeds, although I still contend that they will not overcome the iron law and win the championship.  (For those who have been sleeping, the iron law is that no team has ever lost the first game in which they played in their conference tournament and gone on to win a national championship.)  CBS is really trumpeting the fact that the two times Connecticut has won the title, they played in the West regional.

This game was the Pitts – Horrendous shooting, both from the field and the foul line marked the game that ecks-zavier should have won.  Instead, they ecks-zitted with no ecks-cuse beyond their ecks-traordinary penchant to make bad mistakes at the worst possible time.  Pittsburgh finally broke its tournament curse of four Sweet Sixteen appearances without a win, but I am firmly convinced that this brawl-ball team has zero chance of winning the whole thing.

Oh – Ver – Ate – Ed (clap clap clapclapclap) – The Duke Blue Devils continued their recent tournament trend of over-seeding and underachieving, being absolutely blown out of the gym by Villanova.  A quick look at the Carnage Report shows that this was not what the contest expected, with nearly 25% of our contestants picking Duke to advance to the Final Four.  This is a game in which Duke simply was not competitive.  Villanova’s impressive win sets up a Big East showdown with Pitt for a trip to the Final Four.

Paper Tigers – What a bizarre game the Missouri vs. Memphis, Tigers vs. Tigers matchup turned out to be.  At one point, Mizzou led by 24 points…in the second half!  They then proceeded to do what most teams do with a 24-point lead.  They stopped playing the way that got them the 24-point lead and started playing hold-the-ball-and-pray-you-don’t-lose.  Why do teams do that?  When has that ever accomplished anything other than allowing the opponent to mount a comeback?  Wake up, people.  Dance with the one that brung ya.  Folks, Mizzou did their best Indiana Pacers imitation in the last 10 minutes of this game.  They could not have tried any harder to lose this game.  Tentative play, horrendous free throw shooting, stupid fouls, the whole bit.  Play like that will not get the job done against UConn, but speaking of fouls…

Where did they get these guys, the NBA?  At one point in the second half of the Missouri-Memphis game I wondered aloud if the referees had been recruited from the ranks of the NBA officials.  How many times did a shot go up, and the zebras waited to see if it went in before blowing the whistle?  I’m glad you asked.  TOO MANY.  This is one of the many reasons I stopped watching the NBA altogether.  The bail-out call is an idiotic insult to the game and the fans.  If I could figure out how to do it, I’d invent a whistle that wouldn’t blow more than 0.5 seconds after a shot is attempted.  If it’s a foul, it’s a foul, whether the shot goes in or not.  The late whistle spoils the integrity of the game.  In the end, it didn’t matter, since Memphis couldn’t hit a free throw to save their lives.  Ok, enough of that soap box.

Just a few awards tonight, since there were just a few games.

Round 3 Halftime Awards

The Hey, You Got Your Peanut Butter In My Chocolate Award goes to Ralph Forey, whom I finally have identified as the guilty party in the “who broke my contest standings ticker?” caper.  I don’t know how many of you actually use the standings ticker (there is a link on the home page and on the standings page), but I noticed from day one that it was not working properly.  The bottom row of the ticker wasn’t working, and I could tell it was starting over before showing all the rankings were displayed.  I couldn’t figure it out, since I hadn’t changed the code.  Then I noticed that, oddly, Ralph’s score was alwaysthe last one displayed, no matter what position he was in.  Further investigation revealed that Ralph set his alias to “<Enter Nickname Here>”.  For all the programming geeks out there, the ticker works by extracting all the data from the database and shoving it into an XML stream.  Ralph’s alias was interpreted as an XML tag, and an undefined one, at that.  Kaboom.  Thanks, Ralph.  Next year I put a filter in the alias input to strip out angle brackets.

The Fantastic Four Award goes to 15 contestants who picked all four of tonight’s games correctly with original picks: Abbi Collins, Amy Dailey, Brent Thacker, Caleb Davis, Christopher Randazzo, Devan Bailey, Holli Heffner, Jeff Little, Joe Jenkins, Matthew Moritz, Mike Boger, Neal Cunningham, Richard Stickney, Scott Booher, and Wyatt Sprague.  Winners will receive an autographed photo of Jessica Alba.

The Detroit Lions Award goes to 10 contestants who picked all four of tonight’s losers to win, thus going 0-4: Anderson Cooper, Coda Snyder, David Vandre, Isen Schafer, Margaret Dean, Maria Randazzo, Mike Desch, Pete Klinker, Ramona Wicht, and Vanessa Sopke.  Winners will receive Detroit Lions season tickets, a $12.99 value.  By the way, those who lost all four games tonight due to the fact that they failed to re-pick a team they had already lost in an earlier round do not even get a dishonorable mention.

The Best Name Change Award goes to David “I have no hair left to” Brush.  ‘Nuf said.

The Better Late Than Never Award goes to John Lederman for failing to keep track of what time zone he is in.  John tried to enter his re-picks just before 6:00 PM…central daylight time. 

Parting Shots

The game to watch tomorrow is Louisville vs. Arizona.  A win by Arizona is worth a whopping 20 points to the folks who picked them – a 9 point scategories bonus plus an 11 point upset bonus.  If this statistical impossibility happens, it could really shake up the standings, especially considering how many folks have picked Louisville to go all the way.

Another interesting development I see in this year’s contest are the number of Final Four and Championship picks that are legitimate contenders that qualify for a scategories bonus.  Scategories bonuses carry increasing significance in later rounds of the contest, since they are multiplicative – 3 times the point value for the game.  A scategoriesnational champion pick is worth 30 points!  To put this in perspective, 109th place is within 30 points of the leader right now.

More games, more commentary, and more awards tomorrow night.  Stay tuned!

The Wizard

Round 2 Wrap Up

Re-Pick Round Begins Today!

Before I get to commentary loaded with the usual pith, I want to begin with the most important item in this email.  I am starting with this knowing that many of you never make it to the end of one of my emails.  You know who you are.  The re-pick round begins today.  What is the re-pick round?  I am glad you asked!  Put simply, this is an opportunity for you to re-pick any, all, or none of the final 15 games in the tournament.  Yes, Virginia, there isa secondchance in the contest.  The instructions for making your re-picks can be found here.  Please, please, pretty please read the instructions carefully and completely.  I promise that if you read the first two lines only, you will email me later saying something doesn’t work right.  It works right.  Read the instructions.  You may also want to read the Re-Pick Round section of the Contest Rules And Scoring page.

History Has Been Made…Again

For years one of my favorite “iron laws” of March Madness was that all four number one seeds had never advanced to the Final Four in the same year.  Last year, that iron law was broken.  This year, another iron law, perhaps even more astonishing, was broken.  The top three seeds in every region advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.  That’s right, every 1, 2, and 3 seed won in round two.  Those of you who went with the top seeds are feeling pretty good about yourselves right now.  Those who were counting on upsets for bonus points, not so much.

Searching For Scoring – Speaking of bonus points, they are going to be hard to come by in round 3.  With mostly top seeds advancing, the only game with truly significant bonus point potential is Arizona vs. Louisville.  Since an Arizona win also happens to qualify for a scategories bonus, an Arizona miracle would mean 20 points for seven lucky contestants!  And speaking of Arizona…

I still don’t think they deserve to be here, in the tournament, that is, much less the Sweet Sixteen.  I don’t care what anybody says.  Arizona was invited on program reputation, not the merits of their season.  They drew a woefully over-seeded Utah team from the Mountain Worst Conference in the first round.  Then, thanks to Cleveland State’s stunning route of Wake Forest, all they had standing between them and the Sweet Sixteen was a 13 seed instead of a 4. 

Taking the “W” out of “Win” – Of the top 16 seeds in the entire tournament, only two did not make it through the weekend: Washington and Wake Forest.  Clearly, these dubya’s didn’t get the dubya.

It is just a fairy tale, after all.  Cinderella, I mean.  Typically, in real life, the wicked step-mother andher ugly daughters get to dance with the prince while Cinderella scrubs the floor.  Looking at our bracket, Cinderella is nowhere to be found.  The only double-digit seed to advance is the aforementioned Arizona, which is more analogous to the aforementioned ugly step-sisters than the likable Cinderella.  The rest of the Sweet Sixteen is a veritable who’s-who of basketball superpower-dom.  I guess us Hoosiers can adopt Purdue as this year’s underdog.  (Understand, for IU fans, this is blasphemy!)  Perhaps we could stick with the only remaining mid-major, Gonzaga, though they can hardly be considered an underdog after making the tournament field 11 consective seasons.  Xavier?  I don’t know what in the world Xavier is except the one school remaining most likely to be mispronounced by the majority of Midwesterners and Southerners.  (Did y’all see ecks-zavier play yisterdee?  Ther lookin perty good, ain’t they?)

The Boneheaded Play Of The Day Award goes to Marquette’s Lazar Hayward, who stepped across the end line while taking the ball out of bounds on what would have been Marquette’s final possession and final opportunity to win or tie.  I could hear all my friends in Brookfield, Wisconsin hurling cheese at their TV sets.  Speaking of Wisconsin…

49 Points.  49 points!  That is all Wisconsin could manage to score in their loss to ecks-zavier.  This proves another iron law of March Madness.  Defense may win championships, but if you cannot shoot the basketball, you cannot win the basketball game.

And now, for the Round Two awards.

Round Two Awards

The Crazy Eights Award goes to six contestants who picked all eight games correctly today.  I find it interesting that 87 people picked all eight correctly yesterday, but only six managed the same feat today.  In honor of their obviously more difficult task, I list their names here for all to admire: Braden Murray, Coda Snyder, James Wells, Jim Heffner, Kevin Wilson, and Shauna Humphrey.

The Sweetest Sixteen Of All Award goes to the amazing Shauna Humphrey, who picked all sixteen second round games correctly!  What shocks me about this is the fact that Shauna is in 162nd place.  Then again, it isn’t so shocking considering that all the significant upsets happened in round one.  Shauna has a base score of 54, but only 12 bonus points.  This goes to show that in my contest, it is not only important to pick the winners, but also to pick the right future losers.

The March Gladness Award goes to three contestants (yes, three) who became new parents over the weekend!  Congratulations to RJ & Tara’ Wynn on the birth of their second child, Javen Cole, on 3/21, and Blake & Doniecka Dieringer on the birth of their first, Ella Colleen, on 3/20.  (Doniecka didn’t enter the contest, though…LOSER!)  Be sure to email all birth announcements to marchmadness@sixlittles.net.  You know, given the date of birth, I might have chosen names more appropriate for the occasion like Trey or Deuce or even Cinderella.  Good thing they didn’t ask for my advice, huh?

The Yellow Lines And Dead Skunks Award can now mercifully be awarded to Ron “Hoosier Hopeful” Reinhold, now sole possessor of 233rd place.  There, I have that out of my system now.

The Official Letter Of Protest Award goes to Jason Snyder.  I have been waiting for the annual protest from Jason, and fortunately, he did not disappoint.  This year’s complaint has something to do with the fact that he has the same number of points as his wife, but she is ahead of him in the standings due to the tie-breaking procedures that are “clearly without merit”.

The Geek Of The Week Award goes to Brad Schafer, who sent me a totally cool and completely geeky statistical analysis of the distribution of scores across our contest.  I put a link to it on the reports and standings page.  You can also see it here

The Crash And Burn Award goes to Julie Truax, who dropped from 52nd to 420th place.  Is that “true-acks” like “ecks-zavier”?

The I Really Can’t STANd This Stupid Scoring System Award goes to Stan Feldman.  Stan nearly cracked the top 10, climbing as high as 12th, only to plummet back down to 298th.

The I Just Can’t Wynn Award goes to my old friend Mark Wynn, who was gracious enough to write kind words on my Facebook wall even though he is firmly entrenched in 403rd place.

The BUSTED! Award goes to trash-talking Wyatt “Bracketbuster” Sprague, who assured a few of his Facebook friends that he would utterly dominate the contest.  I have some bad news for Wyatt.  His wife, Amber “know nothing about basketball” Sprague, is 150+ positions ahead of him!

The Crazy Canadian Award goes to Bill “crazy canuck” Bailey, who has cracked the top 10 in 9th place.  Bill once told me that if I played basketball in Canada, I’d be a center.

Finally, the Mary Poppins Practically Perfect In Every Way Award goes to Dave Wilson, our contest leader for the second day in a row.  Dave’s win/loss record is an amazing 44-4.  The good news for his pursuers is that he lost one of his final eight today, Arizona State.  This means he will have to re-pick at least one game, giving an opening to those who are just a few points behind him.

For the rest, do not despair.  Miracles happen, and some of you have made picks that, if the miracle does happen, will earn you enormous amounts of bonus points and the Comeback For The Ages Award.  For now, it is time for a much-needed respite from basketball until the games begin anew on Thursday.  Be sure to make your re-picks by the deadline of 6:00 PM, EDT, Thursday, March 26th.  NO EXCEPTIONS!

Peace Out,

The Wizard of Whiteland
http://www.sixlittles.net/ncaa

Day 3 Review

The Sleepers Show Up

No, I am not talking about the sleeper team, the dark horse, the Cinderella story of the overachieving underdog.  I am talking about the sleepers.  You know the ones.  You see the opening tip, and then next thing you know, it’s 2:30 to go in the game, your neck has a cramp, and there’s a puddle of drool on your shoulder.  For my part, I appreciated the much-needed nap time while Villanova, Connecticut, and Memphis absolutely routed their opponents.  I have nothing to say about these games…except that my neck hurts.

Blake Griffin Scores a Cripple Double – 33 points, 17 rebounds, 10 shots to the chops.  Seriously, the way opponents try to stop this guy gives new meaning to the phrase “survive and advance”.  I would advise them to run every man on their next opponent’s team through a metal detector.

Toe, Schmoe – Ty Lawson scores 23 points, turf toe notwithstanding, to get North Carolina past a scrappy LSU team.  I’ll go out on a limb here and say that if Lawson keeps playing, so do the Tarheels.

An Upset In Name Only – The Purdue Boilermakers provided the day’s only upset, if you want to call a 5-over-4 victory over Washington an upset.  This game was a foul-fest, a parade to the free throw line.  The two teams combined to commit 41 fouls and shoot 42 free throws.  This game was also a continuation of a new event in this year’s madness: the short people showcase showdown.  Washington played three players under six feet tall, and Purdue played one.  These guys should join the local YMCA under six foot league.  They would dominate.

My favorite team in this year’s tournament is…whoever is playing Duke.  I mean, really, haven’t we all had just about enough of these guys and their coach with the hideous facial contortions and unpronounceable last name?  I know it has been a few years since they made it to the Sweet Sixteen.  What, am I supposed to feel sorry for them?  And do we really need to relive Christian Laettner’s miraculous shot to beat Kentucky in 1992 in that vitamin water commercial?  Sure, the commercial is clever with the closing cameo from Rick Pitino, but how about a commercial that relives the fact that Laettner stepped on Kentucky’s Aminu Timberlake…on purpose…in the same game, but was not ejected.  Anyway, the boneheaded play of the day award goes to Texas forward Gary Johnson, who emphatically, and unnecessarily, shoved Elliott Williams out of the frame while chasing a loose ball toward the end of the game.  Texas still had a chance at that point, but not after.  Thanks, Gary.  Now we get one more weekend of Dook.

Gonzaga finally wins a close one.  In the night’s only thriller, Gonzaga escaped an upset bid by Western Kentuckywitha length-of-the-court, seven-seconds-to-go, Tyus Edney-esque layup by Demetri Goodson with 0.9 seconds left.  I have to admit it.  I love Gonzaga.  I have loved Gonzaga ever since Matt Santangelo and company made the Elite Eight in 1999.  Adam Morrison, the shaggy-haired, mustachioed hero of the 2005-2006 season left me crying at the altar as the 3-seeded Zags lost to UCLA in a game they led by 17 in the second half.  Since then Gonzaga has lost in the first round each of the last two years.  Maybe this gutsy performance will be what they need to get over the hump and stun North Carolina next weekend.

Ok, it’s late, and I have a busy day tomorrow, so let’s have a few awards, and call it a night.

Day 3 Awards

The Apparently This Contest Is Way Too Easy Award goes to the 87 contestants who picked all 8 games right today.  No way am I typing all those names.  Go look at your own picks to see if you are one of them, and then pat yourself on the back if you are.

This is kind of a strange award to give out.  I will call it the Thirteenth Floor Award.  Unfortunately, I cannot find anyone to give it to.  For about 10 to 16 games now, after every game, I have gone to the standings looking for the person in 233rd place.  Why?  Because 233rd would be the exact median position in our contest – 232 better and 232 worse.  I was going to give this contestant the Yellow Lines And Dead Skunks Award (the only things you find in the middle of the road).  However, no one has yet appeared in exactly 233rd place!  Ties always seem to cause 233rd place to get swallowed up in some group at some other position.  It must be, then, that 233rd place is like the 13th floor of a building.  You know it exists.  It just doesn’t have a button in the elevator.

The Lookout Below! Award goes to Lori Boswell, who dropped from 20th all the way down to 321st.

The The I’s Have It Award goes to Cason DiIulio, who has more I’s in his name than anyone I have ever met.  He also managed to climb from 437th all the way to 30th!  Good job, Cason.

The Trash Talking Award goes to Wayne Murray, who has ridiculed me without mercy for the fact that he is beating me so soundly.

The Absent Minded Professor Award goes to Mike “BogeyP” Boger, who emailed me today asking for the link to the contest.  Along with the link, I sent Mike a jar of flubber.

Finally, the Give The Man The Yellow Jersey Award goes to our current contest leader, Mike “gobble101” Wilson, who is an astonishing 37-3 so far in the contest.  I don’t know if Mike is a turkey hunter or a Pac Man champ, but he sure knows how to pick ’em in March Madness.  Well Done!

Parting Shots

Keep the emails coming.  I always enjoy your thoughts and feedback.  Who knows.  You might even make it into the commentary.  You can also view the commentary as a blog at http://www.sixlittles.net/wordpress.  Register for the blog and you can post (moderated) comments. 

Keep your eyes on the game between Cleveland State and Arizonatomorrow.  It provides the best chance so far for a scategories bonus for those who picked Cleveland State.

By popular demand, I will start including the link to the contest website in all the commentary postings and emails.

The Wizard Of Whiteland

http://www.sixlittles.net/ncaa

Round 1 Round Up

Holy Heartburn, Batman!

Naturally the last two games of the first round had to go into overtime – double overtime, no less – and thus rob me of even more sleep.  Boy, were they entertaining, though.  This evening’s upsets provided some much needed drama and much expected separation in the contest standings.

Over-ra-ted – Clap your hands and say it with me.  Fourth seeded Wake Forest were not upset by Cleveland State; they were obliterated.  Seriously, the seeds in this game had to be reversed by mistake.  The Horizon League champions made this game so uninteresting that I barely saw two minutes of it.  The nine bonus points for this game really moved a lot of people way up the standings, but more on that in a minute.  Speaking of uninteresting…

I would rather lick stamps than watch Wisconsin play basketball.  Yes, their style is effective.  Yes, they play their style well.  But, man alive, is it excruciating to watch.  Their plodding, methodical style drives run-and-gun teams like Florida State insane.  I’m convinced teams lose to Wisconsin just to put themselves out of their own misery.  Nevertheless, I am pleased with the outcome, an overtime win for the Badgers.  It is one of the two good picks I made in the entire first round.

A heavenly performance was turned in by the Siena Saints, squeaking out a victory over Ohio State in double overtime.  I think we ought to dub this year’s tournament the year of the short guy.  Seems like every time I turn on the TV, there’s some dude 6 inches shorter than me is doing his best Spud Webb imitation.  With a name like Little, that is something I can truly appreciate.

Take me home, country road…Once again, Bob Huggins showed his penchant for leading teams out of the tournament early, as West Virginia was bounced by the ever-popular pick, the Dayton Flyers.  If you, ahem, took a flyer on Dayton, I am sure you are pleased with your five bonus points.  I hope you choke on them.

Chalk talk – I’ve been watching this thing a long time, and I don’t recall the term “chalk” being used to describe when a favorite wins a game.  This year, it seems to be the quip de jour.  I am curious as to its derivation, of course.  Maybe it is referring to the chalk outline on the ground at the scene of a homicide, since most of the 14-16 seeds got killed (pardon the metaphor) in the first round.  (Before you correct me, I said most, not all.)  Maybe it is a reference to the chalk LeBron James throws into the air before a game or free throw or TV commercial or whenever it is he goes through that ritual.  Maybe it has something to do with Rock Chalk Jayhawk.  Maybe “chalk one up for…”?  Who knows.  I will probably have to email the ever-wise Bryant Gumbel and Seth Davis for the answer.

Winners And Losers

Before I get to the round one awards, now seems like a good time to present this year’s winners and losers.

  Winners Losers
Announcers Bill Raftery, Dick Endberg, Gus Johnson, Len Elmore Jim Nantz, Seth Davis
Commercials Head And Shoulders – The guy says, “Why do cheerleaders have to spell everything? Why are they always telling me to be aggressive one letter at a time? I don’t want to come to the game and read with my ears!” Axe – Use this deodorant, and beautiful women will line up to smell your armpits. Stupid. And that commercial with the water gushing out of the dude’s armpits is just plain GROSS.
Seeds 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 6’s, 10’s, 12’s 7’s, 11’s, 13’s, 14’s, 15’s, 16’s
Conferences Big 12, Big East, Pac 10 ACC, SEC, most Mid-Majors
Mascots Cats, Dogs, Military Birds, Bears, Ethnic Groups
Aliases “Respect The Drawl, Ya’ll!” “I’m in it to win it!” (463rd place)
Basketball Rules Appropriate amount of time left on the clock Traveling…of all kinds…of ANY kind
Players Short, speedy dudes who can shoot Big, lumbering dudes with a six inch vertical, 10 second 40, and 50% FT percentage for the season
Player Hairstyle Shaggy Mop Top Shaved head or buzz cut

And now, for the real winners and losers.

Round One Awards

The Top Prognosticator Award For Day Two goes to Paul Alexander and Ted Badgley who each won 14 games today.

The Maybe You Should Consider Entering Under A Pseudonym Award goes to Kelly Wright who was anything but, losing 11 of 16 games on day 2.

The Thank Heaven For the Repick Round Award goes to the oft-mentioned Bob Hillman, who picked the lower seed to win every game.  The good news, Bob, is that you are in 26th place.  The bad news is that you can only win one more game without re-picking!

The Geek Of The Week Award goes to Trevis Litherland, Ph.D., whose bracket picking computer program (written by Trevis) has earned him 25th place.

The You Beginner Luck Award goes to Larry “Lanx” Harman, the top rookie in our contest so far.  Larry will receive an autographed photo of Pat Morita.

The Whiplash Award goes to Amber “Know nothing about basketball” Sprague, whose rank has gone from 427 all the way up to 26 before settling back down to 66. 

The Biggest Loser Award, sponsored by Jerid the Subway guy, goes to Randy Koran, who dropped from 59 to 332, and Lori Boswell, who dropped from 20 to 282.  Unlike the reality show, being the biggest loser is not a good thing in our contest.

The I Love This Awesome Scoring System Award goes to Dave “Senor Underdog” Barndt, who has only 18 wins, but 46 upset bonus points (tied for most bonus points in the contest), good enough for 6th place overall.

The I Hate This Stupid Scoring System Award goes to John Weeks, who has a respectable 23-9 record, but only a single upset bonus point.

And finally, the Oh No, Not YOU Again! Award goes to our contest leader, Neal Cunningham, who has won our contest once before in its smaller and humbler.  We have never had a repeat champion.  Here’s hoping we do not start this year.

Parting Shots

In case you hadn’t noticed by now, I am fascinated by statistical trends in the NCAA Tournament, especially those relating to the seeds irrespective of the teams assigned to them.  With that in mind, here are few random observations from round one this year.

The average number of first round upsets is 7.  This year we were above average with 10.

At least one 12 seed almost always wins a game.  This year, 3 of the 4 did.

14 seeds have gone win-less for the third year in a row.

Maybe 7 isn’t so lucky after all.  7 seeds lost 3 out of 4 games this year.

A hearty congratulations to those of you in the top 10, and good luck to the rest of us.  The upcoming has the very real potential for at least one scategories bonus to be won.  Stay tuned!

Hand Grenades And Horseshoes

In hand grenades and horseshoes, that’s the only place that close counts, or so the saying goes.  I watched four games today on my TV and the other four on my Blackberry, watching the scores tick by at 30 second intervals.  Even without access to the live action, I could tell that today’s games were the closest we have seen so far.  That wasn’t true in every case, of course. 

We were like grasshoppers in their sight.  I have decided that picking a school sporting a man’s full name is always a bad idea.  Steve F. Austin literally looked like midgets compared to the orange giants of Syracuse.  Eric Bell, all 61 inches of him, looked like Mighty Mouse running around out there.  They might as well have been mice, the way they were mercilessly exterminated.

Remember what I said about Pittsburgh.  They have never advanced past the Sweet 16 in the 64 team era.  The 10-point victory they eked out today over East Tennessee State hardly instills confidence that this year will be any different.  Funny how the same talking heads who last week said it was a good thing that Pitt lost their first game of the Big East tournament due to the rest it would afford them were saying today that Pitt was “rusty” from a long “layoff”.  Sounds like Indianapolis Colts excuse-making to me.  If you picked Pitt to go all the way, be afraid.  Be very afraid.

Look, Mom!  I’m on TV!  Today’s Choke Artist Award, sponsored by Reggie Miller and Spike Lee, goes to the Tennessee Volunteers.  After a game’s worth of back-and-forth with Oklahoma State, the Vols were observed during a timeout waving to family members in the crowd instead of listening to their coach.  I loved Bill Raftery’s insightful analysis advice.  “Gentlemen, there is no one else here.  Get your head in the game!”  Missed free throws and missed opportunities doomed the Vols in a two-point squeaker.

Do you believe in Miracles?  Yes!  Well, almost.  Eleven seed Utah State did just about everything but win the game, including sinking a long three at the buzzer to come up one point short.  This game provided the best call from the play-by-play man that I have heard so far.  “Long three…no…YEESSSS!  Banked it in!  They love you in Logan, Poo!”  (Spoken in reference to a long, ugly, off-balance three-pointer as the shot clock expired by Utah State’s Pooh Williams.  He banked it in.)  Utah State is the second 11-seed to lose by a single point.  (VCU was the other last night.)

A 11-Seed did win, though.  Yes, all you boisterous Buckeyes, the Dayton Flyers pulled off the second significant upset of the tournament, upending West Virginia in a game that I didn’t get to watch, but didn’t look like it was ever much in question from what I saw on the Blackberry.  If I had been thinking clearly, I would have remembered coach Bob Huggins’ reputation for tournament underachievement. 

What is this, Magic vs. Bird?  The scoreboard said Bison vs. Jayhawks, but it was really Ben Woodside vs. Sherron Collins.  The former had 37 and the latter 32 in a gutsy win for Kansas over a North Dakota State team that gave them a lot more than they wanted.  I kept thinking Kansas’ Cole Aldrichwas going to pull a Shaquille O’Neil and tear down the backboard. 

Who turned out the lights?  Is it just me, or is that gym in Boise really dark?  Maybe they are going green in Boise.  Of course, if that is the case, they will have to do something about that blue turf in the football stadium.  Speaking of football…

What’s up with all the Gator fans?  Note to all the folks representing the Gators in their aliases…Tim Tebow does not play basketball.  Football season is over.  Joakim Noah plays for the Bulls now.  Give it a rest.

A Few Awards

Because of my hectic schedule today, I have to be sparing with my midday awards.

The That’s My Girl Award goes to my daughter, Amber Little, who won a prize at school today for being able to name 10 teams in March Madness for her gym teacher.  “None of the boys could make it past three,” she told me.  It is nice to know that when I am too old to do this anymore, one of my progeny can carry on.

The Going Places Award goes to Brent “Goin” Bolin.  So far where he’s goin’ is up in the contest standings.  He is currently in sole possession of second place.

The Inquisition Award goes to 12-year-old Braden Murray.  Braden and I were both at the church this afternoon for a kids’ Junior Bible Quiz event, and every time he saw me, he asked for an update.  What kind of a geek does he think I am?  Wait, don’t answer that!

The The Last Shall Be Last Award goes to Nick Nick, the last person to enter the contest, and, ironically, the contestant in last placeBy the way, I actually met an Elliott Elliott once, so I am not about to say that it is impossible for Nick Nick to be your real name.

The Nobody’s Perfect Award goes to John Blair, who finally lost a game.

Finally, the Beep! Beep! Whoosh! Award goes to Gaylon “Roadrunner” Taylor, who sprinted to the head of the pack this afternoon on the strength of his 22 wins, best in the contest (shared with 8 others).  Gaylon will receive an autographed picture of Wile E. Coyote.

Back to watching basketball.  Look for the final Round 1 awards late tonight.

Day 1 Wrap-up

Close Calls, Good Tries, and Near Meltdowns

I think it is safe to say that tonight’s games provided a bit more drama than the afternoon session. Nevertheless, this year’s tournament has yet to deliver the truly stunning upset.  That is not to say that we did not see a few things that were truly stunning.  For example…

The Ron Artest Award For Sheer Stupidity goes to Morgan State’s Ameer Ali, who at the end of a lost cause flipped Oklahoma star Blake Griffin over his back in a move Hulk Hogan would be proud of.  Needless to say, Mr. Ali was ejected from the game.  On paper it appeared as though Morgan State might actually have a chance of competing in this game.  Nobody from Oklahoma read that paper.

Zip-a-dee-doo-da, the Zags Out Z the Zips – For the first half, this game was anything but a snoozer.  The Akron Zips appeared to be in route to yet another bounce of the perennially underachieving Zags.  At one point Gonzaga actually trailed by double digits, but  shortly after half time, the Zags went on a 31-6 run, and the ZZ’s were emanating from my nostrils from the eventual blowout.  To me, this provides incontrovertible proof that any team with a marsupial for a mascot is destined for failure.

Hey, Is That Your Man? How is it that, while trying to mount some semblance of a comeback, Clemson could leave Michigan’s Manny Harris all alone on the wing?  He could not have had a clearer path to the basket in a slam dunk competition.  Clearly, Clemson completed their late-season collapse in this debacle, while Michigan won their first tournament game since 1998.  Speaking of Clemson…

The Boneheaded Play Of The Day Award goes to Clemson’s Terrence Oglesby, one of Clemson’s primary three-point threats.  After going 1-7 from the field in the first half, Oglesby became frustrated not only with his play, but apparently, with the style of defense being played against him.  That frustration boiled over into a thrown elbow, which got him ejected from the game early in the second half.  Whatever chances Clemson had of a comeback went to the locker room with Oglesby.

Almost, But Not Quite – The American Eagles put on quite a show for the partisan crowd in Philly – partisan in favor of Villanova, that is.  Bombing three pointers with devastating precision, the Eagles were up by as many as 10 in the second half.  It looked like Cinderella might have finally arrived at the ball.  Alas, it was not to be, as Villanova’ssuperior size and strength wore out the Eagles, ending the game in a decisive victory.  Oh, the wailing that would have ensued had Villanova lost!

The Two That Nearly Got Away were nail-biters of different varieties.  UCLA led VCU for the entire game, but never quite pulled away.  Up 1 with just about 10 seconds more on the game clock than the shot clock, UCLA failed to even get a good shot, and turned the ball over on a shot clock violation.  VCU has a chance to win with plenty of time remaining.  They gave the ball to their star, Eric Maynor, which I understand, but it seemed to me that he never even considered doing anything but shooting the ball himself.  He failed to produce a good look, and his game-winning attempt fell harmlessly to the floor as time expired.  For UCLA, it was survive and advance.

The second game that nearly got away never should have been in question.  Western Kentucky led by as many as 17…in the second half.  It seemed obvious that the committee had the seeds reversed in this game.  Then, inexplicably, Western Kentucky seemed to become terrified of losing, and even more terrified of winning.  Tentative and sloppy, they squandered their big lead, allowing Illinois to come roaring back to within a basket, but the Hilltoppers made just enough free throws to seal the victory and claim the only major upset of day one.  The unsinkable Orlando “Don’t Call Me Juan” Mendez-Valdez fought through cramps in both legs to lead his team to victory.

Perfect 10 – Interestingly, both 10 seeds won their games today.  I guess maybe 7 isn’t so lucky after all.

Enough of the recap.  It’s time for the day one awards.

Day One Awards

The Most Appropriate Alias Award goes to Todd “Flip Of The Coin” Gross, who was precisely 8-8 today, the expected outcome of picking winners with the flip of a coin.  You should have flipped tails on the upsets, I guess, because your coin has landed you six spots from last.

The If I Hadn’t Seen It, I Wouldn’t Have Believed It Award goes to our good friend Connie Randazzo, who somehow managed to win fewer games than Bob Hillman, who (remember) picked all 32 underdogs to win.

The That’s What I Get For Listening To Seth Davis Award goes to the army of contestants who picked VCU.  Better luck next time.

The Pride Goeth Before The Fall Award goes to Bryson Davis, who informed me via text message that if VCU pulled off the victory, he was going to take control of the contest.

The Most Hilarious Comment Of The Day Award goes to Brad Schafer, who informed me that he had been undone by the defeat of the “bucktoothers”.  First person to email me with the proper explanation of what he was referring to gets an award.

The Charlies Angels Awardgoes to three ladies tied for second atop the leader board: the tanned, flip-flop wearing Megan Risner, Cheri Rayles, and Julie “UK Stinks” Lyons.  These ladies will receive a recorded message of congratulations from John Forsythe.

The Long Arm Of The Law Award goes to Dan “Where’s A Kopp When You Need One?” Kopp, who leads our senior prognosticators with 27 points.  Did you see him lay down the law?  He is the laaaaaaaaw giver!

The You Must Be An Alum Award goes to Michelle Schroeder, who picked Butler to go all the way.

The What In The World Was I Thinking? Award goes to me, The Wizard Of Whiteland.  During some fit of sleep-deprived, caffeine-induced insanity, I decided to pick Morgan State to beat Oklahoma.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The I Hate This Stupid Scoring System Award goes to an even dozen contestants tied for 134th with a 15-1 record: Tom Williams, Tom Kline, James Lewis, Steven Fifield, Wes Welker???, Sean Fish, Lindsey Fish, Mike Noel, Julie Wilson, Grant McCleary, Marc Hazel, and Russ Degitz.  Clearly, y’all lost the wrong one.  And speaking of Wes Welker…

The Come On, Use Your Real Name Next Time Award goes to the contestant who entered with the famous New England Patriot’s moniker and equally fictitious email address.

And finally, the You Gotta Be Kidding Me Award goes to Jon Blair, who accomplished a feat I am not sure I have seen in 14 years of doing the contest.  He got all 16 games correct!  That’s right folks, 16 and 0.  If any of you contest veterans can remember that ever happening before, shoot me an email.  For now, Jon, I stand in awe of your predictive majesty.  Obviously, this puts Jon in sole possession of first place…for now.

Parting Shots

I just added a new feature to your contestant’s picks page.  Now, in addition to your current rank, you will also see a “Hi” and a “Lo” rank.  These are, as the names imply, the highest and lowest ranks you have achieved throughout the contest.  I thought it would be interesting to see how quickly, and how drastically, your fortunes can turn.  They don’t call it Madness for nothing.

With that, the first exhausting day of March Madness concludes.  We start all over again tomorrow at noon.  I hope that our 132 rookies are enjoying themselves and that our veterans are as irritated as ever!

Round 1 Midday Update

No Surprises

With the first half of today’s games completed, there were very few surprises.  Even the one real upset, Maryland over California, hardly came as a shock, with 327 of us picking that game correctly.  Unfortunately, I was not among the 327.

Holy Blowouts, Batman! Connecticut’s coach Jim Calhoun was taken to the hospital prior to the game, but it was Chattanooga that needed an ambulance.  The Huskies racked up the third largest margin of victory in NCAA history with a 103-47 humiliation.  I want to hear CBS analyst Seth Davis tell us again how, in our lifetime, a 16 seed will beat a 1 seed.

Memphis Sees Red, Beats Matadors.  2 seed Memphis nearly became the story of the day, trailing 15 seed Cal State Northridge for much of the game.  Under the category of whatever it takes to win, Memphis’ Roburt Sallie scored 35 points to give the Tigers a win that was a lot closer than the final score indicated.  By the way, Mr. Sallie’s season scoring average is 4.5 points per game!  That’s 4 point 5, not forty five.  Talk about playing out of your head.

Speaking of Tigers, the LSU Tigers roared into the second round with an impressive win over Butler.  Butler did not play poorly in this game.  LSU can score the ball in a big way.  That second round matchup with North Carolina could be very entertaining.

Watch Out For That Tree!  Washington’s diminutive Venoy Overton was leveled by a bone-crushing pick he never saw coming in the second half of their game with Mississippi State.  It was so violent the crowd groaned in near perfect unison.  Unfortunately for Mississippi State, and all those contestants who picked them for the big upset, that was about the only highlight of the game.  Unlike the Memphis game, the final margin of 13 points in this one was a lot closer than the game ever was.

Awards

The All Too Easy award, sponsored by Darth Vader, goes to the 32 contestants who picked all 8 games right this afternoon.  With only one upset, this was more common than usual.  I am too lazy to type all 32 names.   You know who you are.  Congratulations.

The It’s Not Easy Being Me award, brought to you by Kermit the Frog, goes to Connie Randazzo, who managed only a single win this afternoon.

The Living Up To Your Name award goes to Lilly “I don’t know what I’m doing” Richardson, currently tied for 452nd.

The Always Bet On Blue award goes to Bethany Davis, whose alias reveals her picking strategy.  Bethany’s record today: 7-1.

That’s all for now.  Look for the day one awards in late tonight or in the morning.

By the way, you do not have to wait for each commentary article to show up in your inbox.  You can follow the contest blog here.