Final Four Rundown

Michigan State Magic

How do they do it? How does he do it – Spartans coach Tom Izzo, that is?  For a guy whose name sounds like the punch line of a Snoop Dog joke, his March exploits are downright legendary.  This year makes two consecutive Final Four appearances, and six appearances in the last twelve years.  There is not another program in all of college basketball that even comes close unless you go back to a certain dynasty with a coached by a legend whose moniker your contest manager has unscrupulously appropriated for himself.

Take a look at how Sparty arrived in Indy this year.  In the first round they had to stave off a late comeback, benefiting from a bizarre lane violation, to beat New Mexico State by 3.  Next came the buzzer-beater that sunk Maryland by 2.  They beat a plucky Northern Iowa team by a "comfortable" margin of 7, and then today they beat Tennessee by 1 in a net-blistering shootout.  That’s four games won by a total of 13 points, and it sets up a match-up that has never happened before in the NCAA Tournament, a five versus five for a chance at the national championship.  Don’t look now.  The mean, green wrecking machine is coming to town.

Poise Triumphs Over Power

I had to watch the latter half of the Duke-Baylor contest on DVR, and I am glad I did.  That Baylor team is big, strong, fast, long, and exhaustingly brutal.  At one point I saw a graphic showing their points in the paint nearly doubled those of Duke.  In the end, however, they lacked one key component of a championship contender – the poise that comes through experience.  Duke’s Nolan Smith could do no wrong and miss no shot, almost single handedly willing the Blue Devils to victory, but it was two consecutive three pointers late in the game after the score was tied that seemed to send those Baylor Bears into hibernation.  At that point they seemed to either panic or lose their minds, forcing bad shots, bad passes, and ultimately losing their cool in a shoving match that earned them a technical and a bus ticket home.

Thus, those hated Duke Blue Devils balanced the mathematics of an otherwise statistically deviant tournament as the only #1 seed to advance to the Final Four.  I would take issue with the assumption that they are the favorite to win it all, but I am certain the media will make them the presumptive favorite if for no other reason than the K factor.

So Who’s Really Going To Win?

I can think of at least one good reason why each of these teams will win the championship and one good reason why they won’t.

Michigan State

  • …will win because Tom Izzo doesn’t lose two years in a row.  After being run out of the gym by North Carolina in last year’s final, the man who has nothing to prove will prove it nonetheless.  Big East, schmig East.  Sparty shows the world that the Big Ten is not to be trifled with.
  • …will lose because you cannot run from the math forever.  No Kalin Lucas.  Other key injuries.  Role players are exactly that – role players.  You can only go to that well so many times before it runs dry.  The Spartans play a spirited game against a Butler team they are supposed to beat but find themselves on the opposite end of the box score this time.

Butler

  • …will win because despite proving repeatedly that they actually are as good as their best-in-the-nation winning streak says they are, no one really believes it.  I heard a radio "expert" this evening say that, "on paper, Butler has absolutely no chance, but anything is possible."  Really? No chance?  The same Butler I’ve been watching for two weeks?  These guys are for real.  They are just as skilled, if not more so, than any of the four teams.  They’re smart.  They play stifling defense.  They play team basketball.  These are all hallmarks of a champion.
  • …will lose because they’re a collection of smart kids with a GQ coach who just happen to be pretty good at basketball and drew really good teams who played at really bad times when they faced the Bulldogs.  UTEP? Come on, anybody can beat UTEP.  Their win over Murray State was lucky.  They caught Syracuse without their star center.  They caught Kansas State after a double-overtime cage match that ended after midnight barely 24 hours earlier.  When they play Michigan State on a week’s rest and preparation, the pressure of an entire city’s expectation upon their shoulders, there is just no way.

West Virginia

  • …will win because they are the meanest, baddest, strongest, fiercest, most experienced, most battle-tested crew left in the field.  The Big East really IS the best conference in the country, and that proving ground will prove to be the difference as they find a way…just plain find a way to win two more games.  This time Bob Huggins exorcises his demons and finally wins the big one.  The school that gave us Jerry West, whose silhouette graces the NBA logo, finally has its day. Take me home, country road.
  • …will lose because they have no point guard, and you cannot win a championship playing point guard by committee.  Point guard’s make decisions, and the ones who make the best decisions lead their teams to victory.  Committees do not make decisions.  They just look at each other and ask who’s picking up the tab for lunch.  That lack of floor leadership will be their undoing, especially against a formidable opponent such as Duke.

Duke

  • …will win because they are Duke.  Coach K is tired of hearing the ESPN crew talk about Duke’s lack of tournament success over the past several years.  Their last title was 2001.  That is way too long of a drought for a program like Duke.  But fate isn’t the only reason they will win.  Of the four remaining teams, they are, without question, the most talented.  They can shoot, defend, rebound – you name it.  When they got hot, no one is scarier.  Now that John Scheyer has found his shot again, no one is going to beat them.
  • …will lose because they are streaky, and one cold spell against any of the other three remaining teams will doom them.  West Virginia will frustrate them with unrelenting physicality and in-your-face defense. 

Lightning Strikes Twice

It stands to reason that the craziest, most unpredictable tournament in recent memory would result in the most exciting, most unpredictable contest we’ve ever had. 

The Scategories Bonus, the largest and most influential bonus of the contest, is designed to hard to earn.  It rewards risk, and the higher the risk, the higher the reward.  By definition it ought to be rare, because it rewards the unusual, unpopular, long-shot pick.  Entire contests have gone by in past years without a single Scategories Bonus being awarded.

This year has been very different.  Four games have earned contestants Scategories bonuses, with the unusual situation that either winner of the Michigan State-Tennessee was going to earn someone a Scategories bonus.  It doesn’t end there, however.  The same thing has happened again in the Michigan State-Butler match up.  No matter who wins, someone is going to get an amazing 48 points for picking the winner with an original pick!

As if that weren’t amazing enough, when a pick qualifies for the Scategories bonus in the championship game, I have dubbed that the Ultimate Scategories Bonus, the most points anyone can earn with a single win in the contest.  This year the situation is beyond improbable.  Only a win by Duke will result in someone not earning 96 points for their championship pick!  That’s right, if you consider each of the four team’s chances of winning it all to be equal, there is a 75% chance that at least one person in the contest will get 96 points for their championship pick.  In fact, there is one true Scategories pick in our contest this year, a truly unique, one-of-kind prognostication.  One, and only one contestant, picked Butler to win it all.  Go buy your Butler hat and jersey, JulieH.  Your fortunes are tied to them.

And now for tonight’s awards…

Final Four Awards

Each year I give awards to contestants who performed the best in each of the tournament’s four regions.  This year is no exception.

  • The Gene Hackman Award For Hoosier-Like Midwest Dominance goes to Nathan Kopp, who won 13 games in the Midwest with original picks.  Honorable mention goes to Shane Vaiskauskas and Kevin Wilson who also won 13 games but needed re-picks to do it.
  • The How The West Was Won award goes to Rob Barta, who won 14 games in the West with original picks.  Honorable mention goes to Ben Watkins and Lynn Scofield who also won 14 games with the aid of re-picks.
  • The Beasts Of The East award goes to Toby Risner and Connie Randazzo for winning 14 games in the East with original picks.  Honorable mention goes to Christina Klinker and Jordyn Glassley for doing the same with re-picks.
  • The Mouth Of The South award, sponsored by Jimmy Heart, goes to Jeff Little, Travis Garrison, Brian Miller, Tony Smurlo, Steve Borkowski, and Matthew Risner for picking 13 games correctly (with original picks) in the apparently hard-to-pick South.  With that many winners, there are no honorable mentions.

I find it interesting that no one got all 15 games correct in any one region this year, even with the aid of re-picks.

  • The Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas, and All You Other ESPN Experts Eat Your Hearts Out award goes to Cayden Bauschek, who is the only contestant to pick all four Final Four teams correctly and did so without the aid of a re-pick.  That’s right, folks, this little fourth-grade phenomenon picked Michigan State, Butler, West Virginia, and Duke from day one.
  • The Call The Dog Catcher award goes to Christina "Mad Dog" Klinker who vaulted to second place on the strength of her Butler pick.
  • The George Jefferson award goes to Eusi "moving on up" Fraser who is, indeed, moving on up the standings to 8th place.
  • The You And Your Accursed Re-Picks award goes to Matthew Hand who originally picked West Virginia to go to the championship game but switched it to Kentucky.
  • The Just Do The Math award goes to Chris "I Don’t Get How My Wife is in 3rd Place" Randazzo.  It’s pretty simple, Chris.  She has collected more points than 484 other contestants, yourself included.
  • The I Bet You REALLY Hate Them Now award goes to Sammy "Sam I Am I Hate Green Eggs and Duke" Brauen
  • The Yeah? Well, 114th Place In The Contest award goes to Kathy "2nd place in the science fair" Deaver.
  • The Fail To The Chief award goes to George Lockett who used the President’s published bracket to enter our contest.  George is in 82nd place with no remaining winnable games.
  • The Green Jacket award goes to Evan "A tradition unlike any other-this contest" Gidley.  Evan will receive a dart board bearing Jim Nantz’s portrait.
  • The Most Improved Contestant award goes to Chris Bechtold who has climbed from 473rd to 62nd since game 16 of the contest.
  • The Triple Threat award goes to seven contestants who can still win all three remaining games: Janell Hoeppner, Christina Klinker, Sam Glassley, David Gaffney, Ben Watkins, Cayden Bauschek, and Chris Randazzo.
  • The I Hate This Idiotic Scoring System award goes to T. Money, who has won 42 games out of 60, only four wins less than the contestant who has picked the most games correctly, and yet isn’t even in the top 100.
  • The I Love This Awesome Scoring System award goes to Julie Harman , who is in 49th place and has only one team remaining in the contest, and yet that one team, Butler, can earn her 144 points with two more wins and, undoubtedly, the contest championship.
  • And finally, the Dash Incredible award goes to fourth grader and contest leader Cayden Bauschek, who has confounded the odds and the adults in this contest and leads his closest competitor by 22 points.  Cayden is definitely in the driver’s seat, but victory is hardly assured.  Cayden went with the safe pick for national champion, Duke, and thus could still conceivably lose even if Duke wins the whole thing.

Now, hoops addicts, we take a five day break from basketball.  Many of your spouses are incredibly thankful.  There are still a lot of points to be had in our contest as the last three games of the tournament are played, so stay tuned.  I must say this has probably been the most enjoyable contest of the 15 I have administered. 

See you next Saturday.

Regional Finals, Part One

Historic Day For The Final Four

History has been made.  Never before have two number five seeds advanced to the Elite Eight in the same tournament.  Never before have the Butler Bulldogs advanced to the Final Four. West Virginia went to the Final Four in 1959, but that hardly qualifies in the modern sense of what we consider the Final Four.  For the first time since UCLA did it in the early 70’s, a team will play in its home city for a chance at the NCAA championship.

Even more history awaits tomorrow. Baylor’s last trip to the Final Four is even more ancient than West Virginia’s, and as far as I know, Tennessee have never once advanced past the Sweet Sixteen, even before the tournament was expanded to sixteen teams.  On the other hand, if Michigan State advances to the Final Four, it will be the first time ever (at least in the modern era) that two five seeds have advanced to the national semi-finals.  This tournament, folks, has been one for the ages.

Scategoria

One significant Scategories bonus has already been handed out to those who picked Butler for the Final Four with an original pick.  Interestingly, no matter who wins the Michigan State-Tennessee game, someone will receive a Scategories bonus for that game as well.  That means the standings are in for a sizeable shake-up tomorrow as well.  Check the reports to see if you are one of the qualifiers.

Defense Wins Championships

I’ve heard that applied to just about every sport for as long as I can remember.  While I am not sure it can universally applied, I’m quite sure Butler’s defense covered a multitude of sins today, including periods of sloppy play, too many turnovers, and foul trouble.  Regardless, let no one say that Butler got lucky.  They made it to the Final Four by beating both the #1 and #2 seeds in their region.  This team is authentically good, good enough to win it all.  They are only two games away from doing just that, in their own hometown, no less.

U Kan’t Win Shooting Like That

With less than a minute to play, Kentucky still had a conceivable shot at winning the game.  The point of basketball, though, is to put the ball in the basket, oddly enough – something Kentucky couldn’t seem to do with any consistency.  I’m sure you heard Dick Enberg recite the statistics repeatedly: 2 for 25 from 3-point range and 13 missed free throws.  West Virginia, on the other hand, scored 30 points from 3-point range…in the first half.  Perhaps Bob Huggins will finally break the curse and win a national championship this year, something he could not accomplish while at Cincinnati.

As a side note, did anyone besides me notice how much Jay Biased seemed to be in Kentucky’s corner in this game?  Duke blue must be awfully close to Kentucky blue, I guess.  I lost count of how many times he insisted, "Kentucky is not out of this game" in the last four minutes.

A Quick Look At The Standings

I’m not distributing any awards this evening (no crying, please), but I would like to acknowledge that we have a new contest leader, miss Christina Klinker.  Christina vaulted into first on the strength of her Butler pick.   I am not sure she can hold that top spot tomorrow, however, since she had Ohio State picked for the Midwest region champion.

With that, I sign off for tonight.  Look for the Final Four awards sometime tomorrow evening.

Complete Elite

The final Cinderella’s slipper may have been shattered this evening, but there was one more upset according to seeding, as Tennessee made its first trip ever to the Elite Eight. 

Lions, Tigers, and BEARS…Oh My!

The Baylor Bears absolutely Samhandled the Saint Mary’s Gaels for one of the most lopsided yawners of the tournament so far.  This Baylor squad is for real and extremely scary.  Duke had better be ready for a war, and speaking of Duke…

Pesky Devils

Ok, so Duke won.  They won by a comfortable margin, but does anyone who watched that game think Duke is a legitimate number one seed?  Did they play well?  They’re shooting is atrocious.  If they play anyone besides a Hummel-less Purdue tonight, and they lose.  Unless Jon Scheyer figures out where he misplaced his jump shot, that Baylor Bear is having Goldilocks for lunch on Sunday.

Evan Not So Almighty

See Evan.  See Evan shoot.  Shoot, Evan, shoot.  See Evan miss.  See the other Ohio State players watch Evan shoot.  Watch Evan turn the ball over.  Has Evan Turner won the game for Ohio State in the past?  Absolutely.  He lost it for them tonight.  It kind of works that way when you put it all on one guy.  Sure, the Buckeyes got homered on a few calls.  (In fact, I think the officiating has been especially poor throughout this tournament, but that’s just an opinion.)  Still, for a team that supposedly had the smoothest road to the Final Four with Kansas’ meltdown, Ohio State failed to impress.

Sparty Does It Again

Repeat after me.  Never pick against Tom Izzo in March.  If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it ten times.  Yet I still got greedy and re-picked Northern Iowa, who absolutely should have won that game tonight.  No Kalin Lucas?  No problem.  Izzo out-coached, out-witted, and out-smarted the Jayhawk killers in what has become a March tradition – another Tom Izzo coached team, relatively low-seeded and with supposedly inferior talent, one game away from another trip to the Final Four.

Random Thoughts

  • Northern Iowa gets the award for the team with the largest collection of players with unpronounceable names.  Adam Koch (pronounced COOK), Jordan Eglseder, Kwadzo Ahelegbe, and Ali Farokhmanesh.  Where do they get these guys?
  • Dear CBS, Just say no to the basket-cam.  There is a reason the seats behind the baskets are cheaper than the mid-court seats. 
  • I can’t stand the Duke Blue Devils, but their mascot was wearing a headband that said Purdon’t on it.  That’s pretty clever.

Round Three Awards

An interesting and exciting tournament yields interesting and exciting contest results.  Now it is time for some interesting awards.

  • The Fantastic Four award goes to Scott Whitlow for being the only contestant to pick all four of tonight’s games correctly with original picks.  Scott will receive a complete set of Fantastic Four action figures.
  • The Rumors Of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated award goes to four contestants whose original picks for the Final Four are all still alive in the tournament.  Those contestants are Cayden Bauschek, David Gaffney, Roy Stickney, and Chris Bechtold.  Each will receive an autographed portrait of Mark Twain.
  • Though needing the aid of the re-pick round, three contestants managed a feat still worthy of recognition.  The Eight Is Enough award goes to Anderson Cooper, Rita Dieringer, and Shane Vaiskauskas, who picked all eight of the Elite Eight correctly.  Each will receive an autographed photo of Dick Van Patten.
  • The Rising Star award goes to Greg Schweizer who has climbed from 455th to 140th since game sixteen.
  • The Look Out Below! award goes to Ethan Ables who has fallen from 4th to 442nd over the same stretch.
  • The Super Chicken award goes to Amber "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" Little.  Amber has quietly worked her way into the top 50.  For her next trick, she will drink her super sauce, drop the bad guys for a loss, and she will bring them in alive and kickin’.  Bok bok bok.
  • The Wishful Thinking award goes to Grant "I’m gonna win it all" McCleary. Grant sits in 462nd place.  Not a chance.
  • The How In The World Are You In 6th Place With All That RED On Your Bracket? award goes to Matthew Hand.  Matthew’s winning percentage is barely above .500, and he can only win 3 more games.
  • The Welcome Back, Kotter award goes to my old friend Fess Bryson who has worked his way into the Top 10.  Fess has participated in my contest from the beginning.  Nice to see you near the top, old buddy.
  • Finally, the No WAY Am I Giving You ANOTHER Award award goes to the indomitable Lewis Schafer, who still leads the contest by one point.  I leave it to the geeks among us to figure out if Lewis has a chance of actually finishing in first place.

With that, we await four games this weekend to determine the Final Four.  One report you might want to check out is the Possible Scategories Bonuses report.  There are a lot of points to be had out there if teams like Butler, Baylor, and even Michigan State keep winning.  That means it’s still anybody’s contest, and that’s just the way I like it.

Thrillers, Chillers, and Giant Killers

It was a great night of basketball.  If you weren’t near a TV…WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??!!!  Seriously, if you weren’t near a TV, here is what you missed.

The Thriller

Kansas State and Xavier (pronounced “zay-vee-er” not “ecks-zay-vee-er”) played a double-overtime, pulse-pounding late-night special that ended somewhere around 12:30 AM EDT.  Before I say anything about the key points of the game, now would be a good time for a brief rant.  There can be no doubt that this tournament is all about money when these young men are asked to tip off one of the most important games of their lives after 10:00 PM local time.  That’s just insane.  Bobby Knight often threatened to refuse to play a game scheduled for 10:00 PM.  Of course, Bobby Knight often threatened a lot of things, and then did much worse!  But I digress.

Anyway, about midway through the second overtime I wondered if this game would ever end.  If Xavier’s Terrell Holloway didn’t stop making three pointers from the snack stand, they might still be playing.  This game was characterized by one unbelievably big shot after another, but there were some other noteworthy superlatives.

  • The Stat Sheet Stuffer award goes to referee Eddie Hightower, who set a personal record for number of fouls called on a single team in a single game.  At the end of the first half five Kansas State players had 3 fouls each.
  • The Boneheaded Play Of The Day award goes to Kansas State for fouling Holloway on a three-point attempt with five seconds to play.  Kansas State was up three at the time.  Not after Holloway buried all three freebies.
  • The Fear The Beard award goes to Kansas State’s Jacob Pullen who is sporting a mane Abe Lincoln would be proud of.
  • The Etymology award goes to CBS Announcer Len Elmore for using the proper plural form of a two-word noun, “times out”.  No, folks, it is NOT “time outs” like everyone in the world says.  “Times out” is correct, like “mothers-in-law” and “Billy Goats Gruff”.

And speaking of proper vocabulary, let us take an, ahem, time out for this little gem I received via email this week.

Contestant Luke Gilbert emailed me early in the week to point out a “bug” in the re-pick screen.  It seemed that there were teams that had won second-round games showing up in red on his bracket.  After I politely asked him if he had read the re-pick instructions which explained why that would be the case, he sent me this reply.

“[quoting from Jeff’s email] -> Every year, guaranteed, I get an email from some confused contestant asking me why their picks page shows a winning team in red.

I didn’t want to break the tradition.
I hadn’t eaten yet today.
I was infected by the March Madness.
The sun was in my eyes.

As penance, I’ll happily accept the ‘Those Who Speak Before Thinking’ award to hopefully serve as a warning to others so that they may avoid my ignominious fate.”

To wit, I happily grant Luke the Those Who Speak Before Thinking award, and, as a special bonus, the Noah Webster award for using the word ignominious properly in a sentence.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled commentary.

The Chillers

Big Red Dead

After jumping out to a 10-2 lead and working the near-hometown crowd into a frenzy, the Cornell Big Red ran into a big blue brick wall.  John Wall and company won a relatively low-scoring affair by a comfortable margin, shattering this particular glass slipper.

Maybe They Weren’t Under Seeded After All

The Washington Huskies, who many (including yours truly) believed to be under seeded as an 11, laid a pretty husky egg versus the West Virginia Mountaineers tonight.  So long, Pac-10.  Can’t say that I will miss you.

The Giant Killer

In truth, it is inaccurate to call Butler a giant killer given their seeding and consistent tournament success.  Still, it was pretty amazing to watch them beat convincingly a Syracuse team that should have been too much for them. The victory puts the Bulldogs one victory away from the most improbable of feats, an appearance in the Final Four literally just a few city blocks from campus.  Wouldn’t that just be…madness?

So, four games yielded one upset and one almost.  I have only two awards to give out tonight, and then we will take an 18-hour break before the next round of regional semi-finals begin.

Awards

  • The Lucky 13 award goes to thirteen contestants who picked all four of tonight’s games correctly with original picks.  Those contestants are: Aaron McNeal, Doris Goehringer, Rick Morgan, Aaron VanderMolen, Brian Pettitt, Gaylon Taylor, Shane Vaiskauskas, Janell Hoeppner, Tracy Sines, Greg Schweizer, Scott Bower, Bruce Richardson, and Steven McAtee.
  • The I Am Extremely Tired Of Seeing Your Name At The Top Of The List award goes to contest leader Lewis Schafer, 8-year-old phenom who has spent the entire contest in either first or second place.  Bruce, please, lock him in his closet.  He must be stopped.

That’s it for tonight, hoopsters.  Tomorrow we see if Purdue can bounce the third #1 from the bracket, if Omar Samhan can give the last double-digit seed left in the field a trip to the Elite Eight, and if Ali the wily Iranian can shoot Northern Iowa into tournament lore.

Round Two Roundup

I’m sitting here polishing off my second Twinkie, trying to think of how I should begin tonight’s rant. Before I get to the madness, there is one extremely important topic that must be addressed first. 

Re-Pick Round Begins Today

Now that the Sweet Sixteen has been determined, you can go back to your picks and re-pick any of the remaining 15 games you wish.  Now, please, please, pretty please read the re-pick instructions at this link BEFORE YOU TRY TO DO YOUR RE-PICKS.  Every year, guaranteed, I get an email from some confused contestant asking me why their picks page shows a winning team in red.  If you do not read the re-pick instructions, that confused contestant will be you.  You have been warned.

And now, I think I will begin with some interesting things I’ve gleaned from watching the same commercials ad nauseam for the past four days.

Commercial Madness

  • All the Axe commercials need to be axed.  The one with the dude with pits spraying sweat like fire hydrants is just plain gross.
  • Vikings are the new cavemen.
  • Wouldn’t it be great if BW3 really did have one of those magic control panels connected to all the best games?
  • I like the geeky white Aussie rapping dude better than Dr. Dre.  Biddy biddy boo!
  • I wonder if the guys in the Southwest commercial with the letters painted on their chests were offering the old lady on the plane a free flight.
  • The Forest Gump technique of taking old footage, overdubbing it, and then using CGI to give the appearance that the historical figure in question is actually speaking is played out.  The latest NCAA PSA with Coach Wooden is no exception. At the very least you would think they could have found a better voice talent than the one they used. Good grief, he sounds like a weasel with a head cold.
  • Apparently SuperCuts offers a “manly” haircut.  I think that UPS whiteboard guy should get one.
  • If “Akirameru” is how you say “I surrender” in Japanese, perhaps KGB should have texted it to Wisconsin and Gonzaga.

How Upsetting

In round one there were 10 upsets out of 32 games – a little less than one third.  In round two, there were 6 upsets out of 16 games – a little more than a third.  If you do the math, that is 16 upsets out of 48 games in total – precisely one third.  I do not know how that stacks up historically, but it has to be a bunch.

Go Big Red!

The biggest upset of the day was shocking perhaps only in the margin of victory.  I doubt many folks are surprised by Cornell’s victory over Wisconsin, but the nearly twenty point whipping they put upon them was shocking.  Cornell could be one of the finest collections of shooters assembled in a long time. Whether they can withstand Kentucky remains to be seen.

Beating The Buzzer

The Boneheaded Play Of The Day award has to go to Maryland who, after hitting the go-ahead basket with 6.2 seconds to play, inexplicably failed to guard the shooter who took the final shot for Michigan State.  Sparty had been draining them all night, and the last one was no different.  CBS announcer Tim Brando shouted, “Fear the Turtle!” when Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez hit the go ahead basket, but it was Tom Izzo savoring a luscious victory when Korie Lucious hit the game winner.  With Kansas out of the way, perhaps we are headed for a Big Ten showdown with Ohio State for a trip to the Final Four.

Kramer vs…just about everybody

No Robbie Hummel?  No inside game?  No shoe?  No problem!  Purdue’s Chris Kramer did it all, including hitting the game winner to earn a hard-fought victory over an absolutely brutal Texas A & M squad.  I do not know how much further this Purdue team can go, but their heart cannot be questioned.  What a game.

Round Two Awards

And now, without further ado, the second round awards.

  • The Root For The Underdog award goes to Matthew Hand, who correctly picked 12 of the 16 upsets, more than any other contestant.
  • The Last Man Standing award goes to Scott Whitlow, champion of all things Apple and Mac, and the only contestant who has all eight of his Elite Eight remaining in the tournament.
  • The Every Black Cloud Has A Silver Lining award goes to my eldest daughter, Andrea Little, for her positive attitude expressed in her alias: “Hey at least I’m better than 77 of you.”
  • The So Much For The Repeat award goes to last year’s contest champion, Joseph Jenkins, currently in 109th place.
  • The Top Prognosticator award goes to Jen “Jenzo” Burkhardt, who picked more games correctly in the first two rounds than any other contestant.  Jen is an impressive 38-10 so far and sits in 4th place.
  • The Sopke Dropky award goes to Paul Sopke (pronounced sop-key), who since game 16 fell from 106th to 449th place.
  • The Rising Star award goes to Ben Crone, who since game 16 has climbed from 460th to 181st.
  • The Not Even Close award goes to Eusi “at least I’m not in last place” Fraser.  At least?  How about 15th?
  • The I Love This Awesome Scoring System award goes to Kyle Klinker who has won barely 40% of the games he picked and yet still made the top 20.
  • The What Idiot Invented This Stupid Scoring System? award goes to my brother, Joshua Marshall, who won 35 games and yet sits in 195th place.
  • Finally, the Just Call Me Money award goes to youngster Cason “Cash” DiIulio, who not only sits atop our leader board by virtue of a tie-breaker over fellow grammar school participant Lewis Schafer, but also belongs to the contest family whose family name consists almost entirely of vowels. 

Closing Thoughts, Week One

And now we take a small repast from the madness which shall begin anew on Thursday.  Between now and then be sure to get your re-picks in.  The deadline for re-picks is Thursday at 6:00 PM EDT. Parents will undoubtedly need to assist their kids with the re-picks.  In some cases, kids will need to assist their parents.  In either case, do not either through apathy or ignorance pass up your chance at Jeff’s March Madness Contest glory.  Remember, I adjusted the point value of the later games this year, making the re-picks all the more important.

Re-pick Instructions – Read These FIRST

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Day Three Devastation

There is very little reason to talk about anything other than what it is on everyone’s mind, so let’s get to it.

I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore

Shock.  Disbelief.  Gloom.  Despair.  Agony on all of us.  Whoaaaa.  Northern Iowa, with two big farm boys who look like they ought to be playing in bib overalls and the son of an Iranian olympian, put on a display of heroics worthy of the mighty Olympians of myth.  Kansas, the overall #1 seed in the tournament (or so they said), crashed and burned like Hindenberg.  Oh the humanity!  325 contestants lost a Final Four team.  167 lost their national champion.  The reaction was almost immediate as incredulous contestants updated their aliases.

  • "Kansas Karnage"
  • "BRADinated again…FAIL!"
  • "Nuked by an Iranian"
  • "Gloom, despair., and agony on me"
  • "Bill ‘I hate my’ Self"
  • "Stinkin’ Kansas"
  • "Kansas did what?!! Really?!!"

Did anyone actually pick Northern Iowa?  Of course they did!  These folks get the You’ve Gotta Be Kidding Me award for taking what had to be a wild guess and hitting the jackpot.  This was one of two Scategories bonuses awarded today, by the way.  We’ll get to the other one in a minute.  For now, these award winners are: Margaret Dean, Corryne Fairchild, Nathan Kopp, France McKone, Irene Ramirez, Connie Randazzo, Isen Schafer, GARIVALDO (what is that, like a stage name?), and Liana Wilson.

And the hits just kept on coming

While certainly the most shocking, Kansas’ loss was not the only upset of the day.  In fact, three of the eight games played today were won by the lower seed, advancing two double-digit seeds to the Sweet Sixteen.  11 seed Washington silenced the Pac-10 critics and beat the Lobos of New Mexico, while 10 seed Saint Mary’s shocked (maybe) the 2 seed Villanova Wildcats.  Actually, anyone who had been paying attention to Villanova lately would have seen this coming, and in fact, 20 of us did, earning the day’s second Scategories bonus.  To put this in perspective, it is rare for a single Scategories bonus to be awarded in a contest, let alone two…in the same day.

The rest hold serve

There was a close game or two among the rest, most notably Butler’s heart-attack special over Murray State.  Murray State gets the Heartbreaking Play Of The Day award for failing to even attempt a shot in the game’s final possession.

Just for your amusement

I received this gem today from contest rookie and newlywed Veronica Geistwhite, paraphrased here for your enjoyment.

"Loving the commentary, and learning an entire set of ‘new rules’ during my first year of marriage to Mr. Bradley Geistwhite. In case you are curious.

#1 – When at the dining establishment, I need to sit closest to the screen that the game is playing on.  This way my husband has to look in my general direction to see the game, which makes me feel as though he still realizes I am, in fact, alive.

#2 – Don’t leave home without your picks print-off list, as I learned last night. It went like this. Veronica said, "Brad, hey, you brought your picks list. Did you print mine off?" Look of complete shock creeping over his face, Brad replied, "Um, you carry this list in your back pocket for 4 weeks, okay? You don’t leave home without it." I didn’t know.

And my new favorite, #3 – If my husband has to leave the table for any reason, it is my sole responsibility to be able to give him a play-by-play recap of what he missed.  Of course, when he asks, "What happened?!?!" I can only come up with something like, "Well, the player in red, the really tall one with that scar over his left eye, he threw it to that other player.  Well, he meant to, but it was intercepted – I mean ‘caught’ by that one guy from the other team." Right. Baby, just don’t leave the table during a footb—I mean a basketball game.

I’m completely fascinated by this world of sports. Thanks for letting me in for a couple of weeks. Sometimes, I repeat what you say, just so it sounds like I know what I’m talking about. 🙂 Veronica."

It’s the end of the world as we know it

Cue the REM tune, folks.  If this is what we get in the 2010 March Madness, I’m not sure I want to witness the 2012 version.  (You’ll get it in a minute.)  Not only are we witnessing upsets of mammoth proportions, but my beloved contest is in a condition I find to be unconscionable  It is being dominated by KIDS AND WOMEN!!!  Somebody wake me up from this nightmare!

Seriously, at this point the Top 10 is a lot like the Big 10, because it actually contains 11 contestants (there is a tie for 10th).  Among the top 10 we have three kids under 12 (including the top 2), a teenage girl, three adult women and a partridge in a pear tree.  The good news is that I am tied for 10th.  The better news is that I am beating my wife.  The best news is that I am beating Wayne Murray

Awards

Just a couple of awards for the first half of the Sweet Sixteen.

  • The Boy, Did Your Parents Ever Name You Right award goes to Lucky "What’s March Madness?" Ongko.  A quick look at Lucky’s profile reveals that he is a twentysomething from Jakarta.  Yes, THAT Jakarta.  Lucky is in 9th place.  Lucky him.
  • The Justin Long award goes to Scott Whitlow, who just had to interject his Mac fandom into my contest.  His alias: "MacsAreBetterThanYourScoringSystem".  Yeah?  Well, I’m a PC, and I’m tied for 10th.  What’s your rank, Mac Man?
  • The I Feel Your Pain award goes to Joel Paine, who expressed his contest experience this way: "Wish I was Ashlyn Little".  At this point, so do I, and she lives at my house!

Ok, hoops nuts.  One more day of madness, and then the re-pick round begins.  I hope you all are enjoying yourselves as much as I am.  Expect the round two awards tomorrow along with instructions for the re-pick round.  Good night!

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Round One Review

Thirty-two games are in the record books.  Who knew simply watching the games could be so exhausting?  I don’t know about you, but I could use a nap.  There’s no time for that now, though, so I’m having a Twinkie (my first one in years) and collecting my thoughts from round one.

By The Numbers

I simply cannot resist examining the results each year from a statistical trend point of view, especially as it relates to the team seeding.  Here are a few noteworthy items at this point this year.

  1. Upset special? – Did it "feel" like we had a lot of upsets this year?  The average number of first round upsets over the past ten years is seven.  This year, we had ten, precisely the same as last year.  After seven upsets yesterday, the law of averages kicked in today, with all but three of the favorites emerging victorious.
  2. An (almost) perfect 10 – Also for the second year in a row, three 10-seeds won in the first round.  The only 10 seed to fail was Florida, who lost in double overtime to BYU.
  3. It’s a toss-up – The 8-9 games lived up to their 50/50 expectations, evenly split between the 8’s (Gonzaga and California) and the 9’s (Northern Iowa and Wake Forest).
  4. 11th heaven – Eleven seeds were 2-2 this year, with Washington and Old Dominion advancing to the round of 32.
  5. 12’s? Not so much – Typically 12 seeds are almost as likely to win in the first round as the 5 seeds they face, but this year, only one advanced, the Ivy League’s Cornell.  This gave the Ivy League it’s first NCAA tournament win since MTV played music videos.

Seeing Double?

A burning question at this point is how many double-digit seeds will advance to the Sweet Sixteen?  History says there will be at least one, and very likely two.  More than that will be an anomaly.  On everyone’s radar are the 14-seed Ohio Bobcats.  After beating Georgetown in round one, they have made believers out of a lot of people that they can play with anyone.

Conference Performance

By now you have probably heard that the vaunted Big East has not faired so well.  In fact, the Big East is just 4-4 so far.  Meanwhile, the much-maligned Pac-10 is 2-0, as is the ignored West Coast Conference.  The Big 10 is an impressive 3-1, while the ACC is a respectable 4-2, and the Big 12 is an equally respectable 5-2.

Other Random Thoughts

You’re Welcome

I’ve always been partial to Gonzaga, but they have disappointed me so many times in the tournament that I decided their 8 seed wasn’t worth my trouble this year.  I’m convinced they won because I did not pick them.  Mark Few, you’re welcome.

Booooooo

Inevitably things happen every year that are worthy of a good Bronx cheer.

The Bad Call, Ref! award goes to the officiating crew of the game between Michigan State and New Mexico State, New Mexico State was called for a lane violation on a second free throw that Michigan State missed while holding a two-point lead in the closing seconds.  The New Mexico State player did flinch, but whether he entered the lane early is highly questionable.  With the do-over, Michigan State sank the free throw for a three point lead.  As if that weren’t bad enough, the refs refused to look at the monitor and get the time remaining correct on the game’s final player after the ball went out of bounds to New Mexico State under their own basket.  The replay clearly shows there should have been between 0.6 and 0.9 seconds remaining, enough time for a catch-and-shoot by rule.  Sure, it is an unlikely scenario, but still a legitimate chance to tie the game and send it into overtime.  Instead, they left the clock erroneously at 0.3 seconds, which is only enough time for a tap-in by rule.  Now, officials have a difficult, thankless job, for sure, but let the players decide the game.  Ref’s who make decisive, questionable calls at the end of games demonstrate a desire to control the outcome.  Ref’s should control the game in the sense of making sure the rules are followed, but Ref’s do not play the game and should not control the outcome.

A Fashion Statement?

I often wonder if the age of political correctness hasn’t doomed schools to choose nicknames that are just plain bad.  In the old days we had manly nicknames like "Warriors" and "Chiefs".  What do we have today?  Terriers.  Look out, folks, here come the fierce and fighting lap dogs with curly hair all tied up in a bow.  Awwwwww.

Tonight I was watching Ohio State play UC Santa Barbara.  It is bad enough that poor UCSB is a 15 seed struggling to be taken seriously.  Even worse, most of the players looked like they just stepped off a surf board.  But to me, the ultimate insult is their nickname – the Gauchos.  Now, perhaps you are from a part of the country where the word "gauchos." conjures up images of swashbuckling heroes with swords, six shooters, and Lone Ranger style masks, but where I come from, it can mean only one thing: ladies pants.  Here they come, the hapless fighting ladies pants trying to compete with mighty Ohio State.  I mean, come on.  Give these guys a fighting chance.  It’s humiliating.

Mascot Watch

While we are on the topic, you might be interested to know how the various mascots are fairing in this year’s tournament.  They say every dog has its day, and in this case, the dogs have had their day four times out of six for a record of 4-2.  The dogs’ mortal enemies, the cats, are 8-4.  Also noteworthy is that the Miscellaneous Humans are undefeated (3-0), as are the Colors (2-0) and the Demonic Powers (2-0).  Going 0-fer are the Wild West Icons at 0-5, which includes the aforementioned ladies pants.

Contest Update

Ok, enough of all that pontificating.  Let us have a look at where we stand in the contest and hand out some important awards.  The top two spots in our standings belong to a grade-school kids, while two of my close relatives are bringing up the rear.  Read on.

  • The I Don’t Like To Brag, But award goes to Andrea Bauschek, who sent me a text message today just to point out that she is in the top 100.  Actually, she is tied for 65th.
  • The Crazy Eights award goes to those contestants who managed to pick all eight games correctly in one region.
    • In the East: Christina Klinker, Neal Cunningham, Toby Risner, Mark Vandre, Connie Randazzo, Jordyn Glassley, Jonathan Hand, Wayne Murray, Ron Pozzi, John Lederman, Billy Brundage, Dave Wilson, Bill Spyksma, Rick Hunteman, David Brush
    • In the West: James Wells, Joanna Snyder, Matt Thurber, Scott Bower, Larry Shepherd, Lynn Scofield, Ashlyn Little, Julie Wilson, Joseph Jenkins, Brian Trout, Mark Tillema
    • In the South: Bronson Hillman, Ted Jacquay, Liana Wilson, David Kincheloe
    • In the Midwest: Blake Dieringer, Nathan Kopp, Doug Brown, Maria Joy Randazzo, Matt Alexander, Olivia Klinker
  • The Top Prognosticator award goes to the contestants who picked the most games correctly (but not necessarily the highest scorers).  All of these contestants were an impressive 27-5 in round one: Jen Burkhardt, David Brush, David Kincheloe, Chris Shelton, and Pete Merten
  • The Bribery Will Get You Nowhere award goes to RJ "If I Apologize Will You Make Me #1" Wynn.  No, I won’t.
  • As stated earlier, the top two spots on our leader board are currently occupied by kids.  One of them is my daughter, Ashlyn, who is in the first grade.  I can assure you that she made her own picks, the only guidance we gave her being not to choose any 16’s or 15’s.  Our contest leader, who will receive his award in a moment, is the son of one Bruce "dimwit" Schafer.  Now the question I want to ask Bruce is, "Did Lewis make his own picks?"  If he did, then Bruce gets the You Are Definitely Not Smarter Than Your Own Second Grader award.  The chasm between Lewis and Bruce could hardly be wider.  Bruce is 450th.  If Lewis’ picks are actually Bruce’s "other" picks in disguise, then Bruce gets the Confucius Say Hit Second Tee Shot First award for not reserving the better set of picks for himself.
  • Finally, the Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius award goes to contest leader Lewis Schafer.  Lewis has a score of 66 points and a win-loss of 0.688.  Buy the boy an ice cream or something.

With that, your exhausted contest manager bids you good night.  I will see you tomorrow after the first half of the Sweet Sixteen has been determined.

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Quick Hits: Day Two, Midday

The first half of day two was a bit less dramatic than yesterday, but still provided a bit of contest drama.  Two more upsets, both double-digit seeds, are in the books, bringing 2010’s first round upset total to 9.  The record of 13, set in 2001, could possibly be equaled this evening, but I believe it is unlikely.

Game Observations

Go Big Red!

If you did not get to see any of the Cornell-Temple game, you missed one of the greatest displays of raw shooting prowess I have seen in a long time.  Both teams were absolutely torching nets, both shooting over 60% from the floor at one point midway through the second half.  Cornell’s Ryan Wittman, son of Indiana legend Randy Wittman, was 4-6 from three point range and finished with 20 points.  Everyone in the East region should be terrified of these guys.

The Human Floor Burn

That’s how CBS commentators referred to Purdue’s Chris Kramer, a tenacious pest with a knack for getting as much in your head as in your face. His style and attitude reminds me of Brian Cardinal, the Purdue alum whom the late Al Maguire referred to as being "one bandage shy of a mummy".  The guys called Purdue’s style of play "physical", which I am convinced is a euphemism for "brutal".  If you can’t beat them with shooting or passing, try jabbing, grabbing, and punching, I always say.  It worked for Purdue as they killed (literally) the poor Siena Saints.

Spy Vs. Spy

Does anyone remember this clever comic strip with the black spy and white spy constantly trying to outsmart one another?  Today we had something similar, March Madness style.  In Tigers vs. Tigers, the Missouri Tigers flattened the Clemson Tigers for Missouri’s fifth straight opening round win.  Meanwhile, in Aggies vs. Aggies, the Texas A&M Aggies destroyed the Utah State Aggies, a trendy pick for a 12 over 5 upset that yours truly fell for.

No Love For Small Dogs

The Wofford Terriers, the school you’ve never heard of, gave Wisconsin a scare in what could have been this year’s second victory for a 13 seed.  This was another game where the Big Ten’s, ahem, "physical" play proved to be a deciding factor.  However, it was not the deciding factor.  Wofford missed 6 out of 7 free throws in the second half while trying to protect a lead.  You do not win tournament games that way.

Clark Kellogg had the quote of the day in this game.  When the play-by-play announcer commented, "I don’t think the Terriers are going to go away," Kellogg quipped, "They’re not going away, just like terriers."

More Fun With Aliases

A continue to be amused at how our contestants provide their own contest commentary using their aliases as a vehicle.  I saw a few today that I just couldn’t pass up.

  • Kory "Are These Standings Alphabetical?" Wilcoxson – Nice try.
  • Brian "Ferox Coniecto" PettittFerox Coniecto is latin for "courageous guess".  I looked it up.
  • Jason "Perennial Punster, Aspiring Alliterator" Roehl – You got skills, dude.  You got skills.
  • Kevin "My wife keeps beating me" Wilson – Yes, but have you stopped beating your wife yet?
  • James "The sword is not mightier than the" Penswick – No, but the contest might be.
  • Kip "’s bracket went to ObamaCare death panel" Layman – Wow.
  • Ryan "shoulda stopped at alias" Helton – You had me at "hello".

You Gotta Hand It To These Folks

The Hand family are contest regulars, and their last name is almost as easy pun-fodder as my own.  So that you can all groan along with me, I’ll share this email I received from Jonathan today.

"You’ve got to ‘Hand’ it to us! We Hands are #1 so far in the Family Feud challenge. Oh, and all our brackets are Hand picked.  Good luck Little man."

They don’t call us Littles for nothing.

More Bandwidth, Please!

CBS is streaming every game on NCAA.com.  This is a great idea.  Unfortunately, it is so great that there is rarely enough server capacity available during peak times to watch anything for more than 3 seconds before it starts buffering indefinitely.  I heard a rumor that Cisco has invented a router that will revolutionize high speed networking.  I wish I had one about now.

Awards

I have just a few of awards to give out right now.  We will have the first round awards after tonight’s games.

  • The Fuggetaboutit award goes to Misty "Nottah Loozah" Stepro, whose rank (Tied for 472nd) belies her alias.
  • The Hey, This Ain’t Fantasy Football award goes to Gina Buchanan, annual thorn in my side in my fantasy football league and four positions ahead of me in this year’s contest, too.
  • The Wishful Thinking award goes to six contestants who have Purdue going all the way: Kristin Detamore, Chris Forey, Haven Gallmeyer, Nathan Kopp, Dawn Lamb, and Bill Randall. Not gonna happen, folks.  Not gonna happen.
  • The Are You Related To Coach Kroojawooski? award goes to Shane Vaiskauskas.  I’m guessing he never buys anything over the phone.

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Day One Wrap-Up


What A Marathon

Upsets.  Buzzer beaters.  Near-misses.  Overtime.  Double overtime.  Whatever excitement the tournament has lacked the last two years, the resulting vacuum created a maelstrom of frenzied basketball madness today.  In case you were in a coma, today we had:

  • Seven games (almost half of the total playerd) won by the lower seeded team, five of them by a double-digit seed (a 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14)
  • In the remaining games, the underdog was sufficiently competitive to give the favorite, and those of us who picked them, severe heart palpitations.
  • Three games went into overtime, one of them double overtime.
  • Two games won by legitimate buzzer beaters.

Those of you who picked lots of upsets today came out smelling like roses, but more on that in a minute.

Game Time Observations

Have you ever tried to watch four basketball games simultaneously?  I did all day today.  It is a daunting task, especially when all of them are close.  All the games are streamed for free at NCAA.com.  So, I would rotate through the three games not currently being carried by the local CBS affiliate.  It’s a good thing, too, because Can’t Broadcast Sports kept switching the games at the most inopportune times this evening, but I digress.

Anyway, what I ended up doing is just jotting down thoughts that seemed relevant or entertaining at the time to provide fodder for tonight’s commentary.  Now that it is nearly 1:30 AM, looking at my notes is like trying to decipher those things you write down after immediately waking from a dream in which you had some epiphany, wrote it down, and went back to sleep.  In the morning, it makes no sense.  For your amusement, then, what follows are my collection of thoughts stream-of-consciousness style.

  • Butler has a player named Vanzant.  I wonder if they play "Sweet Home Alabama" in the locker room.
  • Ohio’s Amon Bassett is from Terre Haute, IN, the city (I use the term loosely) that gave me my college degree and my wife.
  • Lehigh has a player named Buchberger (pronounced "Buck-Burger").  Oh the abuse that kid must have taken in middle school.
  • Do referees call traveling any more?  At times I wondered if I was watching basketball or hopscotch.  I thought multiple steps with nary a ball hitting the hardwood was strictly the domain of the NBA.  And while we’re talking about officiating…
  • I absolutely HATE NBA-style foul calling.  I am talking about the calls where the referee waits to see if the shooter makes the basket before blowing the whistle.  Come on, man.  It’s either a foul or not.  Let us at least try to preserve the integrity of the game at this level.  The NBA is already more like Professional Wrestling than basketball.
  • The Montana coach is 6′ 10". 
  • The Big East is now 1-3.  The Big 12 is 3-1.
  • If I had known Steve Fisher of Fab Five Fame was the coach of San Diego State, I never would have picked them.
  • The Choke Artist award, sponsored by Spike Lee and the New York Knicks, goes to Texas’ J’Covan Brown, a 90% free throw shooter who missed two crucial free throws in overtime.  Texas lost by one point.

Contestant Awards

Before I get to the awards, I would like to observe that among the top 10 in our contest are three children, one teenager, and five females.

  • After six contestants went 8-0 before the evening session, no one finished the day perfect.  In fact, I am not certain if anyone has ever finished the first day a perfect 16-0.  Nevertheless, three contestants came close, earning them the Top Prognosticator award for day one: Cason Diulio, Neal Cunningham, and Wayne Murray.
  • On the other hand, the Likely To Suffer The Same Fate As His Alias award goes to Remmy "Stegasaurus" Davidson who won just four games today. 
  • The You Definitely Got Skillz award goes to my sweet 7-year-old Ashlyn Little, who absolutely DID make her own picks and sits in sole possession of 3rd place.
  • The Are You Sure You Didn’t Mean The Whining Bracket? award goes to RJ "The (Wynn)ing Bracket" Wynn.  I have it from a reliable source that RJ was insisting this evening that I had rigged the contest scoring somehow with a programming trick.
  • The Upset Stomach award, brought to you by annual sponsor Pepto Bismol, goes to Margaret Dean, who picked exactly seven games correct – all seven of the upsets.  For those of you keeping score at home, yes, that means she picked 16 upsets for today.  This approach has earned Margaret 7th place…for now.
  • The Holy Mistaken Identities Batman award goes to Joe Jenkins (both of them) and Ralph Forey (both of them).  My contest has grown to the point where my laziness as a developer has caught up with me.  I now have people entering the contest who have the same first and last names, most notably, the aforementioned father-son combinations.  Unfortunately, if one enters exactly the same first and last name, case included, as a previous entry, it blows up my code and generates what amounts to an empty entry.  Joe Jr. caught this mistake and entered a second time with a differentiated name.  Ralph Sr. did not.  Sorry, Ralph.  I owe you one.
  • The I Hate This Stupid Scoring System award goes to Philip Furnish and Pete Merten, each of whom have won 13 out of 16 games, but are not even in the top 100.
  • The I Love This Awesome Scoring System award goes to Kyle Klinker, who has won only 9 games, but sits in 5th place.
  • The Best Change Of Alias award goes to Ryan Helton, who updated his alias today to "Start Scrolling Down".  I love it!

And finally, the Day One Champion award goes to Leon "Burning Yellow Sphere" Sinoff and Lewis Schafer who sit atop our leader board in a tie.  Day two will tell if they can remain there.

And with that, I collapse exhausted into my recliner, awaiting another day of madness.

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Day One: Midday Update

The Madness Has Returned To March

After a couple of years with relatively few upsets and little drama, today’s action was absolutely frenetic, including one overtime game, one double-overtime game, three upsets, and four games decided by a total of 12 points.

Game Observations

Lucky 13

Talk about the one that almost got away.  After leading nearly the entire game, it appeared as though Vanderbilt was going to escape the ignominy of losing to a 13 seed for the second year in a row.  They were big, strong, and leading by a point. Then Murray State’s Danero Thomas hit the most incredible fade-away fifteen footer with two really big dudes in his face with just 0.7 seconds on the clock.  Game over.  Unbelievable!

Deja Vu All Over Again

Anyone remember Villanova trailing 15 seed American last year nearly the entire game only to pull out the much-too-close win in the final minute?  I thought I was watching a re-run this afternoon as 15 seed Robert Morris not only led, but dominated Villanova until (you guessed it) the final minute.  This time, however, David took Goliath to overtime.  This game was extraordinary in a number of ways.  Robert Morris shot 80% from the free throw line.  Robert Morris hit a three-point bank shot…and got fouled…for a four point play.  Robert Morris looked more like Clark Kent after the trip to the phone booth.

The Boneheaded Play Of The Day Award goes to a Villanova’s Reggie Redding.  After getting a steal, said player releases down court with no one in a Robert Morris uniform within 40 feet of him.  He gets the outlet pass, but in an inexplicable act of misguided charity, he passes up the dunk and dribbles back out toward half court, where he is promptly fouled.  Of course he was fouled. He is a 62% free throw shooter.  Instead of the sure two, Villanova gets the unsure one, setting up the scenario where Robert Morris could have sent it into another overtime.  They nearly did.

Slow Burn Flames Out

Notre Dame’s “slow burn” offense controlled the tempo but not the game as they were upended by 11 seed Old DominionCarleton Scott’s three point attempt to tie the game went in and out.  The put back by Luke Harangody wasn’t enough, and Notre Dame lost by one.  Perhaps if they had played yesterday they would have had the luck of the Irish on their side.

Eighth Time Is A Charm

BYU had lost seven consecutive NCAA tournament games going into today’s match up with Florida.  I guess they were due.  BYU breaks the curse of the Mountain Worst and advances to the next round to face Kansas State.

Bags Fly Free

Have you seen the commercial where the bag handlers from Southwest line up and raise up their shirts to reveal to a bewildered female passenger the letters “Bags Fly Free” painted on their chests?  That one is a keeper.

Early Awards

Not all of the excitement has been limited to the court.  We have some exciting developments in the contest as well.

  • The Mary Poppins Absolutely Perfect In Every Way award goes to six contestants who went 8-0 in the day’s first session of games: Ashlyn Little, Jeff Little, Liana Wilson, Matt Thurber, Wayne Murray, and Cason Dilulio.  A couple of these folks have earned the rare and coveted status of double-award winners, to wit…
  • The I Promise I Picked Them Myself award goes to my 7-year-old daughter, Ashlyn Little, whose name sits atop our leader board.  Her mom read her the team names, and she picked a winner.  It’s as simple as that.  I promise.
  • The Reggie Miller Would Be Proud award goes to Wayne Murray, who called me…on the phone…during softball practice…just to say, quote, “I wanted you to hear the sound of perfection.”  It’s on, now.
  • The Did You Do That On Purpose? award goes to “GARIVALDO” who somehow managed to miss every game but one – Villanova.  I must say, I’m impressed.
  • The You Irish Fans Really Need To Get A Grip On Reality award goes to the four contestants who picked Notre Dame to win it all: Emma Dean, “Redsafe”, Allison Renier, and NDGIRL (of course). 
  • The Quote Of The Day award goes to “The Green Man!”, who sent me an instant message earlier today, quote, “Vanderbutt did me in!”

Follow Me On Twitter

Just a reminder that if you are Twitter kind of person you can follow me for frequent tweets as the contest progresses.  I’m marking them with the hashtag #marchmad.  Follow me here.

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