The field has been trimmed in half, and the contest is taking shape as well, as it is wont to do after round one. 

• Playing Favorites – Looks like this could be the year of the ugly step-sister, because Cinderella is scrubbing some floor somewhere.  I don’t know what the record is for least first-round upsets, but this year has to be close.  Of the 32 games played so far, only five were won by the lower seed, and three of those were 9’s.  Speaking of seeds…
• Double-digit Equals Double-trouble – In a normal year, a 10 seed gets the best of a 2 seed and makes the final four.  In a normal year, two 12 seeds win once, and one wins twice.  This year, out of 28 teams seeded 10 or worse, only two managed a victory, and both were 11’s.  This begs the question…
• Is the Glass Half Empty, or Half Full? – Does the fact that there were so few upsets make this year’s contest easy to pick, or hard to pick?  Consider this: the median number of wins per contestant is about 22, which is a winning percentage of .710.  The region where we doing the worst, the West, we are still picking 2 out of 3 games correctly.
• Your Prayer Has Been Answered – Did you see Purdue’s Chris Kramer drive into the lane, slip, and then fall to his knees?  You can’t get up or they’ll call you for traveling.  So what do you do?  Why, you shoot it, of course, right from your knees.  Two bounces on the rim and through the net, no problem.
• Welcome Back To Reality – Jackson State was going to be the first 16 seed to win a game.  Then they untied the Florida players’ hands.
• The Bone-headed Play of the Day award goes to Kentucky’s Randolph Morris, who, when faced with a shot from point-blank range, went up strong with his right hand with the ball still safely gripped in his left.  No matter.  The Wildcats still won in rather convincing fashion.  Speaking of Wildcats…
• According to the Mascot Watch Report, the Cats are 4-6, the Dogs are 4-2, and the Military icons are 6-3.  Not sure what that means, but it’s interesting, nonetheless.

Round One Awards

• The Rising Star award goes to Bryson Davis, who climbed from 258th to 15th position today.
• The Falling Star award goes to Amy Klinker, who dropped from 12th to 259th position on the same day.
• The They Don’t Call It March Madness For Nothin’ award goes to Alicia Davis, who was as high as 21st and as low as 290th, all in one day, before settling in at 35th.
• The Perfect Picker award, sponsored by Peter Piper, goes to the contestants who picked all 8 games correctly in one of the four regions.  For each region, the winners are:
  • East: Doris Goehringer, Randy Koran, Mark Humphrey, Alan Theile, Andrew Barndt, Thomas Kline, Josh Kincheloe, Bill Bailey, Chris Jones, Patty Brown, Jody Albright, Tony Heard, Brooke Johnson, Kristin Schafer, Bill DeWandeler, Shannon Shumar, Steve Glassley
  • West: Ben Crone, Mark Humphrey, Austin Stickney, Bill Armstrong
  • South: 56 people.  No way am I typing all those names.
  • Midwest: Ben Crone, Braden Murray, John Lederman, Mark Humphrey, Michelle Schroeder, Mike Regina, Pete Klinker, Randy Cowell, Zach Chambers
  • Congratulations.  You all win a peck of pickled peppers.
• The Schleprock Award For Utter Futility goes to Logicalman Tony Scott, who thought he would be clever, I guess, and pick the lower seed to win every game.  In doing so, he managed to win just five games, and if not for the repicks, would be the earliest exit in contest history with no winnable games left!
• The What Idiot Came Up With This Stupid Scoring System award goes to Jason “Iona Frisbee” Dailey and Drew Long.  They are both 27-5, but because they made the weenie picks, they have zero bonus points, placing them solidly in a tie for 163rd.
• The I Might Beat Ya’, But I’d Never Cheat Ya’ award goes to Brad Schafer, who accused the Contest Manager of foul play since he is currently tied with him for 7th place.
• The At Least Your Team Won award goes to Ted “Boiler in Hog Heaven” Badgley, who had better be enjoying that Purdue win immensely, since he is 307th in the contest.
• And finally, the Round One Blue Ribbon award goes to Mark OSUHumphrey, who went 30-2 and is in sole possession of first place with 43 points.  Don’t look now, but those Taco Bell lions are right on your heels (look at the standings and you’ll get the joke).

Ok folks, time to take a deep breath and prepare for round two.  Here’s hoping we see some upsets this weekend, or at least some close games.