We would all agree that what makes March Madness, well, maddeningly interesting are the improbable wins by those double-digit seeds.  These are the true upsets, the most thrilling moments, and, appropriately, the most rewarding picks in the contest.  There have been years when unusual numbers of these would-be cinderellas have prevailed, but never quite like this.

You’ve heard of the Tampa 2?  How about the Tampa 12?  Or the Tampa 13?  For the first time in tournament history, all four underdog seeds won at the same site on the same day.  Western Kentucky, Villanova, Siena, and San Diego all prevailed in an unprecedented parade of perplexing, and perhaps even vexing, upsets.  If you haven’t done the math by now, this means that on Sunday we will be treated to not one, but two 12-13 matchups played in the same location, no less.  It also means we are guaranteed two double-digit seeds in the Sweet 16 this year.

The Wild, Wild West, and the even wilder Midwest regionals have proven exceedingly difficult to predict this year.  With only the first round done, not a single contestant out of 444 managed to get all 8 games correct in eitherof those regionals.  On the other hand, the South and East have been relative cakewalks, with 41 and 39 contestants perfect in those regionals, respectively.

Flip This Contest – That is what today’s upsets essentially did.  At the beginning of the day, we had a handful of contestants with perfect records topping the leader board.  Now, the entire thing has been turned on its head, with the former losers who picked the big upsets vaulting to the top, and those who played it safe plummeting to the bottom.  That is what I personally love best about my contest.  It is not about picking the most games right.  It is about picking the right games right.

Before we get into rewarding the folks who have picked the right games right so far, let’s talk a little basketball.

Stick To Football – This past fall I had the pleasure of going to Boise to watch the Broncos, my favorite college football team, play on that bizarre but somehow strangely wonderful blue field.  You should have seen the looks I got from the locals when I explained to them that I had never been to Boise before and flew all the way out there from Indiana just to see the football game.  Anyway, it is apparent after tonight’s dismantling by Louisville that Boise State should stick to football.  Not much to write home about from this one if you’re a Boise State fan, but I did hear a rumor that the center proposed to a cheerleader after the game.

The Boneheaded Play Of The Day award goes to Villanova coach Jay Wright, who managed to get himself teed up in the final two minutes with his team leading by a mere 4 points.  Yes, Nova won the game, but for crying out loud, man, put a muzzle on it under those circumstances.  Mr. Wright might have ended up Mr. Wrong had those two technical free throws cost his team the game.

Does He Have George W. Bush’s Speechwriter?  Did anyone catch Indiana coach Dan Dakich’s post game interview?  Did you hear what he said?  Did you understandwhat he said?  Me neither.  I couldn’t find the transcript online, or I would put a quote here for you.  It reminded me of that computer program I’ve seen before that randomly pulls nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs out of a database and assembles them into sentences that are gramatically correct, but make no real sense.  This is extremely confusing to the brain, because the correct grammar makes you feel as though you ought to understand what is being said, but of course you don’t, because in reality nothing is being said.  Folks, I’m not exaggerating.  It went something like this.

“There are some things that are going to happen in the spring in the Indiana Basketball Program, because they need to happen as part of the Indiana Basketball culture.  No matter what happens with the coaching position, I am going to make sure that we do the things that are important to that culture.”

Huh?

More History Made – Connecticutt had never lost a first round game under coach Jim Calhoun until today’s overtime meltdown against San Diego.  In the postgame press conference, Coach Calhoun pulled out the late 90’s New York Knick’s defense by asserting that, even though they lost, the Huskies were the better team.  “We were a 4 seed because of what we did during the season, and how well we played.  We were the 4 seed, because we were the better team, but we didn’t play like a 4 seed, so we lost.”  Right.

Every dog may have his day, but that day is not today in March Madness.  Teams with dog mascots are 3-5.  Cats are least above .500 at 6-5.  This is the year of the strange and bizarre, apparently.  The wild animals, wierd (spelled correctly) sports figures, religious and plant kingdom are all undefeated.  Never bet against the saints, I guess.

Ok, enough jibber-jabber.  Time for the round 1 awards.

The Top Prognosticator award for round 1 goes to the contestant who picked the most games correctly out of 32.  This year’s winner is Taggart Brooks with 28 wins and only 4 losses.

The Even A Stopped Clock Is Right Twice A Day award for round 1 goes to the contestant who picked the fewest games correctly.  This year’s lucky winner is Bob Hillman, with an underwhelming record of 12 wins and 20 losses.  20 losses.  Wow.  Nevertheless, in the ultimate irony, Bob also receives the I Love This Awesome Scoring Systemaward, because even with those 20 losses, he currently sits not in last place as his alias proclaims, but in 13th.

The I Hate This Stupid Scoring System award goes to five contestants who are tied at 365th despite having a respectable record of 24-8: Brenda Shepherd, Judy Glassley, Matthew Barndt, Zoey Glassley, and Blake Dieringer.

The Baker’s Dozen award goes to everyone in the contest with the family name Davis, all thirteen of you.  The Brady Bunch Plus One award goes to the Glassley family who has nine entries this year.  We also have 7 Wilsons and Randazzos.  Truly, the contest is a family affair.

As you know, it’s the 10 year anniversary of Jared the Subway guy’s impressive weight loss.  In his honor, then, I will give the Biggest Loser award to Peggy Conaway, who dropped from 24th at the beginning of the day to 291st at the end.

The I Know An Upset When I See One award goes to four contestants who did the best job of picking those improbable upsets.  These contestants have 42 bonus points each!  That’s in addition to their base score of one point per first round game won.  The winners are Dave Barndt, Matthew Hand, Josh “Don’t Call Me Kris” Christopherson, and Robert Tipton. And finally, speaking of Robert Tipton…

While many of you watched your brackets go up in smoke today, I was watching Smoke go up the bracket.  Robert “Smoke” Tipton is our contest leader after round 1 with 63 points and a stupefying win-loss percentage of just .656.  You know what they say, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”  Our friend, Mr. Tipton, is certainly burning up the difficult picks, anyway.

That’s the round 1 recap.  Time for the contest manager to get a little shut eye and gear up for the second round.  I hope you are enjoying the contest so far.  Your kind emails of thanks and encouragement are truly appreciated.

Jeff, Humble Hoops Guy