This day will be remembered for two things: the day my bracket went up in smoke, and the day Smoke smoked everyone else in the contest. More on that in a moment.
Quotes Of The Day
“I think I’m the tallest building here.” Michael Beasley, speaking of Manhattan, Kansas, site of Kansas State University.
“It bears repeating that Kyle Weaver is the first player in Pac 10 history to have 1000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists, 150 steals, and 50 blocks.” Len Elmore, reciting the impressive pedigree of Wazzu’s star player. I think he forgot the partridge in a pear tree.
In Today’s Games…
Now I know why they call them “badgers”. Playing Wisconsin is like getting mauled by one. Watching them play is like getting a root canal; no matter how good of a job is done, it’s still extremely unpleasant. Pads and helmets should be required when playing these guys.
Can’t Broadcast Sports– You know, I was actually going to give CBS a little credit this year. They restored my favorite broadcasting tandem of Len Elmore and Gus Johnson. Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas are also an appealing combination. Even Seth Davis doesn’t seem nearly as annoying this year as he has been in the past. Today snapped me out of my brief moment of insanity. I received a text message from Zach Richardson today wondering why we here in Indiana were forced to endure the final five minutes of Xavier’s pasting of Purdue while the entire first half of Notre Dame vs. Wazzu passed by. (Zach is an ND fan, but I’m sure you figured that part out.) Not to be outdone, CBS treated us to the final two compelling minutes of Wazzu’s stunning 20 point victory. I saw the Wazzu players smiling and high-fiving on the bench. I saw them dribble out the last 10 meaningless seconds of the clock. I saw the coaches amicably shake hands. Meanwhile, I’m watching the box score of the Stanford vs. Marquette game in the upper right corner of my screen. I’m watching it go back and forth between one-point leads, while the clock ticks down toward 0:00, and my TV screen is covered with spittle. Thanks, CBS, for sparing me the excitement of the final two minutes of a close contest that eventually went to OT so that I could enjoy the lopsided victory of a school 2000 miles away. Grrrrr…
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don’t…pick against Tom Izzo in March. So much for the red-hot Pittsburgh Panthers, and so much for my bracket. That’s what I get for taking advice from The General.
Coaches Gone Wild – What’s up with the coaches, this year? Yesterday, Villanova coach Jay Wright nearly costs his team the game by getting a technical with a four point lead and less than 2 minutes to play. Today, Stanford coach Trent Johnson got himself ejected before the end of the first half. You could see the assistant coach burying his face in his hands in the video coverage. Fortunately for Stanford, Trent’s understudy managed to put together a thrilling overtime victory over Marquette.
Take me home, country road. The highest seed to exit the Madness thus far is our not-so-beloved Duke Blue Devils, who, despite my comments from a couple of days ago, made a strong case for being both overrated and overseeded this year. A one-point squeaker over the 15 seed followed by a convincing defeat to the 7 seed lead one to believe that Duke got the benefit of name recognition from the committee this year.
And now for a few awards…
The Did You Really Make Those Picks? award goes to young prognosticator Olivia Klinker, currently in third place.
The Call Guinness award goes to four-week old Mason Ables, currently in 18th place. Wow, now that’s one precocious infant.
The Miami Heat award goes to Bob Hillman, who has managed an impressive 27 lossesso far, but still ranks in the top 100 at 59th.
The All You Find In The Middle Of The Road Are Yellow Lines And Dead Skunks award goes to Jim Buchanan, our 50th percentile contestant in 222nd place.
The I Need To Put You To Work On This Thing Next Year award goes to Jason Roehl, the human calculator, who always seems to be forwarding me fascinating statistical analyses of the contest. Earlier today he noticed that exactly two contestants had a win/loss percentage below .500, and yet both ranked in the top 20. In honor of that observation…
The Who Needs A Good Batting Average When All Your Hits Are Homers award goes to those sub-.500 contestants who rank in the top 25: Dave Barndt at 14th and Josh Christophersonat 17th.
The Nowhere To Go But Up award goes to last-place contestant Tony “Trichevy” Teasley. The repick round begins on Monday.
The Most Impressive Performance award goes to Robert “Smoke” Tipton, our contest leader who is definitely in a strong position. Smoke has picked every upset so far except for Michigan State over Pittsburgh. That is exactly why his closest competitor is 10 points behind him.
Remember all those crazy upsets yesterday? Their consequences come home to roost tomorrow. Specifically, we will see a Scategories bonus be awarded to a special handful of contestants tomorrow. That is because a second round win by either San Diego or Western Kentucky qualifies for a Scategories bonus, and those two teams play each other. That game is worth 6 or 7 points, depending on who wins. Additionally, if Siena were to topple Villanova, the game would be worth a whopping 14 pointsto the winners. Now for the bad news. Our contest leader picked Siena. Root accordingly.
Jeff, Hoops Idiot