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