Complete Elite

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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.

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