Monthly Archives: March 2010

Let The Madness Begin

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Welcome To The Show

The curtain goes up on the 2010 edition of March Madness in just a short while, and I’ve never been more excited nor more prepared for a fun and exciting contest.  This year I actually took time off just so that I could enjoy the basketball without distraction and focus on our collective adventure called Jeff’s March Madness Contest.  Yes, folks, this is commitment!

I would like to welcome our contest’s first-time participants, all 120 of you.  It is my sincere hope that you have just as much fun as the rest of us have had over the years.  My good friend Brad Schafer and I were reminiscing earlier this week about how this all began 15 years ago with less than a dozen Navistar employees and contractors and a web page I developed using the 10 HTML tags I was familiar with at the time.  Today our little contest is mighty indeed.  We set another record this year with 487 total entries.

What’s In A Name?

Almost by accident, one of the most popular aspects of the contest are the aliases people establish for themselves in their profiles.  With hardly any prompting from me, people immediately began using these aliases to express their wit and personality.  We were doing statuses long before Facebook ever came along!  (Too bad I didn’t file for a patent.)

Now, one thing I truly appreciate is a good pun.  What follows is a quick list of the aliases that I found to be the most punny.  If you read these and don’t "get it", send me email, and I will try to help you out.

  • Jonathan "Don’t slap my shooting" Hand
  • RJ "The (Wynn)ing Bracket" Wynn
  • Andrew "Wouldn’t It Be Fun If We Went" Bolin
  • Dan "the" Mandara
  • Chuck "Parley, me, rosemary, and thyme" Sage
  • Nick "PumDog Millionaire" Pummell
  • Anderson "I’m the real Mini-" Cooper
  • Jason "Off the" Roehl

Besides the puns, here are a few of my favorite aliases that just begging for a comment.

  • Tom "Impeach Obama, Elect Jeff Little" Gidley – I don’t want the job, thanks.
  • James "Marriage has sapped my hoops knowledge" Badgley – How’s your bank account?
  • Dan "Striving for last place(again)" Kopp – Go for it!
  • Luke "What does this button do?" Gilbert – Push it and find out.
  • Brian "No autopsy, no foul" Gerlach – I couldn’t agree more.
  • Evan "IU’s starting center 2011: Jeff Little" Gidley – You’ve obviously never met me in person.
  • Elliott "THE NEXT SHAQTUS" Murray – Truer words were never spoken.
  • Wayne "init2winit" Murray – Aren’t we all?
  • Andrew "Hummel Can Have My ACL" Ables – It wouldn’t help.
  • Kathy "ImasadIUfan" Thomas – You are not alone.
  • Wendy "I actually watched some games this year!" Cooper – Congratulations.
  • Joseph "2009 Champ" Jenkins – Sure, rub it in.
  • Daniel "Doesn’t really care" Labbato – You’ll probably win, then.
  • Reid "Can’t Touch This!!!" Labbato – Cue MC Hammer.
  • Ethan "Yeti" McGivern – If you knew Ethan personally, you’d know just how hilarious this really is.
  • Mike "If it was easy…" Desch – …everyone would be doing it.
  • Melody why do i do this to myself" Darnall – Because it’s cheaper than therapy.
  • Matt "IU Will Be Back" Bauschek – One can only hope.
  • George "President Obama’s Actual Picks" Lockett – Picks we can believe in?
  • Connie "Don’t You ‘Mom’ Me!" Randazzo – Have you been talking to my mom?
  • Chris "Trying a New System" Deaver – Let me know how that works out for you.
  • Dave "Wow the Hoosiers almost won TEN GAMES!!!" Allender – Ok, them’s fightin’ words.
  • Amber "winner winner chicken dinner" Little – My favorite alias, without question.
  • Sandy "proudtobe50" Risner – Beats the alternative, doesn’t it?
  • Kris "OSU Nut" Williams – If you’re talking about the Buckeye, it’s a worthless nut.
  • Angie "thisiswhatido2copew/themadness" Davis – You mean type sentences with no spaces?
  • Bryson "last year i was kidding, THIS is my year" Davis – Thanks for clearing that up.
  • Nicholas "You The MAN!" Kusiak – Thank you very much.
  • Lucky "What’s March Madness?" Ongko – Stunned silence.
  • Joey "Should have let my wife pick" Inskeep – Only if you wanted to win.
  • Bill "Spikewazzu" Spyksma – Once again, I ask, what exactly is a "wazzu"?
  • Rob "Picked at 12:05 PM" Barta – Better late than never.

The Shameless Self-Promotion Award goes to Blake "www.ImagesByBlake.net" Dieringer. Blake IS a good photographer, by the way.  If he gets more business from this, he owes me a finder’s fee.

Obligatory Statistical Observations

Over the years I have enjoyed a special fascination with statistical trends in the NCAA tournament, particularly those with respect to the performance of the seeds.  For example, did you know that a 7 seed still has never reached the Final Four?  Rather than list other such factoids here, I refer you to this excellent article published by ESPN. It is worth a read if this sort of thing is of interest to you.

Of particular note, however, is the fact that no team that has lost its first game in its conference tournament has ever gone on to win a national championship.  Whom does that eliminate this year?  Syracuse.  This is bad news for the 30 contestants who picked them to go all the way.

A Few Quick Awards

  • The Wishful Thinking Award goes to Margaret Dean, who picked a ridiculous 30 out of 32 upsets in the first round.  The good news is, you will probably get all the upsets correct.  The bad news is you will miss every other game.
  • The traditional Upset Stomach Award goes to Corryne Fairchild and Matthew Hand, each who picked 23 first round upsets.  For perspective, the average number of first round upsets is 7.
  • The Glen Beck Award For Ultra-Conservatism goes to three contestants who decided to go with the higher seeded team in every first round game:Char H., Rob Fair, and Daniel Labbato.

Ok, time to actually pay attention to the basketball. Watch for midday commentary and awards late this afternoon.