How does one begin to describe the wildest, craziest, most confounding Friday perhaps in the history of the NCAA tournament? Let’s start by looking at it by the numbers.
By The Numbers
- 8 – Number of games won by the lower seed on Friday (half of all games played).
- 2019 – Number of days since the last time a 15 seed had won an NCAA Tournament game before Norfolk State beat Mizzou.
- 171 – Number of minutes it took for a 15 seed to do it again!
- 6 – Number of games won by 15 seeds all-time.
- 15 – Number of contestants who picked Lehigh to beat Duke.
- 18 – Number of contestants who picked Norfolk State to beat Mizzou.
- 9 – Number of double-digit seeds remaining in the field of 32 (more than 1/4th)
- 0 – Number of overtime games so far in this year’s tournament
I Stand Corrected
For the second night in a row, a player was called for a lane violation while coming in from above the three point line. For the second night in a row, it was a turning point in the game. For the second night in a row, I was wrong about the rule. Apparently, if you are lined up in the lane, you can enter when the ball is released. However, if you are standing above the three point line, you may not cross the line until the ball hits the rim. Thus, the refs made the correct call both in the Syracuse-UNC-Ashville game and the Notre Dame-Xavier game. You learn something every day.
Through The Looking Glass
As if one 15-over-2 upset wasn’t enough to turn our brackets and our contest standings upside down, we really entered a parallel universe when the second 15 seed of the evening stunned their heavily favored opponent. This has two interesting effects on our contest. First, it turns it a bit into the theater of the absurd, rewarding a handful of folks who either made their picks via dartboard or picked all the underdogs just to be cute. Second, it vaults the youngsters in the contest to the top of standings. As a rule of thumb, the younger the contestant, the more likely they are to pick unlikely upsets. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and to the victors go the spoils. More on the standings in a moment…
Cinderella’s Brawl
Listen, Cinderella has not arrived at the dance. A dozen Cinderella’s have gathered near the door, glass slippers in hand, ready bust heads and take names. Earlier this evening contestant Zach Richardson sent me this text message.
Everyone should be the same seed in the tournament…seeding doesn’t matter anymore…
It’s true. Even the 16 seeds played respectably for the most part. Sure, there were a few blowouts, and the majority of the games on day one were won by the higher seed, but you take the numbers off these teams before the game starts, and you would have a very hard time deciding who the favorite is most of the time.
The Bone-Headed Play of the Day
Another time-honored tradition of Jeff’s March Madness Contest, I will now pay homage to the day’s most outstanding demonstrations of ineptitude.
- Stand Still, Son – Up by one with less than 30 seconds to play, Saint Mary’s Clint Steindl failed to stay put as he took the ball out of bounds and was called for traveling. For the record, you can only run the baseline while taking the ball out of bounds after a made basket by the opposing team. Purdue eventually won the game.
- No Luck for these Irish – A sequence of bone-headed maneuvers in the final minute of their game with Xavier ended up being the undoing of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. First there was the cross court pass to no one that gave Xavier the ball and the possession that gave them the lead. Then there was the bizarre lane violation that negated the first made free throw of a one-and-one by Eric Atkins. Had Eric made the second free throw, the game would have been tied. Instead, Xavier gets the ball out of bounds up two points with 2.8 seconds left. The final bone-headed maneuver came when Notre Dame’s Pat Connaughton grabbed the jersey of Dezmine Wells and was called for an intentional foul. Two shots and the ball for Xavier. Game over.
Miscellany
- And the horse you rode in on – In the closing seconds of the game between NC State and San Diego State, NC State having sewn up the victory, San Diego State’s Jamaal Franklin decided it was time for a slam dunk contest. He hurled the ball high off the backboard, leapt from near the free throw line, caught it, and slammed it home as the bemused NC State players watched unmoved. I’ll give it a 9.5, but they still lost the game.
- Geeks in sneaks – The Bonnies of St. Bonaventure boast such lofty courses as quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. Basketball may not be rocket science, but this team seems to be chock full of rocket scientists. In other news, Fryar Tuck and Nacho Libre were spotted in the stands at this game.
- The lost art of free throw shooting – Remember the days when most players on most of the upper tier teams could be counted on to make most of their free throws most of the time? Yeah, me neither. Creighton nearly coughed up the game by missing two free throws at the end that would have put them up by three. I used to think that teams with poor free throw shooting were bound to lose early, but nowadays everybody stinks at free throw shooting, so I am not sure it matters.
- It just sounds cool – Is there any cooler name in all of broadcasting than Ian Eagle? Is Jim Spanarkle really his sidekick’s name?
Round One Awards
And now without further ado, I present the Round One Contest Awards.
- The Mighty Casey Has Struck Out award goes to Samuel Hadley, who after a perfect 16-0 day one dropped to 138th by the end of day two.
- The Wycliff Award For Biblical Literacy goes to Trevis Litherland for his clever use of Biblical allusions in his two alias updates today. Starting the day at dead last, he posted, “Shut up, Jeremiah! You have no idea.” Upon rising to 19th, he switched to, “Lazarus II“. (Email me if you don’t get the jokes, especially the first one. It took me a minute, but I got a good laugh when I finally got it.)
- The This Bracket Is Definitely Busted award goes to Garry Brackett (no, not the former Colts middle linebacker), currently tied for 521st.
- The Falling Star award goes to the Harpers, Jack and Mary Jo, who dropped from 42nd to 377th and 15th to 267th, respectively.
- The Upset Stomach award, sponsored by Prilosec ADHD, goes to Julia Harper, Kasiah Hand, and Gabriel Geistwhite, all of whom have wracked up a whopping 70 bonus points so far including Scategories bonuses. These three contestants have 6 or 7 times as many bonus points as regular base points in the contest.
- The This Just Can’t Be Happening award goes to one-time contest leader Vince Geistwhite, who is 26-6 and yet has fallen to 59th place.
- The Reverse Psychology award goes to Daniel “my goal is to come in last:)” Labbato, currently in 11th place.
- The Bad News Bears Award for Utter Futility goes to Paul Sopke, 16-16 and dead last with just 16 points.
- The Gutter Ball award goes to Brent “Conventional Picks” Bolin, who simply picked the higher seed to win every game. This has earned him a tie for 340th.
- The Nowhere To Go But Down award goes to 2nd place contestant Julia “I Love Mommy” Harper, whom I suspect is barely old enough to speak, and who has only five more games she can win (before the re-pick round, of course).
- The Bruce Lee Award for Mad Ninja Skills goes to Caroline “Ninja Girl” Fairchild, currently in 10th place.
- The March Mizzou-rey award goes to the 30 contestants who picked Mizzou to win it all.
- The Devil Made Me Do It award goes to the 11 contestants who picked Duke to win it all.
- And finally, the Gotta Hand It To Ya award goes to Kasaiah Hand, our current contest leader. Kasaiah picked three of the four 15 seeds to win, and two of them actually pulled it off. Big risk, big reward.
And with that, it’s time for this Wizard to step back behind the curtain for a few hours. Check back tomorrow for more updates, tweets, and general foolishness. Cheers!
The Wizard of Whiteland