Every kid coming out of Harvard, every kid coming out of school now thinks he can be the next Mark Zuckerberg, and with these new technologies like cloud computing, he actually has a shot. – Marc Andreessen
Upset Specials
While the morning games had little to offer in terms of upsets outside of Oregon, the evening was much more interesting.
- Golden Bears Run Out The Rebels – The much-maligned Pac-12 continued its strong showing as 12 seed California ran the 5 seed UNLV Runnin’ Rebels out of the dance. The Elias Sports Bureau reports that UNLV is the 3rd team ever to lose 4 straight games in the round of 64 as the better seed. Translation: perennial loser.
- Mountain Worst Can’t Shake the Label – Historically the Mountain West has performed poorly in the NCAA Tournament. The conference rarely records more than one win in a single tournament, and while they have had a couple of Sweet 16 appearances in the last 5 years (UNLV in 2007 and San Diego State in 2011), the last truly successful Mountain West team was Larry Johnson’s UNLV teams of 1990 and 1991. This year the selection committee gave a lot of love to the Mountain West, selecting five teams for the field of 68. So far they are 1-3, with New Mexico suffering the most shocking defeat, which brings me to…
- Harvard Law – Harvard had never won an NCAA Tournament game…ever…until about two hours ago when they defeated Steve Alford’s New Mexico Lobos in impressive fashion. Harvard never trailed in this game, and New Mexico looked absolutely flustered. NBA star Jeremy Lin’s alma matre gave us the biggest upset so far in our contest – a 14 over a 3 – for a total of twelve points for 64 prescient contestants who picked them.
- They Put the 12 in Pac-12 – By the way, this year’s Pac-12 became the first conference ever to field multiple teams seeded 12 or lower to win more than one game in a single tournament. “And the horse you rode in on, selection committee.”
Big Blowouts
While today had its share of heart-pounding nail biters, it also had a number of head-shaking beat downs.
- Havoc – That’s what they call VCU’s style of defense, and boy did they wreak it upon the upset-minded Akron Zips today. VCU’s 46-point margin of victory was the largest ever by a team seeded 3 or lower in tournament history. That record lasted about an hour until…
- Orange You Glad You Didn’t Pick Montana? – Right, Seth Davis? The CBS analyst took Montana as a surprise upset pick. Instead, 4th seeded Syracuse broke the aforementioned VCU’s record by thumping Montana by 47 points.
Other Trivia
- True Blue – Marquette’s Vander Blue saved the day by hitting the go-ahead layup with one second remaining to beat Davidson. Believe it or not, this was the first game-tying or game-winning shot made in the final 10 seconds of a tournament game in the past two seasons. Prior to Blue’s successful attempt, players missed the previous 22 such attempts.
- Even Stevens – Butler’s Brad Stevens is 12-4 all time in the Big Dance. The only coaches with better records in their first 16 NCAA tournament appearances are Tom Izzo and Steve Fisher.
- Stop Thief! – Louisville’s Russ Smith had record-tying eight steals in their victory over North Carolina A&T.
Day One Awards
Without further ado, here are the day one awards.
- The If You Both Were The Same, One Of You Would Be Unnecessary award goes to husband and wife duo Eusi “Guess a lot” and Nicholette “Haven’t got a clue” Fraser. Eusi is currently tied for 4th with 38 points. Apparently he guesses correctly a lot. Nicholette is in sole possession of next to last. Apparently she really doesn’t have a clue.
- The I Hate This Stupid Scoring System award goes to Nathan Stratton, who complained via Facebook that he lost a single game and dropped from 1st to 119th.
- The I Love This Awesome Scoring System award goes to Traci Murray, who rejoiced via Facebook that she was in 10th. “You ask me how? I just don’t know.” Her time at 10th was short-lived. She is now tied for 48th.
- The Wizard’s Apprentice award goes to my daughter, Amber “thebomb.com” Little, who picked the Harvard game and sits tied for 4th.
- The What Were You Thinking? award goes to 3rd place contestant Kristen “Ohio Who?” Perkins. Kristen has an impressive 14 wins, but her two losses were 14 seeds Valpo and Montana. In fact, Kristen picked all four 14 seeds to win. This must have been part of her strategy, as that has never happened before.
- The Remind Me Never To Pick Belmont Again award goes to Anthony “TheBracketKing” Spuches, in second place with 14 wins.
- And finally, the Yellow Jersey award goes to the contest leader after day one, Jacob “Skylander Master” Deaver. Jacob posted an impressive 15-1 record, losing only the minor upset of Wichita State over Pittsburgh. Jacob will receive 1 million surplus Live Strong bracelets from Lance Armstrong’s private collection.
And that’s a wrap for day one of this year’s madness. One exhausted contest manager is signing off to recharge batteries and prepare for another day of exciting hoops action. Have an insight, quip, wise crack, or amusing observation of your own to share? Post it on the contest Facebook page, easily accessible from the contest website.
Stepping behind the curtain,
The Wizard of Whiteland