The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised. – George Will
Crazy Eights
With the field now being whittled down to eight, here is a smattering of data ranging from the interesting to the arcane.
- Ones Done? – Only one top seed remains, tournament overall #1 Louisville, who is yet to be seriously challenged in three games. While it is relatively common for a Final Four to contain just one #1 seed, a Final Four with none of the #1 seeds is relatively rare. It has only happened twice in the 64 team era, curiously, both in the last seven years (’06,’11).
- Dial 3-2-1 For This Conference Call – The Elite Eight is comprised of three teams from the Big East, two teams from the Big Ten, and one each from the ACC, SEC, and MVC (who?!!!). The Pac-12, Mountain West, Atlantic 10, and Big 12 have all been eliminated.
- Oh Ye of Little Faith – One of the things the contest makes rather obvious is which teams were viewed as favorites and which ones were viewed as long shots. For example, a quick look at the possible remaining Scategories bonus report shows that no matter who wins the game between Syracuse and Marquette, a handful of contestants will win a Scategories bonus. Wichita State has one, solitary believer (speaking of original picks, of course) among 661 contestants, a true Scategories pick if they happen to win. All of the other five teams had enough support to push them out of the Scategories range. But here’s the kicker. Of the eight teams remaining, exactly half qualify for the Ultimate Scategories Bonus, i.e., for winning a national championship. I’m talking about Syracuse, Florida, Marquette, and Michigan. Not a soul picked Wichita State to win it all with an original pick. Louisville, Duke, and Ohio State were all much more popular picks for national champion.
- This Tournament Is Still For The Birds – As far as team name/mascot goes, the only categories with winning records are the Birds (14-5), Colors (4-1), Demonic Powers (3-1), Military (5-4), Natural Phenomena (3-2), Rodents (4-3), and Insects (3-0). The Elite Eight is comprised of two birds, a demon, an insect, a nut, a rodent, a reptile, and a color. Quite an eclectic group, don’t you think?
Game Thoughts
- It Was The Best Game I Never Watched – Due to Good Friday service at the church, I didn’t get to see any of what was apparently the most exciting game of the tournament so far. I am referring to Michigan’s apparently epic comeback against Kansas, which provided us with this year’s first and only overtime game. Give the Red Dawn award to the gang from Ann Arbor. Not bad for a bunch of kids.
- The Feathers Flew – And Louisville emerged victorious in the the battle of the birds. I didn’t see any of this game, either, but I get the impression it was never close.
- The Duke of…Indy? – Now this game my wife, Heather, and I actually saw in person. (The Generosity award goes to non-contestants Nick & Sarah Gay whose wedding I performed on Friday night of March Madness opening weekend and who gave us the tickets.) The game was competitive until about 10 minutes to go when Michigan State seemed to forget the point of the game is to put the ball in the basket. Duke put on a clinic of how to win in the NCAA tournament by hitting 92% of its free throws. Duke’s Seth Curry was on fire and had 29 points on 8-17 shooting. The David Copperfield Award For Absolute Incredulity has to go Sparty, as I watched them foul Duke with less than 10 seconds left on the shot clock on three consecutive defensive possessions. Nobody is going to pay me millions to coach a college basketball team, but I still think it’s pretty clear that toward the end of the game especially, you either foul early in the shot clock or not at all.
- Florida Refuses To Make History – At first it seemed as though Florida Gulf Coast might do the outrageously impossible. (They had already done the impossible by advancing to the Sweet 16 as a 15 seed.) They had a sizable lead early in this game. No way was Florida going to be the next team guilty of not taking the Eagles seriously, though. They did what FGCU’s first two opponents failed to do, and that is get a lead and then put the hammer down on defense. FGCU is a lot like the Colts of a few years ago – fast, athletic, prolific scorers, but built to play with the lead and not necessarily to come from behind. It’s hard to view FGCU’s tournament run as anything other than a colossal success. This puts them squarely on the basketball map, and they will reap benefits for years to come.
Round 3 Awards
Enough blibber blabber. Time for a few awards.
- The Top Prognosticator award goes to two contestants who got 6 of the Elite 8 correct with their original picks: Tyler Rubach and John Wilcox. Honorable mention goes to Anna Deaver, Madeline Muschalik, and Jane Gomez for getting 7 out of 8 with the benefit of the re-picks.
- The Downward Spiral award goes to Austin Stickney who has fallen from a high to 64th to a low of 554th. This could have something to do with the fact that he failed to re-pick.
- The And The Horse You Road In On award goes to Caroline “Beating the Pants Off Anthony Randazzo” Modarressy-Tehrani, currently in 66th place. That sounds intensely personal to me.
- The Genesis 3:10 award goes to now de-pantsed Anthony Randazzo. Current Rank: 336.
- The It May Be Wayne’s World, But It’s Your Contest award goes to Traci “Wayne’s World” Murray, owner of 48th place and a commanding lead over her husband, Wayne Murray.
- The Clueless award, sponsored by Alicia Silverstone, goes to Nicholette “haven’t a clue” Fraser, sole owner of last place.
- The Sesame Street award goes to Blake “G is for Gonzaga” Dieringer. You can beat me at PIG, but you’re 400+ places behind me in the contest.
- The Botanical Garden Award For Utter Redundancy goes to Isaac “Isaac couch” Couch. Isaac sits in the median rank of 331st.
- The Wishful Thinking award goes to John “Check out my bracket…[ I WIN!” Lederman. While clever, that alias does not change the fact that John nis now in 258th place.
- And finally, the Leader Of The Band award goes to Anna “One, Anna Two…” Deaver, sole possessor of first place. Anna unseated previous leader Josh “The punisher” Paddack. Since the contest got beyond 16 games placed, we have had six different contest leaders. Congratulations to 8-year-old Anna. Let’s see if she can hold it through the weekend.
I know I should probably give out more awards, but if tired were measured in people, I’d be India. I’ll be back tomorrow with another quick commentary, followed by the Final Four roundup on Sunday night and another barrage of wacky awards. Until then, Happy Easter to you all!
The Wizard of Whiteland