You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else. – Albert Einstein
The Contest Goes Viral!
Ok, not quite viral, but as of this writing, we are at an astonishing 705 entries, and some are still trickling in. I am continually amazed at how this little hobby of mine has taken on a life of its own. Yesterday I was looking over the various private groups that you minions have requested, and some of them have more members all by themselves than we had in the entire contest in the early days! So many of you send kind emails of gratitude, and let me assure you, I read every one. I thank you, kind minions, for making the contest more than I could have ever dreamed. You folks are awesome!
And now I’m done being nice…
Initial Reactions
- The big news this year in Men’s College Basketball is conference realignment. The Big East is nearly unrecognizable. The ACC has inherited some of the former Big East power houses. The American Athletic Conference (AAC), not to be confused with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), inherited a hodgepodge of former Big East, Conference USA, and other miscellaneous teams. The AAC clearly got zero street cred from the selection committee, evidenced most notably by Louisville’s unconscionable 4 seed. Meanwhile the Atlantic 10 got an unheard of 6 teams in the field this year. The Conference Watch Report will be an interesting one to keep an eye on this year.
- Wichita State is an enigma, clearly deserving a number 1 seed due to being undefeated, but not getting much love from the experts due to playing in the MVC. 160 of you minions have them in the Final Four, and 62 have them as national champions, so their bandwagon is respectably sized. Nevertheless, I fear they could be this year’s Gonzaga, the top seed that underachieves.
- Florida is the clear favorite among the minions with 205 picking them as champion. Florida is certainly the clear front runner with their crew of talented seniors. It is odd to talk about Florida as a basketball powerhouse in a football state, but they are definitely the heavy favorite.
- I say it every year. Do not overlook Sparty in March. Tom Izzo is a coaching genius who always has his Michigan State team ready to play come tournament time. The minions seem to agree with a staggering 137 picking them to go all the way, second only to Florida.
- Cinderella Watch – It will be interesting to see which double-digit seed, if any, over-performs this year, but I have my eye on Stephen F. Austin (that’s a school, not the leading man in the highly anticipated Divergent movie that opens tonight) and New Mexico State.
By The Numbers
I know everyone is salivating over the best alias award, but it takes time to pour over 700+ quips and witticisms. Patience, minions. I will be presenting the alias awards later today. For now, here is the obligatory contest analysis “by the numbers”.
- 722 – Total number of entries in this year’s contest, the most ever by far.
- 132– Number of contest first-timers
- 1 billion – Number of dollars Warren Buffett is offering to anyone who can fill out the perfect bracket, i.e., pick all 63 games correctly.
- 9.2 quintillion – As in “1 in,” it’s the odds of winning that one billion dollars.
- 73 billion – The number of TIMES more likely it is to win Powerball than to pick a perfect bracket. Think about that.
- 0 – The number of people who are going to win one billion dollars.
- 19 – Number of losses the Cal Poly Mustangs have going into their match up with top seed Wichita State. That’s 19 more losses than the Shockers and 5 more losses than wins for the Mustangs.
- 23 – Number of years since a team entered the tournament undefeated. UNLV last did it in 1991. They lost in the final that year to Duke.
- 38 – Number of years since a team finished the season undefeated, which was last accomplished by the Indiana Hoosiers in 1976. Wichita State will try to repeat that feat this year.
- 0 – Number of Indiana schools in this year’s field of 64.
- 6 – Number of consecutive years a 13 seed has won at least one game in the tournament. Who will it be this year?
- 7 – Number of teams from the Big 12 conference in this year’s tournament, the most of any conference.
- 11 – Number of minions who picked zero upsets in the first round.
- 1 – Number of minions who picked the lower seed in EVERY first round game, i.e., the all-upset bracket.
- 438– Number of contestants who made at least one pick eligible for a coveted Scategories bonus.
Quick Awards
This is the best part of the entire contest, of course. I have to measure them out judiciously, though. Too many awards lowers their value. This isn’t little league soccer where everyone gets a trophy.
- The Wizard’s Apprentice award goes to Braden Murray who helped me get the database populated initially with the teams, mascots, and conferences. That task goes a lot faster when you have help.
- The Better Late Than Never award goes to Angie Davis who after nearly incessant nagging from the contest manager finally got her entry in just before the deadline. Angie was the next to last person to enter.
- The Mass Marketing award goes to the members of the Calvary Christian private group which boasts 37 members. Honorable mention goes to Gull Rock with 35.
- The Unsung Hero award goes to Brad Schafer for showing me the CSS template I used to “mobilize” the site this year.
- The You Had Two Strikes Against You But Managed To Get On Base award goes to my web hosting provider, who after two consecutive years of having an “issue” on this Thursday of March Madness at the worst possible time, managed to stay up and accessible throughout the process. You get my business for one more year.
- The Someone Call A Chiropractor award goes to the collective of the NCAA’s power conferences who through the process of realignment have cast decades of basketball history into chaos. I had to look up nearly every team this year to see which conference they were in.
Ok, minions, I know this was short and sweet, but I have a conference call in 4 minutes. (Work really gets in the way of the important stuff this time of year.) Look for more commentary, the coveted alias awards, and of course, keep an eye on the scoreboard.
Until then,
The Wizard of Whiteland