“Because Gilligan is the only one I know who can snatch defeat right out of the jaws of victory!” – The Skipper

Being now both heavily caffeinated and thoroughly exhausted, I offer you the final commentary of the week.

The Madness Returns

After a relatively uneventful Saturday, the madness returned on Sunday with a double overtime thriller, two buzzer-beaters, and one shocking upset.

• Nothing To See Here. Move Along. – Hawai’i? Aloha. Iowa? Very bad. Middle Tennessee? Even worse. Villanova, Maryland, and Syracuse advance easily.
• The Best Game I Didn’t Watch – Oklahoma survived and advanced against a pesky VCU. This being small group night at our church, I didn’t get to see this game, but I was moderately surprised at the final margin of victory.
• Glass Slippers Smashed – As was noted in an earlier edition of the commentary, 10 double-digit seeds advanced to the round of 32, tying a tournament record. Two would play each other (Syracuse and Middle Tennessee), thus guaranteeing that at least one but at most nine double digit seeds would make it to the Sweet Sixteen. When the smoke cleared, the dust settled, and all was said and done, at the end of the day the favorites played with a chip on their shoulder, passed the heat check, and survived and advanced in every game but one. They also afforded me the opportunity to get my overused sports cliché quota filled in a single sentence. Only 11 seed Gonzaga managed to defeat their single-digit seed opponent (Utah, #3). Strangely, they will face the only other remaining double-digit seed in the Sweet Sixteen, Syracuse, in the third round, guaranteeing at least one double-digit seed will advance to the Elite Eight this year.
• Luck Of The Irish – There has been considerable chatter among the minions about the quality of the officiating in the Notre Dame vs Stephen F Austin game. One minion even referred to referee Mark Whitehead as the “Domer Homer”. Be that as it may, the fact is that SFA failed to get a quality shot on its final possession, up by a point, setting the stage for what ended up happening.  In a frantic tip drill at the other end, Notre Dame’s Rex Pflueger scored his only basket of the game with a tip in of the second offensive rebound with 1.2 seconds left. As alert minion Sam Brauen noted, SFA lost because they got away from their offense and started playing not to lose.
• Reggie Miller, Eat Your Heart Out – Pacer fans will never forget the day Uncle Reggie scored 8 points in 9 seconds to beat the hated Knicks. Compare that to today’s Northern Iowa vs Texas A&M contest. Northern Iowa was up 12 with 44 seconds to play. The majority of the Aggie fans had left the building. Viewers at home went to the fridge or the bathroom. Then the unthinkable happened. The Panthers committed four turnovers in 31 seconds, allowing Texas A&M to tie the game in regulation. Two overtimes later, Northern Iowa had pulled their own Gilligan, snatching defeat right from the jaws of victory. Though certainly not as talented as the 2006 Gonzaga team with Adam Morrison, this collapse rivals that Gonzaga club’s epic collapse in losing to UCLA that year after leading (by as much as 17 points) the game for all but the last 8.6 seconds.
• X No Longer Marks The Spot – But perhaps the most thrilling game of the evening was Wisconsin’s improbable upset of 2 seed Xavier when Bronson Koenig hit a fade away three pointer at the buzzer. The shot of Bill Murray’s stunned, expressionless face said it all. Eks-Zay-Vee-Er has been eksed off the bracket.

Sweet Sixteen By The Numbers

• It’s Good To Be King – All four #1 seeds advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, though Oregon and Virginia certainly survived a challenge from their opponents.  If you’re a fan of symmetry, you will be pleased to note that the upper regions on the bracket feature 1 vs 5 matchups in the next round while the lower regions both have 1 vs 4 games.
• Double Trouble – Two double-digit seeds remain, #11 Gonzaga and #10 Syracuse. As mentioned earlier, they play each other, and as it turns out, there is no game bigger for our contest in the next round than this one. No matter who wins, a 12-point Scategories bonus will be awarded to those who made the correct (original) pick.
• Chalk Talk – The West region was the only one that went according Hoyle with the expected 1, 2, 3, and 4 seeds advancing to the Sweet Sixteen.
• Lucky 7 – Wisconsin is the only 7 seed remaining in the tournament. Likewise, Notre Dame is the only remaining 6 seed, and they play each other in the next round.
• Three Is A Magic Number – There were just three upsets in the second round this year offering a relatively paltry 14 bonus points to those who picked all three (and 27 contestants did).
• Zero – Number of contestants who can still win all remaining 15 games without making a re-pick. That’s right. EVERYONE has lost at least one team they had advanced to the Elite Eight already.

Round Two Awards

And now it’s time to hand out the round two hardware.

• The Practically Perfect award goes to the two minions who picked 14 of the Sweet 16 correctly: Andrew McGuire and Luke Anderson. Andrew and Luke will receive the Marry Poppins/Saving Mr. Banks boxed set.  No one picked more than 14 correctly.
• The Good Luck With That award goes to Daniel “My goal is to beat Dr. Brittany” Labbato. Daniel: 64 points, 298th place. Dr. Brittany: 101 pts, 7th place.
• The Can I Get A Do-Over? award goes to those contestants who can’t win another game without the benefit of the re-pick round: John “Upset City” Smith, Eric “The Dank Chef” Schneckloth, and Matthew “Underdog” Hickey.
• The Secret Of Her Success award goes to 32nd place minion Kassy “Haven’t watched a game all season” Morales. No doubt that allowed you to pick unencumbered by any pretense of authoritative basketball knowledge.
• The So Far, So Good award goes to Bryson “As long as I beat my mom & girlfriend” Davis. Bryson is ranked 44th, well ahead of Mom (Angie Davis, 312th) and Girlfriend (Yadira Martinez, 751st).
• The Power of Positive Thinking award goes to Bill “I have more upside now” Spyksma, currently 49th. Bill will receive the latest offering from motivational speaker Tony Robbins.
• The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy award goes to Spencer “I’m going to lose badly” Teach. Spencer is currently tied for 793rd.
• The You’re Still Pretty Close To The Bottom award goes to Eric “Started from the bottom now we’re here” Shelton. “Here” is 696th place.
• The Is There A Doctor In The House? award goes to 653rd place contestant Kristin “The Doctor is Out” Schafer. Actually, the doctor is one position below you in the standings, Garry “Dr Brackett” Brackett is 654th.
• The B1G award, given in honor of the Big Ten Conference’s inability to count to 10, goes to 14th place contestant Michael Dawn Watkins.
• The It’s Always Sunny For March Madness award goes to 20th place minion Gary “Philly guy at heart” DeLong.  Gary will receive an autographed photo of Danny DeVito and a green nylon full body suit.
• And finally, the Sixteen Candles award goes to the current contest leader, Ken Jordan, who still sits atop the standings with 116 points, just one point ahead of second place minion Braden Murray.  Obviously, it’s still anybody’s contest to win.

The Re-pick Round Has Begun!

Before I close this edition of the commentary, let me remind you that the re-pick round has now officially begun. This is a critical component of Jeff’s March Madness Contest, one that you will ignore at your peril. While it is true that some of you are in a position where no amount of re-picking can win the contest for you, we have certainly had instances in the past where people LOST the contest because they failed to take advantage of the re-picks. Why have re-picks?  I’m glad you asked. It is simply to keep people interested and rooting for teams for the remainder of the tournament no matter how good or how poorly they have done so far.

IMPORTANT: Everything you need to know to make your re-picks can be found on the website here.  Please read these instructions care – full – ly. I know the process is a tad confusing. That is why I have written such detailed instructions. I wish I could make it simpler, and perhaps some day I will, but for now, please check the instructions, paying particular attention to step #2.  Step #2 describes the part of the re-pick process about which I get the most questions every year. Of course you are welcome to email me if you still have questions or can’t figure out what is going on with the re-picks. The deadline to complete your re-picks is 7:00 PM EDT on Thursday.

On that note, it’s time for the Wizard to step back behind the curtain for an 89 hour break. If you have any issues this week with your password or your re-picks, send me email. Otherwise, I will see you again Thursday night.

The Wizard of Whiteland

Contest Homepage