“I hope you’ll understand
That I was born a ramblin’ man” – The Allman Brothers Band
Rapid Reactions
While I am thankful for the modern Ted Turner-CBS partnership that has made it possible to watch any and every game from the East coast opener at noon until the 1:00 AM West coast night cap, the arrangement has taken away the TV break I used to have between the afternoon and evening sessions. Thus, these midday editorials must be shortened. In fact, the first game of the night session (Kentucky vs Davison, Wildcats vs Wildcats) is already 5 minutes in as I write this.
- Fast Start or Fat Start? – The madness started early this year with the first game of the day going in to overtime. The winners? The Rhode Island Rams defeated the much-maligned Oklahoma Sooners thanks in no small part to the 165-pound Fatts Russell, so named because he was allegedly a chubby toddler. Like I always say, I’d rather be fat than good any day.
- Ending The Drought – The Tennessee Volunteers ended a tournament drought by notching their first win in four years. Sing a couple bars of Rocky Top with me.
- Was That REALLY Necessary? – My game-watching was interrupted today by a (apparently obligatory) monthly test of the Emergency Alert System. Really? You couldn’t have picked one of the OTHER 30 days in the month to perform that monthly test?
- Gonzaga Makes Me Sweat It Out…Again – Oh, the travails of being a Gonzaga fan. They narrowly escaped a scare from UNC-Greensboro to advance to the round of 32. The Zags have one of the longest streaks in the country both in terms of consecutive tournament appearances and consecutive first round wins, but that consistency belies the nail-biting they subject their fans to with alarming regularity.
- The Best Thing I Saw On Facebook Today
- The Text Of The Day came from Jim Cockrum: “If you missed it, Powerade just showed their new (quite funny) “broken ankle crossover” commercial right after an Ohio State player went down with an ankle issue.” Perfect timing.
- Play Of The Day – If you missed the game between Loyola-Chicago and Miami (FL), you missed the most exciting game of the tournament so far. The madness started when the Ramblers’ Lucas Williamson managed to knock the ball off of Miami’s Lonnie Walker IV to force a turnover with about 23 seconds left. Down just one point, the Ramblers missed not one but two shots at point-blank range. Replay revealed the second shooter was fouled, but there was no call. Instead, Miami got the rebound, and Loyola-Chicago was forced to foul with under 9 seconds remaining. Walker missed his chance at redemption and the front end of the one-and-one, however. After securing the rebound, the Ramblers took it the length of the floor where Donte Ingram hit an NBA three-pointer at the buzzer to win. You may not realize that the Ramblers (whose mascot is a wolf, remember) won a national championship in 1963. Their quest for a second championship resumes on Saturday when they play the Volunteers of Tennessee.
- The 8-0 Club – With only the one upset in the opening session, 47 minions are still perfect and tied for first with 13 points. How many will emerge from the evening session still perfect? My guess is none, but we will soon see.
- This Just In – I just heard on the broadcast that March is colorectal cancer awareness month. Really? There’s a month for that? Now, I am in no way trying to make light of a very serious condition, especially if any of you minions or your loved ones have battled with it. But some things just, you know, maybe don’t need their own month.
Awards
This early in the contest it is difficult to come up with many significant or even insignificant yet witty awards, but I will give it a shot.
- The Nowhere To Go But Up award goes to last place contestant Clayton Fields, who according to his alias apparently has a cousin who is a Kentucky fan. Maybe that Kentucky pick will help move you up the standings.
- The Sorry, But Rules Are Rules award goes to the unlucky Russell Lair who unfortunately missed the contest entry deadline. While I would have liked to allow the late entry, alas, this is not possible. My guess is that Russell will be the first entry next year.
- The Can You Hear Me Now award goes to my good friend, Brad Schafer, who has been blowing up my phone with regularity since about Tuesday. We used to have this banter on AOL Instant Messenger, but in case you missed it, that was app decommissioned in December. Thus, we have resorted to copious amounts of text messaging. Keep ’em coming, Pappy.
That’s all I have for now. The day one wrap up and awards will arrive in your inbox while you sleep and I don’t.
The Wizard of Whiteland