“In the middle of Huntington, West Virginia there’s a river. Next to this river there is a steel mill. And next to the steel mill there is a school. In the middle of the school, there is a fountain. Each year on the exact same day, at the exact same hour, the water to this fountain is turned off. And in this moment once every year, throughout the town, throughout the school, time stands still.” – We Are Marshall
It’s Deja Vu All Over Again
I was taking a peek at last year’s day two midday commentary when I realized that this year feels much like a repeat of last year. Twenty-four games into this year’s madness, we have only five upsets so far. With all the talk of “parity” in college basketball these days (and I generally agree it exists), the last two tournaments have been surprisingly “chalky”. I know this will sound like prophecy after the fact, but I personally wasn’t buying all the talk about many major upsets in this year’s tournament. My thinking was that this would be a year of mostly favorites. The remaining eight games will tell just how right I was, but nevertheless, I failed to follow my own advice and picked too many upsets myself.
The lack of upsets belies the fact that there have been several close and very exciting games, even if the better seed eventually won. But let’s not bury the lead, here. The top story of the afternoon was definitely an upset of significant proportion.
Post Game Thoughts
- We Are Marshall! – The Thundering Herd went thundering into the round of 32, shocking the fourth-seeded Shockers of Wichita State with a thrilling victory. Marshall’s Jon Elmore was absolutely lights-out deadly, draining three pointers from the hash! This is another case, though, where the reality of the box score doesn’t quite match the feel of watching the game live. It felt like both teams were bombing three pointers left and right, especially Elmore and Wichita State’s Conner Frankamp, who each had 27 points. In reality, both teams shot an incredible 52 threes, but only made 17! Perhaps it was the frantic pace of this game coupled with the timing of those made threes that made it so thrilling. In any case, congrats to the 123 minions who picked Marshall and earned themselves 10 points. That definitely moved you up in the standings.
- A Pyrrhic Victory For Purdue – The Boilermakers shellacked the hapless Cal-State-Fullerton Titans, at one point leading by over 30 points. Alas, it was a costly victory, as Purdue’s star big man Isaac Haas took a hard foul near the end of the game and exited with what would later be revealed as a broken elbow. It’s March Sadness for Boilermaker fans, as their chances of a deep run into the tournament diminish significantly without Haas, no disrespect to the Edwards boys.
- Philosophical Question Of The Day – This one comes from long-time contestant Dan Kopp. “Which is tougher? Picking the teams that win, or picking the teams that lose?” Things that make you go hmmmm.
- Sweet Caroline – The final game of the afternoon session was an overtime thriller between #7 Nevada and #10 Texas. The Longhorns controlled much of the game, leading by as many as 14 on the strength of their big man Mo Bamba. Unfortunately, after a furious Nevada comeback, Bamba fouled out with 3.8 seconds to go. A frenetic closing sequence after a silly Texas turnover failed to yield a winner, and the game went to overtime, but with no Mo Bamba. (See what I did there?) The hero of the game was Nevada’s Jordan Caroline, who scored the last three Wolfpack points of regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime. Weirdly, this game felt like an upset even though it wasn’t. Texas was the clear favorite in our contest with about 65% of the field picking them to beat Nevada.
- The Butler Did It Again – While the popular upset pick of #10 Texas did not pan out, the other upset pick involving a #10 did. Butler defeated Arkansas in convincing fashion, earning a date with the now Haas-less Boilermakers Sunday. Butler was also a popular pick in the contest with just under 75% of the minions choosing the Bulldogs. Moreover, 105 minions may have reason to rejoice for picking Butler to advance to the Sweet Sixteen considering the injury to Haas.
Quick Awards
In case you are wondering, I have been reading through your aliases, and many are very clever and funny. As much as I would love to include the coveted best alias awards in this commentary, the judges need more time to tabulate their scores. Look for the best alias awards (hopefully) in tonight’s day two wrap up.
- The Of Course You Did award goes to my brother, Josh Marshall, who picked Marshall to win for reasons that ought to be obvious. The funny part is that he didn’t even know they had won until I sent him a text. “How many points did I get?” I should have said ZERO for not paying attention. Hmph.
- The Wait, I’m In WHAT Place? award goes to Jenni Garten, who continues to impress but has to be wondering how she could have only two losses and not be in first place. Welcome to Jeff’s March Madness Contest.
- The Gimme Five award goes to the fourteen minions who picked all five upsets correctly: Brock Zagel, Jaxon Dailey, Bryce Hand, Tim Warren, Matthew Hickey, Kent Keller, J.R. Shrader, Christy Bowen, Dave Barndt, Billy Brundage, Rebecca Harper, Veronica Ramirez, Esther Neely, and Tatum Hawkins.
- Of the aforementioned fantastic fourteen prognosticators, the I Love This Awesome Scoring System award goes to Orlando Boilermaker Kent Keller who is our current contest leader.
- On the other hand, the I Thought Picking The Upsets Was Supposed to Help Me WIN award goes to Matthew Hickey, who guaranteed himself all of the upsets by picking nothing but upsets. Unfortunately, this strategy also guaranteed him nineteen losses and 94th place.
- The That’s What You Get For Waiting Until The Last Minute award goes to Dejan “picked these with only hours left” Davis, currently in a tie for 761st.
- The Look Out Below award goes to Bob Johnson who lost his national champ, Arizona, and dropped to 589th place.
- The Rising Star award goes to Jeff Borod whose stock has risen from 714th all the way up to 138th.
- Finally, I am compelled to award the Epic Fail award to myself for thinking that Kasiah Hand was Jonathan Hand’s son, when in fact SHE is his WIFE! Now that I think about it, I believe I have made that same boneheaded mistake in past contests. A cliche involving old dogs and new tricks comes to mind, but of course, I hate cliches.
OK, minions. It is now time for me to turn my attention to more basketball and clever aliases. Enjoy the evening session, and look for the next commentary in the morning.
The Wizard of Whiteland