Wow.  Just wow.  It’s 1:20 AM.  I got home about 30 minutes ago, popped some popcorn (hey, it’s been 6 hours since I ate!), grabbed a Mt. Dew, and fired up the most incredible game I’ve ever seen in person on the DVR.  This one exceeds all the cliches, folks.  It was one for the ages.  It’s also cliche to say that Butler, though they lost, has nothing to be ashamed of.  Losing hurts no matter what.  These Bulldogs fully expected to win this game, and when they didn’t, they plodded off the court with obvious disappointment on their faces.  Nevertheless, they plodded off the court to a rousing ovation from an appreciative city.

They Play The Right Way

I’ve heard more than one person say it of Butler over the course of the tournament.  It is true.  There is no other explanation for a team like Butler being able to play so competitively with a program with the history and caliber of Duke.  They have long scoring droughts.  Their lack of size gets them in foul trouble.  Throughout the game it just felt like it was getting away from them, and yet I was continually surprised to look at the scoreboard and see that Butler never fell more than two possessions behind.  They didn’t waste time or energy complaining about the officiating.  They left that to the fans in the stands.  Instead, they remained focused and kept themselves close enough to have a chance to win at the end.  The only way they could have done any better, in my opinion, was to actually win the game.

The announced crowd was just over 70,000, and by my estimation, no more than 20% of them were Duke faithful.  Easily 50,000+ roared in approval as Butler made that final defensive stop, setting up one possession for a go-ahead score and the most magical of happy endings.  The atmosphere was absolutely electric.  In every other state, it’s just basketball, but this is Indiana, and ten of these Butler boys are Indiana’s own.  When Gordon Hayward released a half-court shot at the buzzer to win the game, those 50,000+ Hoosier faithful rose to their feet and collectively willed that ball into the basket.  It was destiny.  It had to happen.  It almost did.  Folks, that ball hit the square.  As the relatively small contingent of Duke faithful rose and cheered their victory, 50,000 disappointed Hoosiers sighed, but then smiled and applauded their heroes as they left the court.  These guys are good.  They will be back.

Give These Devils Their Due

It’s easy to hate Duke.  They’ve been so successful for so long.  They’re the New England Patriots of college basketball.  Still, this team, the least respected of the four top seeds in the tournament, peaked at just the right time and won by playing essentially the same style of basketball as Butler.  If there’s one thing Duke did well tonight that I believe was a key to victory, it was stop Gordon Hayward.  They did not allow him to really get anything going offensively.  They denied him the ball all night, and when he did get it, they made him give it up or take a tough shot.  If you’re Butler, there is no one else on the floor you want taking that go-ahead shot on the final possession, and he nearly made it, but it was a very, very tough shot.

This Duke team could have very easily lost their composure when they failed to score, up 60 to 59 with less than 35 seconds left to play. They haven’t been living under a rock for three weeks.  They’ve seen Butler do this to the mighty before: Syracuse, Kansas State, and Michigan State.  But they didn’t falter, played superior defense, and got that critical defensive rebound.  Where other teams have become frustrated with Butler’s tenacious defense, Duke was patient and scored efficiently.  Duke was the first team to score 60 points against Butler the entire tournament.  No doubt about it, Duke earned this one.

Contest Wrap

While it was tempting to just go to bed and leave the final commentary for tomorrow, I decided it was time for this contest, like this year’s spectacular tournament, to come to an end.  Without further ado, here are this year’s final contest awards.

• The So You Think You’ve Got It All Figured Out award goes to those of you (you know who you are) who told me, quote, "With your point adjustments this year, all you had to do was pick all upsets in the first two rounds (except for the 16’s), and then use the re-picks to play the odds in the later high-point games, and you can win easily."  Oh yeah?  Well, we had a contestant, Margaret "Bear" Dean, who did almost exactly that.  She picked all upsets in the first two rounds except for Syracuse, winning only 11 out of 48 games, and climbed as high as second.  She then made some "safe" re-picks, including Duke in the championship game.  Her final rank?  121st.  I contend that if this year had not had so many upsets, she would have finished even worse.  Every year someone tries to convince me that this strategy is the easy way to win, and yet in 15 years, it has always been tried and never worked.
• The Top Prognosticator award goes to the contestant who picked the most games out of 63 correctly.  This year’s award goes to Connie Randazzo, who picked 48 games correctly and finished in 3rd place.
• The You Could Have Done Better Flipping A Coin award goes to BethAnn Fairchild, who picked only 12 games correctly and finished in last place.  Better luck next year, BethAnn.
• The Finger Lickin’ Good award goes to Amber "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" Little, my beloved nine-year-old, who picked Duke to go all the way and finished in 14th place.
• The Most Improved Player award goes to Rick Morgan, who climbed from the abyss of 478th place to finish in 27th.  Reward yourself with a new set of drumsticks, Rick.
• The Not In This Lifetime, Pal award goes to 19th place contestant Evan Gidley whose alias asks the question, "Wonder if Jeff is now a Cameron Crazy?"  Is that a serious question?
• The Mission Not Accomplished award goes to Dan "Striving for last place(again)" Kopp, who finished in 20th.
• The Rookie Of The Year award goes to Cason "Cash" DiIulio who never ranked lower than 16th, climbed as high as 1st, and finished in 4th place.
• This year’s contest was so dominated by kids, I’m giving the Jimmy Neutron Award For Childhood Genius to the kid who actually finished 4th in the 12 and under age group, my oldest daughter, Andrea Little.  Andrea finished 18th overall in the contest.
• The Teen Queen award goes to the first place finisher in the 13-19 age group and overall contest runner-up, Christina "Mad Dog" Klinker.  Throw that dog a bone.  Ruff!
• The Easily Outperforming His Lipper Average award goes to the top finisher in the 20-29 age group, Anthony "The Economist" Randazzo, who finished 12th overall in the contest. 
• The I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter award goes to Eusi "can’t believe I’m doing this well" Fraser, who finished first in the 30-something age group and 5th overall.  Eusi will receive a year’s supply of Parkay.
• The 40 is the new 30 award goes to the winner of the 40-49 age group, Brian Pettitt, who finished 6th overall in the contest.
• The Finished Strong In The Contest But Not Yet Eligible For The Senior Discount award goes to Rob Barta, who actually finished second in the 50-something age group but receives this award due to the fact that the first place finisher in this age group already received an award.  Rob finished 7th overall.
• The Pass The Geritol award goes to the top finisher in the 60 and over age group, David Gaffney, who finished 10th overall.
• The Upset Stomach award goes to Lewis Schafer, who scored more upset bonus points (excluding Scategories bonus points) than anyone else at 65.  Lewis spent a good portion of the contest in first place but finished in 36th.
• The Just Because You Deserve It, and I Can’t Think Of Anything Clever To Call This Award award goes to 9th place contestant Mark Vandre and 8th place contestant Heather DiIlulio. 
• The Close But No Cigar award goes to Julie Harman, the lone contestant to pick Butler to go all the way from the beginning.  Julie was one half-court buzzer-beater away from winning the whole thing.  Instead she settles for 11th.
• The You Can’t Escape Destiny award goes Lucky Ongko.  Where should a guy named "Lucky" finish in the contest? Nowhere else but 13th, of course!
• The I Hate This Stupid Scoring System award goes to Chris Shelton, the lowest-finishing contestant with a winning percentage greater than .700.  Chris finished 49th.
• The If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It award goes to CBS for spoiling One Shining Moment with some new chick who just had to have face time during the traditional closing video montage.  You never saw David Barrett, Teddy Pendergrass, or Luther Vandross in the previous editions of the video, did you?  No, they just lent their voices to the best images of the tournament.  No offense, miss, you’re very talented, but this is about the players’ shining moments, not yours.
• And finally, the Contest Championship, the Big Kahuna, the Grand Poo Bah of Prognostication award goes to this year’s contest winner, the precocious fourth-grade phenom, Cayden Bauschek.  Cayden picked 6 of the final 7 games of the tournament correctly with original picks, sealing the deal with his pick of Duke as the national champion.  I guess in this case the little guy really can win it all.

Closing Thoughts

So at long last, I bid my friends adieu.  I want to say a big thank you to everyone who sent me an email of appreciation, encouragement, or something just plain funny.  As always, it is the collection of witty, good-hearted good sports who join my little contest that make it such a joy every year.  I’m thankful for the opportunity to make new friends and reconnect with old ones.  May God richly bless you all.

If you’re wondering why I didn’t give myself an award this year, it is because I received the best award a basketball fanatic like me could ever receive, a trip to the Final Four and the opportunity to witness an Indiana basketball story that will be told and re-told forever.  It was awesome.  I will never forget it.

Until next year, the Lord willing…

The Wizard Of Whiteland

Contest Home Page

You can obviously tell from the relative emptiness of the stands that we arrived early.  By the time the first game started, the place was packed.  This was my first trip to Lucas Oil Stadium.  If you’ve never been, let me just tell you, the place is mammoth.  I don’t see how anyone sitting in the 600’s could see the court without the aid of the Hubble Space Telescope, but I suppose the enormous video screens in the corners and above center court were a big help.  For our part, we could actually watch the game on-court and reasonably follow the action.  The entire experience was memorable, to say the least.

One More Game

How ’bout them Bulldogs? I have to say that I am beyond impressed with their tenacity, their toughness, and the way they simple find ways to win.  I will not venture into too much game analysis, since those of you watching on TV probably have a better grip on the game stats than I do.  Be assured, though, that we in the stadium were well aware that both Butler and Michigan State had gone nearly 10 minutes in the second half with nary a field goal.  While we were all biting our nails down to the final (missed) Spartan shot, still, we just had that feeling that they were going to win yet again.

One of the coolest moments of the evening was when Draymond Green missed his attempt at the go-ahead basket in the closing seconds.  Suddenly all of these Butler fans in West-Virginia yellow and Duke blue stood to their feet and roared in approval.  This wasn’t Rocky.  That was a few season ago when no one took Butler seriously.  No, this was Rocky II, when the underdog had earned his respect, and now nearly everyone was in his corner.  I received high fives from people I had never met – a truly special moment.

Then There Was That Other Game

Is there anything more frightening than a Duke team playing its best basketball in the NCAA Tournament?  The story of Butler-Michigan State was how both teams had arrived on this hallowed ground by winning in dramatic fashion, sometimes by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins.  A short review of fighting Kroojewooskies’ path to the championship game reveals a very different story.  None of their final scores have been anything even remotely resembling "close", and the only team so far to even challenge them late into the game was Baylor.  Do not let the injury to Da’Sean Butler fool you.  Duke whipped West Virginia in every phase of the game start to finish.  We left the stadium at the five minute mark to beat the traffic.

Now, understandably, Duke is the prohibitive favorite to win tomorrow night, and Butler will face its toughest test of what has been a magical run.  Nevertheless, I do not think we can look at previous games and say things like, "Well, if Duke shoots like they did last night, Butler has no chance."  If there is one thing Butler has done successfully and consistently throughout the tournament, it is take opponents OUT of what they do best.  After all, haven’t we heard this line reasoning before?

• If Derrick Caracter (UTEP) plays like he did in the Conference USA tournament, Butler has no chance.
• If Murray State plays like they did against Vanderbilt, Butler has no chance.
• Forget Onuaku.  If Wes Johnson (Syracuse) plays like he did in the first two rounds, Butler has no chance.
• Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente scored 63 points between them in Kansas State’s victory over Xavier.  Butler has no chance.
• This is Tom Izzo.  This is March.  This Big Ten basketball.  This is Lucious and Green and Allen and Morgan.  Butler has no chance.

Yes, tomorrow we have Coach K, Singler, Scheyer, Nolan Smith, the Plumlee twins and Zooooob (at least that’s what the guy behind me kept hollering every time he touched the ball).  Butler has no chance, unless of course they do what they always do, and that is make it impossible for Duke to play their game, make their shots, and generally get anything accomplished at all.  If they can do that, then maybe, just maybe, Butler has a chance at the impossible.  If they pull it off, the only unanswered question after tomorrow night’s game will be who is going to play Gordon Hayward in the movie.  Zach Efron, perhaps?

Contest Update

After three weeks of madness it has come down to six folks who picked Butler and 44 folks who picked Duke.  Of the six who picked Butler, one and only one picked them from the beginning, making that pick a true-blue Scategories pick.  The other five contestants chose them on a re-pick, which is still worth 30 points.  The Duke bandwagon, while relatively small, is still too big to be Scategories-worthy, but it still carries 32 or 30 points if they win, depending on if you used a re-pick or not.

Ironically, the contestant currently in first place cannot win the contest. Out of sympathy for her plight, I will give the Kobiashi Award For No-Win Scenarios to Christina "Mad Dog" Klinker, who, though she has Butler picked to win it all, is not far enough ahead of JulieH, the contestant who made the Scategories Butler pick, to beat her in the case that Butler wins.  If Duke wins the championship, Cayden Bauschek will live up to his alias ("I’ll be back in first") and win the contest.  Others will move up, of course, but these are the two contestants competing for the coveted Jeff’s March Madness Contest championship.

Tune in late tomorrow night for the final contest commentary and awards.

It is probably safe to say that I have been watching the Final Four, if not the entire NCAA tournament, on television for about 30 years.  My earliest memories are of watching the championship game with my step-father and perennial entrant in our contest, Ron "Hotrod" Marshall.  I remember watching with him in 1981 as Indiana defeated North Carolina the evening after President Reagan was shot.  I remember watching with Ron (Marshall, not Reagan – let’s not get confused, here) the following year when a freshman you might have heard of named Michael Jordan hit the shot that proved to be the game winner as North Carolina defeated Georgetown.  If I had been doing the contest at age 11 in 1982, I would have awarded the Boneheaded Play Of The Decade award to Georgetown’s Fred Brown, who infamously passed the ball right to North Carolina’s James Worthy, mistaking him for at teammate.  Worthy would have received the You’re Not So Worthy After All award for missing both of his free throws after being fouled, but the What Were You Thinking? award goes to Georgetown coach John Thompson for using his last timeout before Worthy’s free throw attempts, thus ultimately denying the Hoyas a chance to setup a play for the winning the shot.

Since then I’ve been a faithful observer of all the best highlights you see every year in CBS’s promotional montage, from Jimmy Valvano’s NC State Miracle, to Villanova’s 89% field goal shooting second half and savvy swat of the ball out of bounds to stop the clock that sunk Patrick Ewing’s shot at back to back championships with Georgetown, to Christian Laettner’s shot heard around the world, to Chris Webber’s infamous time out, to Kansas’ recent comeback for the ages, and so many other memories too numerous to recount.  But in all those years, I have always watched on television, and never in person…until now!

Mr. Little Goes To Bracket Town

By the favor of God, tomorrow I have the privilege of attending my first ever Final Four with my brother and couple of our friends.  Amusingly, those other two friends are both named Jeff (although the younger, a teen, goes by Jeffery).  I told my brother, Josh Marshall, we should get four souvenir T-Shirts and have "Jeff #1", "Jeff #2", "Jeff #3", "…and Josh" emblazoned on the back of them.  Ok, maybe not.

There are simply no words to express how excited I am to attend what is already an historic Final Four by simple virtue of the participants.  Hopefully it will prove to be just as historic as the games are played.  Sadly, it may prove to be historic in that it will be the last Final Four of the 64 (65?) team era, as the talk of expanding the field to a mind-numbing 96 teams next year grows louder and louder.

Nevertheless, I intend to enjoy every shining moment.  If you are one of my Facebook friends, watch for a mobile pic upload or two, as I’m sure I’ll be snapping a few with the Crackberry.  Please do not hold me to a Saturday night edition of the commentary, as we will be getting home rather late, and this Sunday is pretty much the most important day of the year for us followers of Jesus Christ.  Have no fear, though, as the game winners and standings will be updated as the games conclude, as always (thanks to the aforementioned Crackberry – no iPhone quips, please).  Follow me on Twitter for up-to-the-minute tweets of the experience inside Lucas Oil Stadium, and watch for me on TV.  I’ll be the guy wearing the creamsicle-orange Butler shirt.

Oh Yeah, The Contest

312 contestants have scored their last point in the contest, some echoing the fact in their amusing aliases.  That leaves 175 of us with games to win, points to score, and glory to obtain.  There have never been more points on the line in the final three games than this year, so pop some popcorn, grab a soda, and plop down in the front of the tube on Saturday evening and root for your teams, and don’t forget to check your computer for the contest standings before you go to bed.

I’ll see you in Bracket Town.

The Humble Wizard of Whiteland  

Contest Home Page

Michigan State Magic

How do they do it? How does he do it – Spartans coach Tom Izzo, that is?  For a guy whose name sounds like the punch line of a Snoop Dog joke, his March exploits are downright legendary.  This year makes two consecutive Final Four appearances, and six appearances in the last twelve years.  There is not another program in all of college basketball that even comes close unless you go back to a certain dynasty with a coached by a legend whose moniker your contest manager has unscrupulously appropriated for himself.

Take a look at how Sparty arrived in Indy this year.  In the first round they had to stave off a late comeback, benefiting from a bizarre lane violation, to beat New Mexico State by 3.  Next came the buzzer-beater that sunk Maryland by 2.  They beat a plucky Northern Iowa team by a "comfortable" margin of 7, and then today they beat Tennessee by 1 in a net-blistering shootout.  That’s four games won by a total of 13 points, and it sets up a match-up that has never happened before in the NCAA Tournament, a five versus five for a chance at the national championship.  Don’t look now.  The mean, green wrecking machine is coming to town.

Poise Triumphs Over Power

I had to watch the latter half of the Duke-Baylor contest on DVR, and I am glad I did.  That Baylor team is big, strong, fast, long, and exhaustingly brutal.  At one point I saw a graphic showing their points in the paint nearly doubled those of Duke.  In the end, however, they lacked one key component of a championship contender – the poise that comes through experience.  Duke’s Nolan Smith could do no wrong and miss no shot, almost single handedly willing the Blue Devils to victory, but it was two consecutive three pointers late in the game after the score was tied that seemed to send those Baylor Bears into hibernation.  At that point they seemed to either panic or lose their minds, forcing bad shots, bad passes, and ultimately losing their cool in a shoving match that earned them a technical and a bus ticket home.

Thus, those hated Duke Blue Devils balanced the mathematics of an otherwise statistically deviant tournament as the only #1 seed to advance to the Final Four.  I would take issue with the assumption that they are the favorite to win it all, but I am certain the media will make them the presumptive favorite if for no other reason than the K factor.

So Who’s Really Going To Win?

I can think of at least one good reason why each of these teams will win the championship and one good reason why they won’t.

Michigan State

• …will win because Tom Izzo doesn’t lose two years in a row.  After being run out of the gym by North Carolina in last year’s final, the man who has nothing to prove will prove it nonetheless.  Big East, schmig East.  Sparty shows the world that the Big Ten is not to be trifled with.
• …will lose because you cannot run from the math forever.  No Kalin Lucas.  Other key injuries.  Role players are exactly that – role players.  You can only go to that well so many times before it runs dry.  The Spartans play a spirited game against a Butler team they are supposed to beat but find themselves on the opposite end of the box score this time.

Butler

• …will win because despite proving repeatedly that they actually are as good as their best-in-the-nation winning streak says they are, no one really believes it.  I heard a radio "expert" this evening say that, "on paper, Butler has absolutely no chance, but anything is possible."  Really? No chance?  The same Butler I’ve been watching for two weeks?  These guys are for real.  They are just as skilled, if not more so, than any of the four teams.  They’re smart.  They play stifling defense.  They play team basketball.  These are all hallmarks of a champion.
• …will lose because they’re a collection of smart kids with a GQ coach who just happen to be pretty good at basketball and drew really good teams who played at really bad times when they faced the Bulldogs.  UTEP? Come on, anybody can beat UTEP.  Their win over Murray State was lucky.  They caught Syracuse without their star center.  They caught Kansas State after a double-overtime cage match that ended after midnight barely 24 hours earlier.  When they play Michigan State on a week’s rest and preparation, the pressure of an entire city’s expectation upon their shoulders, there is just no way.

West Virginia

• …will win because they are the meanest, baddest, strongest, fiercest, most experienced, most battle-tested crew left in the field.  The Big East really IS the best conference in the country, and that proving ground will prove to be the difference as they find a way…just plain find a way to win two more games.  This time Bob Huggins exorcises his demons and finally wins the big one.  The school that gave us Jerry West, whose silhouette graces the NBA logo, finally has its day. Take me home, country road.
• …will lose because they have no point guard, and you cannot win a championship playing point guard by committee.  Point guard’s make decisions, and the ones who make the best decisions lead their teams to victory.  Committees do not make decisions.  They just look at each other and ask who’s picking up the tab for lunch.  That lack of floor leadership will be their undoing, especially against a formidable opponent such as Duke.

Duke

• …will win because they are Duke.  Coach K is tired of hearing the ESPN crew talk about Duke’s lack of tournament success over the past several years.  Their last title was 2001.  That is way too long of a drought for a program like Duke.  But fate isn’t the only reason they will win.  Of the four remaining teams, they are, without question, the most talented.  They can shoot, defend, rebound – you name it.  When they got hot, no one is scarier.  Now that John Scheyer has found his shot again, no one is going to beat them.
• …will lose because they are streaky, and one cold spell against any of the other three remaining teams will doom them.  West Virginia will frustrate them with unrelenting physicality and in-your-face defense. 

Lightning Strikes Twice

It stands to reason that the craziest, most unpredictable tournament in recent memory would result in the most exciting, most unpredictable contest we’ve ever had. 

The Scategories Bonus, the largest and most influential bonus of the contest, is designed to hard to earn.  It rewards risk, and the higher the risk, the higher the reward.  By definition it ought to be rare, because it rewards the unusual, unpopular, long-shot pick.  Entire contests have gone by in past years without a single Scategories Bonus being awarded.

This year has been very different.  Four games have earned contestants Scategories bonuses, with the unusual situation that either winner of the Michigan State-Tennessee was going to earn someone a Scategories bonus.  It doesn’t end there, however.  The same thing has happened again in the Michigan State-Butler match up.  No matter who wins, someone is going to get an amazing 48 points for picking the winner with an original pick!

As if that weren’t amazing enough, when a pick qualifies for the Scategories bonus in the championship game, I have dubbed that the Ultimate Scategories Bonus, the most points anyone can earn with a single win in the contest.  This year the situation is beyond improbable.  Only a win by Duke will result in someone not earning 96 points for their championship pick!  That’s right, if you consider each of the four team’s chances of winning it all to be equal, there is a 75% chance that at least one person in the contest will get 96 points for their championship pick.  In fact, there is one true Scategories pick in our contest this year, a truly unique, one-of-kind prognostication.  One, and only one contestant, picked Butler to win it all.  Go buy your Butler hat and jersey, JulieH.  Your fortunes are tied to them.

And now for tonight’s awards…

Final Four Awards

Each year I give awards to contestants who performed the best in each of the tournament’s four regions.  This year is no exception.

• The Gene Hackman Award For Hoosier-Like Midwest Dominance goes to Nathan Kopp, who won 13 games in the Midwest with original picks.  Honorable mention goes to Shane Vaiskauskas and Kevin Wilson who also won 13 games but needed re-picks to do it.
• The How The West Was Won award goes to Rob Barta, who won 14 games in the West with original picks.  Honorable mention goes to Ben Watkins and Lynn Scofield who also won 14 games with the aid of re-picks.
• The Beasts Of The East award goes to Toby Risner and Connie Randazzo for winning 14 games in the East with original picks.  Honorable mention goes to Christina Klinker and Jordyn Glassley for doing the same with re-picks.
• The Mouth Of The South award, sponsored by Jimmy Heart, goes to Jeff Little, Travis Garrison, Brian Miller, Tony Smurlo, Steve Borkowski, and Matthew Risner for picking 13 games correctly (with original picks) in the apparently hard-to-pick South.  With that many winners, there are no honorable mentions.

I find it interesting that no one got all 15 games correct in any one region this year, even with the aid of re-picks.

• The Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas, and All You Other ESPN Experts Eat Your Hearts Out award goes to Cayden Bauschek, who is the only contestant to pick all four Final Four teams correctly and did so without the aid of a re-pick.  That’s right, folks, this little fourth-grade phenomenon picked Michigan State, Butler, West Virginia, and Duke from day one.
• The Call The Dog Catcher award goes to Christina "Mad Dog" Klinker who vaulted to second place on the strength of her Butler pick.
• The George Jefferson award goes to Eusi "moving on up" Fraser who is, indeed, moving on up the standings to 8th place.
• The You And Your Accursed Re-Picks award goes to Matthew Hand who originally picked West Virginia to go to the championship game but switched it to Kentucky.
• The Just Do The Math award goes to Chris "I Don’t Get How My Wife is in 3rd Place" Randazzo.  It’s pretty simple, Chris.  She has collected more points than 484 other contestants, yourself included.
• The I Bet You REALLY Hate Them Now award goes to Sammy "Sam I Am I Hate Green Eggs and Duke" Brauen. 
• The Yeah? Well, 114th Place In The Contest award goes to Kathy "2nd place in the science fair" Deaver.
• The Fail To The Chief award goes to George Lockett who used the President’s published bracket to enter our contest.  George is in 82nd place with no remaining winnable games.
• The Green Jacket award goes to Evan "A tradition unlike any other-this contest" Gidley.  Evan will receive a dart board bearing Jim Nantz’s portrait.
• The Most Improved Contestant award goes to Chris Bechtold who has climbed from 473rd to 62nd since game 16 of the contest.
• The Triple Threat award goes to seven contestants who can still win all three remaining games: Janell Hoeppner, Christina Klinker, Sam Glassley, David Gaffney, Ben Watkins, Cayden Bauschek, and Chris Randazzo.
• The I Hate This Idiotic Scoring System award goes to T. Money, who has won 42 games out of 60, only four wins less than the contestant who has picked the most games correctly, and yet isn’t even in the top 100.
• The I Love This Awesome Scoring System award goes to Julie Harman , who is in 49th place and has only one team remaining in the contest, and yet that one team, Butler, can earn her 144 points with two more wins and, undoubtedly, the contest championship.
• And finally, the Dash Incredible award goes to fourth grader and contest leader Cayden Bauschek, who has confounded the odds and the adults in this contest and leads his closest competitor by 22 points.  Cayden is definitely in the driver’s seat, but victory is hardly assured.  Cayden went with the safe pick for national champion, Duke, and thus could still conceivably lose even if Duke wins the whole thing.

Now, hoops addicts, we take a five day break from basketball.  Many of your spouses are incredibly thankful.  There are still a lot of points to be had in our contest as the last three games of the tournament are played, so stay tuned.  I must say this has probably been the most enjoyable contest of the 15 I have administered. 

See you next Saturday.

Historic Day For The Final Four

History has been made.  Never before have two number five seeds advanced to the Elite Eight in the same tournament.  Never before have the Butler Bulldogs advanced to the Final Four. West Virginia went to the Final Four in 1959, but that hardly qualifies in the modern sense of what we consider the Final Four.  For the first time since UCLA did it in the early 70’s, a team will play in its home city for a chance at the NCAA championship.

Even more history awaits tomorrow. Baylor’s last trip to the Final Four is even more ancient than West Virginia’s, and as far as I know, Tennessee have never once advanced past the Sweet Sixteen, even before the tournament was expanded to sixteen teams.  On the other hand, if Michigan State advances to the Final Four, it will be the first time ever (at least in the modern era) that two five seeds have advanced to the national semi-finals.  This tournament, folks, has been one for the ages.

Scategoria

One significant Scategories bonus has already been handed out to those who picked Butler for the Final Four with an original pick.  Interestingly, no matter who wins the Michigan State-Tennessee game, someone will receive a Scategories bonus for that game as well.  That means the standings are in for a sizeable shake-up tomorrow as well.  Check the reports to see if you are one of the qualifiers.

Defense Wins Championships

I’ve heard that applied to just about every sport for as long as I can remember.  While I am not sure it can universally applied, I’m quite sure Butler’s defense covered a multitude of sins today, including periods of sloppy play, too many turnovers, and foul trouble.  Regardless, let no one say that Butler got lucky.  They made it to the Final Four by beating both the #1 and #2 seeds in their region.  This team is authentically good, good enough to win it all.  They are only two games away from doing just that, in their own hometown, no less.

U Kan’t Win Shooting Like That

With less than a minute to play, Kentucky still had a conceivable shot at winning the game.  The point of basketball, though, is to put the ball in the basket, oddly enough – something Kentucky couldn’t seem to do with any consistency.  I’m sure you heard Dick Enberg recite the statistics repeatedly: 2 for 25 from 3-point range and 13 missed free throws.  West Virginia, on the other hand, scored 30 points from 3-point range…in the first half.  Perhaps Bob Huggins will finally break the curse and win a national championship this year, something he could not accomplish while at Cincinnati.

As a side note, did anyone besides me notice how much Jay Biased seemed to be in Kentucky’s corner in this game?  Duke blue must be awfully close to Kentucky blue, I guess.  I lost count of how many times he insisted, "Kentucky is not out of this game" in the last four minutes.

A Quick Look At The Standings

I’m not distributing any awards this evening (no crying, please), but I would like to acknowledge that we have a new contest leader, miss Christina Klinker.  Christina vaulted into first on the strength of her Butler pick.   I am not sure she can hold that top spot tomorrow, however, since she had Ohio State picked for the Midwest region champion.

With that, I sign off for tonight.  Look for the Final Four awards sometime tomorrow evening.

The Sleepers Show Up

No, I am not talking about the sleeper team, the dark horse, the Cinderella story of the overachieving underdog.  I am talking about the sleepers.  You know the ones.  You see the opening tip, and then next thing you know, it’s 2:30 to go in the game, your neck has a cramp, and there’s a puddle of drool on your shoulder.  For my part, I appreciated the much-needed nap time while Villanova, Connecticut, and Memphis absolutely routed their opponents.  I have nothing to say about these games…except that my neck hurts.

Blake Griffin Scores a Cripple Double – 33 points, 17 rebounds, 10 shots to the chops.  Seriously, the way opponents try to stop this guy gives new meaning to the phrase “survive and advance”.  I would advise them to run every man on their next opponent’s team through a metal detector.

Toe, Schmoe – Ty Lawson scores 23 points, turf toe notwithstanding, to get North Carolina past a scrappy LSU team.  I’ll go out on a limb here and say that if Lawson keeps playing, so do the Tarheels.

An Upset In Name Only – The Purdue Boilermakers provided the day’s only upset, if you want to call a 5-over-4 victory over Washington an upset.  This game was a foul-fest, a parade to the free throw line.  The two teams combined to commit 41 fouls and shoot 42 free throws.  This game was also a continuation of a new event in this year’s madness: the short people showcase showdown.  Washington played three players under six feet tall, and Purdue played one.  These guys should join the local YMCA under six foot league.  They would dominate.

My favorite team in this year’s tournament is…whoever is playing Duke.  I mean, really, haven’t we all had just about enough of these guys and their coach with the hideous facial contortions and unpronounceable last name?  I know it has been a few years since they made it to the Sweet Sixteen.  What, am I supposed to feel sorry for them?  And do we really need to relive Christian Laettner’s miraculous shot to beat Kentucky in 1992 in that vitamin water commercial?  Sure, the commercial is clever with the closing cameo from Rick Pitino, but how about a commercial that relives the fact that Laettner stepped on Kentucky’s Aminu Timberlake…on purpose…in the same game, but was not ejected.  Anyway, the boneheaded play of the day award goes to Texas forward Gary Johnson, who emphatically, and unnecessarily, shoved Elliott Williams out of the frame while chasing a loose ball toward the end of the game.  Texas still had a chance at that point, but not after.  Thanks, Gary.  Now we get one more weekend of Dook.

Gonzaga finally wins a close one.  In the night’s only thriller, Gonzaga escaped an upset bid by Western Kentuckywitha length-of-the-court, seven-seconds-to-go, Tyus Edney-esque layup by Demetri Goodson with 0.9 seconds left.  I have to admit it.  I love Gonzaga.  I have loved Gonzaga ever since Matt Santangelo and company made the Elite Eight in 1999.  Adam Morrison, the shaggy-haired, mustachioed hero of the 2005-2006 season left me crying at the altar as the 3-seeded Zags lost to UCLA in a game they led by 17 in the second half.  Since then Gonzaga has lost in the first round each of the last two years.  Maybe this gutsy performance will be what they need to get over the hump and stun North Carolina next weekend.

Ok, it’s late, and I have a busy day tomorrow, so let’s have a few awards, and call it a night.

Day 3 Awards

The Apparently This Contest Is Way Too Easy Award goes to the 87 contestants who picked all 8 games right today.  No way am I typing all those names.  Go look at your own picks to see if you are one of them, and then pat yourself on the back if you are.

This is kind of a strange award to give out.  I will call it the Thirteenth Floor Award.  Unfortunately, I cannot find anyone to give it to.  For about 10 to 16 games now, after every game, I have gone to the standings looking for the person in 233rd place.  Why?  Because 233rd would be the exact median position in our contest – 232 better and 232 worse.  I was going to give this contestant the Yellow Lines And Dead Skunks Award (the only things you find in the middle of the road).  However, no one has yet appeared in exactly 233rd place!  Ties always seem to cause 233rd place to get swallowed up in some group at some other position.  It must be, then, that 233rd place is like the 13th floor of a building.  You know it exists.  It just doesn’t have a button in the elevator.

The Lookout Below! Award goes to Lori Boswell, who dropped from 20th all the way down to 321st.

The The I’s Have It Award goes to Cason DiIulio, who has more I’s in his name than anyone I have ever met.  He also managed to climb from 437th all the way to 30th!  Good job, Cason.

The Trash Talking Award goes to Wayne Murray, who has ridiculed me without mercy for the fact that he is beating me so soundly.

The Absent Minded Professor Award goes to Mike “BogeyP” Boger, who emailed me today asking for the link to the contest.  Along with the link, I sent Mike a jar of flubber.

Finally, the Give The Man The Yellow Jersey Award goes to our current contest leader, Mike “gobble101” Wilson, who is an astonishing 37-3 so far in the contest.  I don’t know if Mike is a turkey hunter or a Pac Man champ, but he sure knows how to pick ’em in March Madness.  Well Done!

Parting Shots

Keep the emails coming.  I always enjoy your thoughts and feedback.  Who knows.  You might even make it into the commentary.  You can also view the commentary as a blog at http://www.sixlittles.net/wordpress.  Register for the blog and you can post (moderated) comments. 

Keep your eyes on the game between Cleveland State and Arizonatomorrow.  It provides the best chance so far for a scategories bonus for those who picked Cleveland State.

By popular demand, I will start including the link to the contest website in all the commentary postings and emails.

The Wizard Of Whiteland

http://www.sixlittles.net/ncaa