Clever and not

The OVC and Atlantic Sun played their semifinals tonight, and this is what we were talking about. Favorites Austin Peay (picked by 58 of us) and Belmont (56) advanced to their respective conference finals. But that was too easy for some of our contestants, who preferred the challenge of choosing the other team -- the team poised to pull off an upset and make the person who picked them look and feel like a genius. In the OVC, three entrants chose Murray State (Adams, ME Donadio, S Leach), two took Morehead State (N Donadio, Selarnick), two picked Tennessee-Martin (M Leach, Packman), and one went with Eastern Kentucky (Siegel). Yes, very clever, except all these guys lost. Austin Peay will be playing Tennessee State tomorrow, a team who absolutely nobody picked.

In the Atlantic Sun, Belmont will face off against Jacksonville, which was chosen by three entrants (Dallas, L Donadio, M Leach), most likely in a stroke of blind luck. Or not. Depends on who wins tomorrow night, doesn't it? Six would-be Einsteins rolled snake eyes on Eastern Tennessee State (George B, N Donadio, M Josephs, Packman, Perry, Selarnick) and S Leach gambled and lost on Gardner-Webb.

In other news, Wright State was the Wrong Pick for M Peloso and Settle in the Horizon, where 63 of us said the Butler will do it. The only Butlerian contrarian remaining is, of course, M Leach, who chose Cleveland State.

Tomorrow it's the finals of the Big South, OVC, and Atlantic Sun, and the semifinals of the Horizon and MVC. See you then.