Full swing

Well, all the remaining conference championships are in full swing. Today's big news is American won its first conference title in the history of the World. So, naturally, 31 of our contestants predicted it to happen. In related news, unofficial tallies indicate 27 of our entrants think scientists will this year discover a live unicorn, and 16 believe the President will soon say something intelligent.

Only one person thought enough of the commissioners' reasoning yet also ignored our caveat that we weren't actually suggesting anyone pick Vanderbilt. Not surprisingly, it was M Leach, who also chose quarterfinal loser Ohio in the MAC and failed semifinalist Bucknell in the Patriot League and thus has "undertaken" fellow grade-schooler S Leach for last place. Still, the Little Leaches combined score is 10 points less than co-leader and alleged grown-up P Leach, who shares the lead with Fitzmyer.

The Big East has earned its own paragraph, as 23 of us liked loser Louisville, 7 preferred passed-by pConnecticut (Booth, Dallas, Fitzmyer, P Leach, Marshall, McAtee-Gattone, Selarnick), 5 never nixed ne'er-do-well Notre Dame (N Donadio, M Leach, Perry, Ripley, L Schlegel), and a single supporter selected sacked Syracuse (Packman). Georgetown jelled for just 25 of us, while pesky Pitt was picked by Karlsruher and M Siegel, and three marauders mugged for Marquette (Harlan, D Kedson, Sakowski).

Other early losers were Purdue (selected by Adams, De Maso, ME Donadio, N Donadio, B Kleiman, P Leach, Marshall, Simon, Smith), Xavier (chosen by 60 of our 66 entrants), Pacific (taken by George B, Booth, Nowlan, Cooper, Fitzmyer, Packman, S Leach, J McAtee, McKillip), Western Michigan (selected by Cooper, S Leach, R Simon), New Mexico (picked by Harlan, McAtee-Gattone), and Ohio State (chosen by commissioner D Kedson). The only people still alive in the Atlantic 10 are the six who took St. Joseph's (George B, N Donadio, M Josephs, Nowlan, L Schlegel, Settle).

There are still a lot of games to go tonight, but this commissioner is a little under the weather, so this will be the last update tonight. We hope to cover those games tomorrow, along with the 11 conference titles up for grabs.