Who's got Kansas?

Sorry to be absent for the last couple days. I was closeted in a big room with lots of beer and TVs.

Well, we warned the good people of Lawrence, Kansas of their impending doom (as augured by negative omen of Kansas' being a clear favorite of our entrants), and they ignored us to their peril. Our contestants are now a solid 5 for 21 in predicting champion. The Jayhawks were chosen by 28 of us as national champs, 73 of us as a Final Four team, and 75 of us as a Final Eight team. Oops.

Villanova's demise was perhaps less obvious to longtime contest observers, but we would be remiss if we didn't mention that nine of us have the Wildcats as champs (Bill Acchione, Brindisi, J Broder, DeMaso, D Kornfeld, Mash Leach, M Paston, Sakowski, and L Schlegel); 30 of us liked Villanova into the Final Four, and 64 took Villanova into the Final Eight.

The No. Iowa surprise was good news to the seven entrants who had the pesky Panthers as their wild card (Bud Acchione, Booth, E Leach, L McAtee, M Paston, B Peloso, and R Wanger). R Wanger has parlayed his savvy selection into a (possibly temporary) run into first place, where he now stands with 204 points. Booth's choice of No. Iowa has allowed her to scramble into second-to-last place, two points ahead of Madison Leach.

The only other Saturday wild card winners were Bill Acchione and Durkin, who chose Baylor. [EDIT: they only thought they were winners, but now they've been caught red handed.] There are 39 contestants who have a wild card playing today (Sunday, 3/21), having chosen Maryland (17), Xavier (12), Missouri (3), Cornell (2), Georgia Tech (2), and California (1).

Full standings are at the link on the right. Full Elite Eight and Final Four information will be available sometime this week. And of course we'll be looking into Rival performances and the annual Tag Team competitions in the next few days.

More games, starting now...