Pathetique

Before this year's contest started, we were worried the old records would be obsolete, seeing as this year we had three more at-large teams out there, giving everyone the opportunity for 9 additional points. It seemed an unfair advantage for our contestants.

As you've probably already guessed, we needn't have worried. This year's top score after selection of the field (187 points, by M Peloso) was the WORST such score since 1994. In fact, in the past 17 years, there's only been one leading score after selection of the field that was within 5 points of this year's lowly leading tally (189, by Reider, in 2000), and that was probably negatively influenced by the Y2K phenomenon.

Of course what else should we expect when there were more conference winners chosen by 8 or fewer entrants (11: Wofford, Akron, Richmond, UConn, UNC-Ashville, UC-Santa Barbara, St. Peter's, Indiana State, UT-San Antonio, Arkansas-Little Rock, & Alabama State) than conference winners chosen by a majority of our contestants (10: Duke, Belmont, Ohio State, Kansas, Butler, Princeton, Long Island U, Bucknell, Oakland, & Utah State). A whopping eight (8) conference winners were chosen by nobody at all.

So it should come as no surprise that only one of us picked a wild card that managed more than 1 point, and that would be Fitch, who chose Marquette. There were 32 contestants who managed 1 wild card point, but for one lousy point we're not going to bother listing them.

Oh, and can we talk about basketball for a minute? Nobody seemed to flinch when the Big East got 11 bids to the tournament this year, but how Big can the conference really be after its performance in the first two rounds of the tournament? Just two of those 11 teams remain (Marquette and UConn), and of all conferences who got more than two bids, the Big East is tied for last in winning percentage (with the Big 12). Here's each conference's record so far:

ACC: 7-1 (.857)
Mountain West: 4-1 (.800)
Colonial: 4-2 (.667)
Atlantic 10: 3-2 (.600)
Big 10: 7-5 (.583)
Pac 10: 4-3 (.571)
SEC: 4-3 (.571)
Big 12: 4-4 (.500)
Big East: 9-9 (.500)

With that sort of record, seems like the Big East should enter our contest, doesn't it?

Coming up in the next day or so will be Final Four and Elite Eight breakdowns, as well as the ever-popular Tag Team Tallies.

See you soon.