Imbalanced

A lot of entrants out there are undoubtedly saying to themselves, "I may be in 53rd place now, but just wait until I get my Elite Eight and Final Four points!" Although unless those entrants are all Kovolski (who is actually in 53rd place) most of them probably need a remedial counting course.

An even bigger issue for some contestants is their unfortunate decision to pick a whole bunch of Elite Eight or Final Four teams from a single region. Brett Steven B, for example, chose five (5) teams from the South region (Baylor, Duke, Indiana, Iowa State, and Kentucky), meaning at least three of his choices aren't getting him any points.

Eight other entrants went with four (4) Elite Eight teams from the same region. For example, Babenzien and B Peloso both liked Baylor, Duke, Notre Dame, and Kentucky in the South. Also in the South, J Broder has Kentucky, Indiana, Wichita State, and Baylor, and Pangolin Palace preferred Duke, Kentucky, Baylor, and Wichita State. Baum selected Temple, Georgetown, Kansas, and UNC in the Midwest, while Haklar chose Michigan State, Missouri, Louisville, and Florida in the West. Baumgarten picked a pattern of Western M's: Michigan State, Murray State, Missouri, and Marquette. And another Western M, Mahalko wins the prize for choosing fully half his Elite Eight from the same sub-region, going with Missouri, Marquette, Murray State, and Florida.

Another eight entrants have three teams in each of two regions: Selig (South and Midwest); C Brown (South and Midwest); D Kedson (South and East); K Sullivan (South and West); L Donadio (South and West); P Leach (Midwest and West); S Leach (Midwest and West); and T Joseph (South and Midwest). Including those eight, 61 contestants have three teams packed into one regional, while the remaining 26 entrants have perfect proportions (or at least that's what they say on their Facebook pages).

Perhaps even worse than the above, four crafty contestants managed to cram three of their Final Four teams into one region. B Brenner, C Brown, and D Kedson all called on Kentucky, Duke, and Baylor in the South. Haklar placed her faith in Michigan State, Missouri, and Florida in the West.

Nine savvy poolsters avoided that pitfall, but still managed to choose two Final Four teams from each of two regions and zero from the other two: Selig (East and South, noteworthy because his triple-Elite Eight picks were South and Midwest, meaning he somehow avoided picking anybody in the West region for anything); B Peloso (West and South); B Wright (East and South); Bud Acchione (West and South); Fitch (West and South); Speakes (East and South); George B (East and South); R Wanger (East and Midwest); and R Simon (East and South). Including those nine, 68 entrants have two Final Four teams in one region, while 24 contestants correctly corralled one from each region.

We'll divulge our complete analysis of the Elite Eight and Final Four later in the week.

In game action, the play-in games are over, and it's a shame nobody watched. On Tuesday, Western Kentucky, the only team in this year's field with a losing record, rallied from 16 down to stun Mississippi State, and BYU pulled an even bigger stunner, overcoming a 25 point deficit to beat Iona in the biggest comeback in NCAA tournament history. This evening, relative underdogs Vermont and South Florida put the beatdown on Lamar and California, respectively.

While most people are somewhat indifferent to the above information, we'd like to dish out a big "bummer" to two contestants whose wild cards didn't even make the official bracket: George B, who picked Cal as his wild card, and K Sullivan who picked Iona.

The main event begins in about 11 hours. We'll be in front of a TV and hope you are too.