Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Wild and Lawless

The consensus wild card in this year's contest is Wichita State (selected by 30 of us). When informed of this high honor, the Shockers went right out and proudly dropped their conference tournament semifinal game with unheralded Illinois State.

Temple (16) and Notre Dame (9) are also well liked in wild card circles, but after that it's just a morass, with 41 entrants choosing 24 teams, as follows:

Chosen by 5: Vanderbilt
Chosen by 4: Drexel, Iowa State
Chosen by 3: Gonzaga, Kansas State
Chosen by 2: UConn, Long Beach, St. Louis
Chosen by a single, solitary, not-afraid-to-stand-out contestant: Alabama, Arizona, Belmont, California, Cleveland State, Iona, Memphis, Northwestern, Purdue, Seton Hall, Southern Mississippi, Washington, and Valparaiso

The savvy among you probably tallied the above and cleverly noted that it only adds up to 38 entrants and 21 teams. Where are the remaining three, you ask?

In pool prison, of course. Every year a slew of sly scofflaws strive to slither out of satisfying the rules. And just as regularly, the ever-vigilant commissioners delight in catching the cagey criminals.

This year, co-leader Steinhardt chose illegal Louisville (ranked #24 in the AP top 25 linked from the entry form). Blatt perhaps thought we might not notice if he took #17 Creighton. And the annual award for the most brazen disregard for our simple and straightforward rules goes to Babenzien, who tried to sneak #4 Missouri past us. Your efforts have been thwarted, sir!

We have one final note related to wild cards. Over the past couple of decades there have been those who have accused the commissioners of being nattering nabobs of negativism, who only report mistakes and errors. This reputation wounds us, truly, so much so that this year we've decided to take a moment to stretch out our hands and deliver an encouraging pat on the back. To D Kornfeld who, we are absolutely thrilled to announce, made a completely legitimate, 100% legal, and in all other ways stellar wild card selection. For the first time since 2003. Well done, D Kornfeld. Well done, indeed.

No comments: