Things that make us happy, things that make us shake our heads

Well, they're pretty much the same thing, aren't they?

First, only on the happy side, the game is afoot! It's March and that's just about the happiest month in sports. No head shaking about that. So let's move on.

We tried to be helpful, we really did. We blogged about illegal Wild Cards. We sent e-mails. We posted Rules. We alerted the local authorities to be on the lookout. But apparently nothing we can do will keep some entrants from thumbing their noses at us when it comes to their Wild Card selections.

As usual, however, we get the last laugh. This year, verbal spankings go to M Wanger, who chose Marquette as his Wild Card (#18 in the AP Top 25 posted with the Rules) and Day, who chose #13 Ohio State. The Scofflaw of the Year award goes to self-proclaimed "Urbans Angels" member Frame, who tried to slip #2 Duke by us with her Wild Card selection. Nice try, Angel.

Our well-timed warning post also cautioned would-be entrants against choosing teams that are ineligible for the NCAA tournament, and we specifically mentioned Connecticut, although you wouldn't know it from the at-large selections of Bland, Brenner, B Brenner, Cristinzio, Eberly, Grossman, Steitz, Kaelin, D Kornfeld, McKillip, P Ripley, Selig, Watson, M Wanger (two mentions already -- it might end up being a long contest for this guy), and B Wright, all of whom selected the ineligible Huskies.

Also mentioned in the article we linked were Arkansas-Pine Bluff (chosen to win its conference by Baum, Eberly, Steitz, Henry, Leace, S Leach, and Nocilla) and Towson (chosen to win its conference by Atkinson, Barone, J Donadio, and Huffnagle).

Not mentioned in that particular article (but easily found in a simple google search) is UCF, who the NCAA banned from the tournament due to violations, much to the chagrin of Frame, Hahn, Steitz, Kaelin, M Kline, and B Wright. A little trickier to find (but still not very hard) are teams that are eligible to be selected at-large but weren't invited to play in their conference tournament (because they're leaving next season for another conference). So it's not a total loss for those who chose Boston University to win the America East conference (Baum, Grossman, M Leach, S Leach, and M Peloso) or Georgia State in the Colonial (Cristinzio) -- we wish you all good luck with the committee.

The funny thing is, other then possibly UConn, none of the above selections were mainstream. So it's somewhat ironic that eight people (Baum, Cristinzio, Eberly, Grossman, S Leach, Kaelin, Steitz, and B Wright) picked multiple upsets that were not only improbable, but downright impossible. Steitz gets special mention for selecting three such teams (UConn, UCF, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff).

Finally, we are delighted to announce the return of the famed "Wamser Maneuver," named after a contestant who, in the early days of the pool, made waves by choosing one or more teams into his Final Four that he did not choose into his Elite Eight. Wamser's technique has long since evolved to the point where he now selects one or more teams into his Final Four without even entering the contest, but we still call the move by its original moniker. Whatever we call it, however, it's been quite a few years since somebody felt empowered enough to try it, and this year we salute Coach Doc for thinking enough of Georgetown to call them a Final Four team, but not thinking enough of the Hoyas to predict them into the Elite Eight.

Some fun. More to follow.