You're It

It's always nice when a contest as old as ours gets an infusion of new blood. Competing for only the second time in pool history, the Tag Team entitled Members of DBR (240.8) has come out on top, beating out a brand new group, the Ant Farm (234.75) by more than five points. The decline of Whiteside continues, as Whiteside and his Enemies (225.0) barely edged the Ripley Believe-it-or-Nots (224.5) and the Friends of Natalini (223.0). Of course while embracing the new, we'd hate to give up the old, so we take some small comfort in knowing that the Leach Gang (213.75) has once again floundered in second-to-last place. The D'Zuro Group (215.2) spared themselves the ignominy of finishing below the Leaches, something we can't say about the Urban Engineers (193.11).

They could've chosen any school, but they chose Temple. And apparently a lot of other winners, because fans of Temple (245.0) were the best in this year's contest. Maryland (237.0) was at least better than Duke (221.33) at something. Among non-Temple Pennsylvania schools, Penn State (214.88) beat out both the University of Pennsylvania (210.5) and Villanova (205.33).

Females (223.93) came out on top of males (220.12), where pretty much everyone wants them to be. Children (240.86) thumbed their noses at their elders. Among the various species, Lawyers (221.33) couldn't beat out Humans (222.08), but at least they were better than Dogs (205.0). Angels (177.0) need to wheedle some more inside information out of their boss. Our average pool participant scored 220.79, not nearly as well as our average commissioner (234.5). Non-paying participants (214.43) once again showed they didn't pay for a reason (those who paid averaged 221.84).

Students (235.85) always think they know better than teachers (222.25), but this year they really do. Those in sales (230.0) out-thought those in IT (223.75). The unemployed (223.25) clearly have more time on their hands than those with gainful employment (214.88), but we don't know how to explain retired people (213.0). Number crunchers in the accounting world (215.8) probably aspire to be someone with a fancier financial-related title (219.5). Attorneys (212.25) can take solace in that at least they're smarter than engineers (206.17). Self-styled "provocateurs" (233.0) are just a bit cleverer than those fancying themselves a "genius (on sabbatical)" (229.0).

This year the prime place from which to pick pools was the Deep South (239.63). People in New York City (232.4) tend to have a superiority complex but at least this year they more or less backed it up. The West (232.0) bested the Midwest (226.0). Philadelphia suburbs (222.8) beat out Philadelphia urbs (213.8). Those who live in extended DelMarVa (213.8) and Western PA (209.8) should probably move.

Breaking it down further, this year's top state of mind was Tennessee (237.5). New Yorkers (232.43) got the news three hours earlier than Californians (229.0). Floridians (227.0) warmed up faster than Pennsylvanians (217.63), Virginians (216.50), or Marylanders (213.50). New Jerseyites (208.33) should find a new exit on the turnpike.

In the name game, if you want to choose wisely you should change your name to Jeff (234.0), or maybe Mike (224.5) or David (224.5). We wouldn't recommend John (213.75) or Bob (210.0).

The Final Four starts in just over 24 hours. Enjoy the games.

Rivalridiculous

"I can hear them... giggling ...as they are plotting against me!" Yes, these were the words from the troubled mind of Booth, as she prepared to do battle in the annual Whiteside Booth-bash.

Is it really paranoia if they are in fact out to get you? Whitesidekick J Butscher came into the contest talking a little trash: "Will Nancy Booth finish last? Probably."

Perhaps J Butscher might want to look up the one about kharma being a bitch, because while Booth did end up in an eight-way tie for 56th with a mediocre 218 points, among those who managed the exact same paltry total was the Butscher himself (218), as well as fellow Whitesider McKillip (also 218). Maybe J Butscher ought to stick to taunting K Butscher (208) instead.

But what of C Whiteside? Sure, coming into this year's contest he'd hammered his sister-in-law Booth ten times in the past ten years, by a whopping average of 41 points. But in 2012 his aura of invincibility took a hit. His own progeny entered the contest and both J Whiteside and B Whiteside kicked their old man's behind. Rumor had it the muttered words "beginner's luck" could be heard after the kids went to bed, but the twins simply smirked. This season, when C Whiteside attempted to dissuade ten-year-old J Whiteside from his choice of Syracuse as national champion, the young lad flat out refused his counsel.

Ever hear the one about laughing last? Apparently young B Whiteside (262) and J Whiteside (261) haven't. Both children whupped daddy for the second straight year. Even scarier for "Shabba," he only beat his annual bean bag Booth by a mere point, 219 to 218. We have not been able to verify reports that C Whiteside checked in to a cardiac ward after he saw the scoring totals.

In other grudge matches, K Sullivan once again said she didn't want to make B Peloso cry, but that didn't keep her from mercilessly trouncing her rival, 229 to 220, and forcing B Peloso to take solace in the beating of his Duke-loving wife, M Peloso (198). Sullivan also bested her husband, D'Zuro (210), and deceased mother-in-law, Haklar (219). K Ripley (213) sadly missed her modest goal of topping father R Wanger (226), brother M Wanger (241), and/or husband P Ripley (218).

In Leach World, poor P Leach (183) collapsed piteously beneath the heels of his father E Leach (236), his two daughter's, M Leach (266) and Sa Leach (226), and even the family dog, Su Leach (226).

Smaller family squabbles were settled when R Kornfeld (219) whipped D Kornfeld (182), J McAtee (196) edged M McAtee (188), R Schlegel (225) slipped by L Schlegel (219), T Cristinzio (237) clobbered A Cristinzio (165), L Donadio (256) stomped on J Donadio (185), Adams (246) pounded Coach Doc (228), D Josephs (240) flew past commissioner M Josephs (218), and G Wright (218) put B Wright (193) in his proper place. After scoring both 254 and 211, M Paston may need treatment for a bipolar condition.

Among members of DBR, Nocilla (264) won bragging rights, over ACCBballFan (256), Kedsy (251), Tommy (217), and Sporthenry (216).

Tag Team totals tomorrow.

Cuatro

Well, on Easter Sunday, a bunch of Cardinals beat the Devils. That shouldn't have been too hard to foresee, should it? With Michigan and Louisville rounding out the Final Four, we have a new leader, Smith, with 277 points, followed by Marshall (270) and Martin (269).

Depending on who wins next week in Atlanta, here's how the top three will look in our contest:

Louisville
Sanders 295
Steinhardt 282
Dye 280

Michigan
M Wanger 281
Serri 278
T Cristinzio 277
Smith 277

Syracuse
J Whiteside 301
Smith 277
Marshall 270

Wichita State
Sciarabba 333
Smith 277
Marshall 270

Look for Tag Team and Rivalry posts this week.

Shocker! (For real this time)

Honestly, who would've thought Wichita State had any chance to make the Final Four? Really? Well, who besides Sciarabba, who took Wichita as his Wild Card and basically on the strength of that one pick sits atop our leader board with 258 points? M Leach is still second, although she didn't get any points today, with 246.

The other Final Four team decided this afternoon, Syracuse, had the support of four entrants (B Whiteside, J Whiteside, Brenner, T Cristinzio), two of whom (B Whiteside, 242, and J Whiteside, 241) are now in third and fourth place, respectively. Only J Whiteside has the Orange as national champs.

The rest of the Final Four will be decided tomorrow. Louisville (chosen by 27 to make the Final Four) will play Duke (45), while Florida (41) battles with Michigan (19).

Enjoy.

Ocho

The Elite Eight is complete, with Louisville (chosen by 49 into the Elite Eight and 27 into the Final Four), Duke (74, 45), Florida (74, 41), and Michigan (51, 19) moving on. And while the 61 people who predicted Kansas into the Elite Eight are probably not so happy with the Jayhawks blowing a double-digit lead with 3:18 to go, the rest of us are more or less just sad for Florida Gulf Coast.

We have a new leader and it's not particularly close. Madison Leach, who last year finished in 92nd place, has taken control of the pool with 246 points. S Smith has surged into second, with 237 points, followed by Crotty and L Donadio, with 236 each. Full standings may once again be found by clicking the link on the right hand side of the page.

Tune in tomorrow for more.

Shocker!

What the heck, right? It's been a while since we could use that headline for an Elite Eight game. Anyway, according to our research, until tonight a #13 seed had never played against a #9 seed in an NCAA tournament game. And after LaSalle's performance this evening, one could argue they still haven't.

The only person who gave any support to Wichita State was Sciarabba, who picked the Shockers as his Wild Card and has currently ridden the Shockwave into fourth place, with 208 points, trailing third place holder Haklar (209) and our current co-leaders, Biebel and Moscow, both with 213. Both Haklar (UCLA) and Moscow (Gonzaga) have lost their champions, though. Full standings, incomplete though they are with only half the Elite Eight decided, may be found by clicking the link on the right hand side of the page.

Our entrants once again flaunted their knack for jinxing their favorite for national champion (only six of our 24 favorites have won the title, a dismal 25% showing), as Indiana (favored by 28 to win it all) went down hard against Syracuse (favored only by J Whiteside). Some of us (23 to be exact) did get behind the Orange as an Elite Eight team, and four contestants (Brenner, T Cristinzio, B Whiteside, J Whiteside) picked Syracuse into the Final Four. The team Syracuse will play to see who goes to Atlanta will be Marquette, picked by only three to get to the Elite Eight (Haklar, Sa Leach, K Ripley) and by only Haklar to be one of the last Four standing.

In the West, Wichita State will match up with Ohio State, which was chosen by nine to reach the Eight (Brindisi, Huffnagle, Hymowitz, D Kedson, M Kline, M Leach, Moscow, Sciarabba, Selarnick) and three to make the Four (Hymowitz, M Kline, Moscow).

Which means, if you like to add things up, that the four teams already in the Elite Eight received a combined total of 35 votes for the Elite Eight and eight (8) votes for the Final Four (plus one Wild Card nod).

So it's pretty much par for the course in our contest. If tonight's games were any indication, look for Oregon (chosen by only cbabs and Haklar into the Elite Eight and nobody into the Final Four) and Florida Gulf Coast (chosen by nobody to do nuthin') to make some noise tomorrow.

Sweet, part two

When it came to Elite Eight, Final Four, and champion last year, our entrants' four most popular choices ended up as the four #1 seeds, and our next four most popular choices came in as #2s. Not so much this year. While our top two 2013 favorites for all three end-of-tourney honors both got #1 seeds (Indiana and Gonzaga, although of course one of those top two isn't even playing any more, so we're not sure how proud we should be on that front), after that our group and the selection committee didn't quite see eye to eye.

Whether that divergence says something about the committee or something about our contestants, we decline to venture an opinion. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see how much our gang disagreed with the seeding:

Our top Eight:

-----Team-----	Elite 8	Final 4	Champs
#1 Indiana	95	82	28
#1 Gonzaga	78	43	14
#2 Duke	74	45	10
#3 Florida	74	41	12
#3 Michigan State	65	35	6
#1 Kansas	61	29	3
#2 Miami	58	58	7
#4 Michigan	51	21	5

So if our entrants ruled the world (how's that for a scary thought), #2 Duke and #3 Florida would have had #1 seeds, and #3 Michigan State and #4 Michigan would have been awarded #2s. On the other hand:

-----Team-----	Elite 8	Final 4	Champs
#1 Louisville	49	27	8
#2 Georgetown	39	21	3
#4 Syracuse	23	4	1
...
#2 Ohio State	9	3	1

Which means we'd have awarded top overall seed Louisville a lousy #3 seed and given #2 Ohio State a lowly #5.

We've already mentioned how 18 of us have already lost their champions. But our overall favorite, Indiana (with 28 votes) remains and is the only team in the hunt with more than a dozen supporters. Of course, in this contest our top overall choice has only actually ended up as champion in 6 out of 23 years (26.1%), so I wouldn't go printing up those Hoosier t-shirts just yet. The complete tally for our choices of champions:

-----Team-----	votes	-------------------who?---------------------
Indiana	28
Gonzaga	14	Urban's Angels, Booth, K Butscher, Hahn, M Josephs, M Kleiman, Mahalko, J Moscow, M Paston 1, K Ripley, L Schlegel, K Sullivan, Watson, B Wright
Florida	12	Alberts, Biebel, Harlan, D Josephs, Karlsruher, D Kornfeld, R Kornfeld, Leace, Paston 2, B Peloso, Sciarabba, Warner
Duke	10	Colleran, Crotty, J Donadio, D Kedson, Nocilla, Rubinson, R Schlegel, selig, R Simon, B Whiteside
Louisville	8	Barone, Baum, cbabs, Dye, E Leach, Rybaltowski, Sanders, Steinhardt
Miami	7	Brenner, J Butscher, Cristinzio, Eberly, Kaelin, Pogach, P Ripley
Michigan State	6	B Brenner, Brindisi, D'Zuro, Fitch, P Leach, G Wright
Michigan	5	Atkinson, T Cristinzio, Steitz, Serri, M Wanger
Kansas	3	Su Leach, M McAtee, C Whiteside
Georgetown	3	Bland, Broder, M Leach
Ohio State	1	Hymowitz
Syracuse	1	J Whiteside
UCLA	1	Haklar

A grand total of 56 contestants got at least one Wild Card point, for choosing St. Louis (27), Minnesota (11), VCU (9), UNC (4), Iowa St (2), Creighton (1), Illinois (1), and Wichita St (1). Only one entrant was clever (or wild, if you will) enough to choose a Wild Card that garnered more than one point, and that was Sciarabba who has gained six points and counting from his selection of Wichita State.

For someone who lives in California, it must seem as if most of the country is part of the Midwest. Which might at least begin to explain how Rubinson managed to have five of his Elite Eight (Duke, Michigan State, Louisville, Oklahoma State and St. Louis) and three of his Final Four (Duke, Michigan State, and Louisville) in the Midwest Region. Five others matched Rubinson's Final Four feat (Brenner, 3 in the E; Warner and M Wanger, 3 in the S; Booth and Adams, 3 in the M), while thirteen confused contestants managed to pick four of their Elite Eight in one region (Bi Acchione (S); Fitch (M); McKillip (S); Brindisi (M); Serri (M); J Whiteside (E); J McAtee (S); K Sullivan (S); Rybaltowski (M); M McAtee (E); Booth (M); Sa Leach (E); T Cristinzio (S)).

No seed of 13 or lower has ever made the Elite Eight, so we can perhaps forgive our contestants for completely ignoring #13 LaSalle and #15 Florida Gulf Coast when choosing the Elite Eight and Final Four. Two entrants picked #12 Oregon into the Elite Eight (cbabs, Haklar). We mentioned earlier than only nine of us liked Ohio State into the Elite Eight (Brindisi, Huffnagle, Hymowitz, D Kedson, M Kline, M Leach, Moscow, Sciarabba, Selarnick) and just four were bold enough to pick the Buckeyes into the Final Four (Hymowitz, M Kline, Moscow). Arizona was even more popular, with 14 votes for the Eight and four for the Four (Barone, Sanders, Selig, Templeton). To round out the Sweet Sixteen, Marquette had the support of three (Haklar, Sa Leach, K Ripley) and one (Haklar).

Full breakdowns for the Elite Eight and Final Four, showing exactly who picked what, are available by clicking the links in this sentence. As always, current standings may be found by clicking the link on the right hand side of this page.

Next week: Tag Team tally and Rivalry posts. Enjoy the games.

Sweet

Well, it took longer than we expected to regain our vim, and at our age perhaps vigor is a bit too much to hope for. Still we're back and so is the Sweet Sixteen. So here goes, with the first of two really long posts to cover the events of the weekend.

Let's start with a look back. We've had four days of games since our last report. But even before the games, some entrants were at a teensy disadvantage, since there were eight (8) Elite Eight choices that didn't even make the tournament: George Mason (Urban's Angels), Arizona State (Cristinzio) Baylor (Urban's Angels), BYU (Urban's Angels), and Florida State (Steitz).

Thursday started innocently enough, unless of course you were one of the 28 contestants who spent an Elite Eight choice on New Mexico (17) or Oklahoma State (11). Or worse, one of the seven who wasted a Final Four choice (M McAtee, M Paston 1, Sciarabba, M Peloso took New Mexico; Brindisi, Rybaltowski, K Ripley took Okla St). Another seven entrants saw one of their Elite Eight teams dash against the rocks: Grossman (Missouri), Serri (Missouri), D Kedson (Pitt), Mahalko (Pitt), Urban's Angels (Bucknell and St. Mary's), Atkinson (Davidson), and Rybaltowski (UNLV).

So after the first day of the tournament, three contestants had already lost two of their Final Eight (Rybaltowski had Oklahoma State and UNLV; Barone had New Mexico and Oklahoma State; Cristinzio had Arizona State and Oklahoma State). And the self-proclaimed Urban's Angels were down an unimaginable five out of Eight (G Mason, Baylor, BYU, Bucknell, and St. Mary's).

The Angels would lose a sixth Elite Eight team on Friday (Notre Dame), but at least they still had Gonzaga and Butler. Um, oops. And thus Urban's Angels became the first entrant in pool history to lose his or her entire Elite Eight by the first Saturday of the tournament. Needless to say (although we'll gleefully say it anyway), Urban's Angels also had a ceiling of zero (0) Final Four teams at the same moment in time (for history's sake, the Angels' Final Four consisted of the religious quartet of Notre Dame, Gonzaga, Butler, and BYU).

Of course, Urban's Angels weren't the only contestants to gnash their teeth on Friday. That was the day Georgetown bit the dust, taking with it the hopes of the 39 who chose the Hoyas into the Elite Eight, the 21 who fearlessly predicted a Georgetown Final Four berth, and the three who went all the way out on the limb for Georgetown as national champion (Bland, Broder, and M Leach).

Also walking around with their frown right side up were the backers of Wisconsin (11 into Elite Eight; Sciarabba into Final Four); Kansas State (Atkinson, B Brenner, Brindisi, Eberly, P Leach, C Whiteside into Elite Eight; B Brenner into Final Four); Notre Dame (Urban's Angels, B Brenner, B Whiteside into Elite Eight; Urban's Angels, B Whiteside into Final Four); Cincinnati (Steitz, Moscow into Elite Eight; Steitz into Final Four); UCLA (Haklar into Elite Eight, Final Four, and Champion); Villanova (Cristinzio into Elite Eight); and NC State (Bland into Elite Eight).

Everyone else could at least savor the feeling of accomplishment in knowing their Elite Eight and Final Four choices all made the second round (and, no, we're not calling the round of 32 the "third" round just because the NCAA decided to schedule a few play-in games). That feeling probably evaporated pretty quickly when Gonzaga (chosen by 78 into the Elite Eight and 43 into the Final Four) got knocked off by Wichita State (chosen by absolutely nobody except Sciarabba as a Wild Card). Butler going down didn't please the 16 and 5 (Urban's Angels, Dye, Hymowitz, M Kline, Sa Leach) who liked them into the Elite Eight and Final Four, respectively, as well as the few and probably not very proud who went out on a limb for St. Louis (Atkinson, Brindisi, Haklar, Rubinson, L Schlegel, Watson into Elite Eight, Watson into Final Four), Memphis (Canning into Elite Eight, Booth into Elite Eight and Final Four), or Colorado State (Fitch, Warner into Elite Eight). Sunday was only a not-so-fun day for those who liked North Carolina (Booth, Cristinzio into Elite Eight) or Minnesota (D'Zuro into Elite Eight).

With Gonzaga's demise, 14 entrants (Urban's Angels, Booth, K Butscher, Hahn, M Josephs, M Kleiman, Mahalko, J Moscow, M Paston 1, K Ripley, L Schlegel, K Sullivan, Watson, B Wright) joined Haklar, Bland, Broder and M Leach in looking forward to 75% of the tournament without a chosen champion to root for.

That's it for part one. Part two of the blog post that wouldn't end will be offered up tonight.

Wow

Hey, I just got back from the Wells Fargo Center, where I watched #15 seed Florida Gulf Coast beat #2 seed Georgetown and join #14 Harvard, #13 LaSalle, three #12s (Oregon, Cal, Ole Miss), probably a #11 (Minnesota is currently winning by 12), almost certainly a #10 (Iowa State is winning by 24), and two #9s (Wichita State and Temple) in the upset column. And as I write this, #1 Kansas is only beating #16 Western Kentucky by three points. Brackets are broken, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!

I'd really intended to go over everything and detail who got clobbered in the pool and all that, but I've been working on press row all day and I'm just too tired. So sometime tomorrow I hope to return and roast all your selections with my usual vim and vigor, OK?

So Wild

We spoke about Wild Card selections that were so wild they were downright illegal, but we'll gladly mention those again: the Wild Card picks of Frame (Duke), Day (Ohio State), and M Wanger (Marquette) have been invalidated.

What about the other 96 contestants? Well, by far the most popular Wild Card in this year's contest is St. Louis, chosen by 27 entrants and graced with a #4 seed. #5 seeds UNLV (13 votes) and VCU (9 votes) were the 2nd and 4th most popular selections, respectively, and #11 seed Minnesota (11 votes) was exactly in the middle.

Six contestants' selections were so wild the committee didn't even invite the selected team to play in the NCAA tournament: Four people chose Virginia (Hahn, Leace, McKillip, Warner) and one each took Weber State (B Wright) and Loyola-Maryland (Kaelin). B Peloso is the only entrant whose Wild Card was selected but lost before the bracket pools are due, having chosen Tuesday night loser Middle Tennessee. Interestingly enough, B Peloso's wife, M Peloso, has St. Mary's -- the team that eliminated MTSU -- as her Wild Card. That must have been some living room in the Peloso household yesterday evening.

No other Wild Card got support from more than five contestants. Here's the list:

#6 UCLA: 5 (D'Zuro, Steitz, D Kedson, Kovolski, Selig)
#8 North Carolina State: 5 (Fitch, M Kline, Selarnick, R Simon, R Wanger)
#8 UNC: 4 (Su Leach, Martin, Pogach, Smith)
#10 Cincinnati: 3 (Cristinzio, R Kornfeld, Sanders)
#11 St. Mary's: 3 (D Kornfeld, J McAtee, M Peloso)
#9 Missouri: 2 (Brindisi, Rybaltowski)
#10 Iowa State: 2 (B Brenner, Grossman)
#7 Creighton: 1 (Watson)
#7 Illinois: 1 (Moscow)
#9 Wichita State: 1 (Sciarabba)
#10 Oklahoma: 1 (Sa Leach)
#11 Belmont: 1 (Rubinson)

So have a wild evening. The real games begin tomorrow at high noon.

Lunardi Rules!

Some of you may remember that Joe Lunardi, the resident Bracketologist at ESPN, used to play in this pool. You know, before he became rich and famous. Interestingly enough, he never did all that well, and when you're competing against a group that can't beat a hypothetical monkey flipping imaginary coins, that's saying something. But in deference to our most famous pool participant, if we can remember to do so we key in Lunardi's bracket predictions as of the day the contest entries were due. Perhaps predictably, the "ESPN Bracketology" entry has yet to make the top 20.

Until this year.

Yes, the overall acumen of our contestants has sunk so low that our current leader is ESPN Bracketology, with 203 points. Put another way, if you knew absolutely nothing (and we've decided to be nice by using the word "if") and you'd simply filled in your entry by copying Lunardi's bracket on the day the pool was due, you'd be $100 richer right now.

Fortunately for our gallivanting group of gallant prognosticators, ESPN Bracketology is a non-paying entry, and so this year's prize for having the most points as of the selection of the field will be split between Biebel and Moscow, each of whom has 202 points and has earned $50 for that feat. Just behind the leaders are D'Zuro (200) and Marshall (199), each of whom has earned $0 for not being quite good enough.

Moscow and Biebel lead a group of eight (8) members of our contest who managed to select more than half of the conference champions correctly, as each of them guessed right on 17 out of 31 (54.8%, a solid F in Middle School). Also with 17 correct were cbabs, M Kline, and Marshall. Last year's leader at this point, Steinhardt got 16 of 31 right (an even solider F), as did D'Zuro and Kaelin.

On the opposite side of the spectrum (or is it called the Wachovia Center now?), seven of our entrants were correct on fewer than 10 of their conference champ predictions. "Leading" the way is Pogach, who managed to accurately select a mind-numbing seven (7). The others, all with a similarly impressive nine (9) out of 31: J Whiteside, Rubinson, Fitch, J Donadio, Cristinzio and Canning. The bottom of the standings currently belongs to Cristinzio and Frame, each with 135 points. Full standings, as always, may be found by clicking the link on the right hand side of the page.

Every year at least one of the Committee's at-large selections flummoxes our group. This year, though we were all over NIT participants Kentucky (picked by 89) and Virginia (72), only eight of us saw the diamond in the rough known as Boise State (chosen only by Crotty, J Donadio, Moscow, Paston 1, M Peloso, Pogach, B Whiteside, J Whiteside).

That same Boise State team will be participating in a play-in (aka, the new "first round") game tomorrow.

Enjoy the games.

Almost there

With 30 conference champs decided, the winner is... The Monkey. Mississippi (chosen only by Cristinzio) beat Florida in the SEC, meaning that a majority of our entrants chose the correct conference champion in a pathetic 13 of 31 (the remaining conference tournament features a Wisconsin team selected by six vs. an Ohio State team favored by five). That's 42% for our entrants and 58% for the proactive primate.

In the standings, Moscow has surged into the lead with 95 points, just ahead of Biebel (94).

Stay tuned. We'll be back after the selection of the field.

Two more for the lesser ape*

Well, Wisconsin (selected by six: Brenner, Huffnagle, Leace, M McAtee, Sciarabba, and Templeton) sent our favorite Big Ten choice Indiana (taken by 63) packing on Saturday, and the Badgers move on to the Big Ten final today, against Ohio State (picked by five: D Kedson, Sa Leach, Moscow, Rubinson, Selarnick). And in the Southland, our contestants' favorite Stephen F. Austin (selected by 74) fell to ignominious defeat at the hands of Northwestern State (chosen by 18).

That's two more for the monkey, who also Saturday took credit for Oregon (liked by 24); Albany (7: J Broder, Frame, Gorenstein, Steitz, M Josephs, J McAtee, Selig); Pacific (8: Alberts, Booth, Canning, Crotty, Steitz, M Leach, R Simon, G Wright); New Mexico State (7: Booth, B Brenner, cbabs, Steitz, Sa Leach, M McAtee, Sanders); and North Carolina A&T (0). The ACC will also spill onto the monkey's side of the ledger after either Miami (30) or UNC (3: M Leach, Sciarabba, J Whiteside) win today.

That's 15 for the smarmy simian, out of 31 total conferences. Unless you count Louisville (picked by 37), which was not taken by a majority of our entrants but was our top votegetter in the Big East, in which case the monkey is already officially better than our (mostly) human contestants. And of course we think the coin-flipping mammal should take the credit for a conference champion chosen by barely more than a third of our group, but in deference to those who foolishly disagree with us, there are two additional conferences still in play.

The Atlantic 10 championship pits St. Louis (another non-majority but top votegetter with 46) and VCU (liked by 17). And the SEC features overwhelming favorite Florida (84) against little Ole Miss (just Cristinzio). If either VCU or Mississippi win then nobody can argue with the monkey's superiority.

Except possibly M Kline, who has already chosen 17 correct conference champions and sits atop our leaderboard with 85 points, just ahead of Moscow, who has 84 points but only 15 properly selected conference champs. Within spitting distance of the leaders are Biebel, Frame, and E Leach, all with 81 points, and cbabs and J McAtee, both with 80.

At the other end of the standings, Pogach has correctly chosen a mere six (6) conference champions and languishes at the bottom with just 42 points. Sa Leach (52) and Cristinzio (53) are better, but not by much.

Full standings may (as always) be found using the link on the right hand side of the page.



* - Yes, we realize the monkey is not really a lesser ape. You're just going to have to live with our little literary licenses. And our alluring alliterative abilities as well.

More monkeying around

Well, as we reported Wednesday, of the 14 conferences that have had winner's decided, the majority of our contestants have been correct in seven and incorrect in seven. We also noted that on Wednesday the top two votegetters in the MEAC (Norfolk State (76) and NCCU (18)) both lost their first tourney games, leaving Savannah State (5) as the only MEAC team still alive on which any of our entrants took a chance. Predictably, Savannah State lost its next game, leaving it guaranteed that the MEAC winner will have been picked by nobody associated with our contest.

Perhaps just as predictable, the very next day the very same thing happened in the WAC. The only difference being the top two teams that lost in their first games were named Louisiana Tech (picked by 79) and Denver (picked by 12). There are currently three teams alive in the WAC. New Mexico State (selected by 7) will play the winner of Texas-San Antonio and Texas-Arlington, neither of which was selected by any of us.

Then today our choice in the ACC, Duke (chosen by 62), went down in its first game as well. Big West favorite Long Beach (liked by 83) and Pac 12 top choice Arizona (46) at least waited until their conference semifinals before bowing out.

So here's what we have at this moment in the 17 conferences in which the champions will be crowned this weekend:

ALREADY CLINCHED FOR THE MONKEY:
America East: Albany (7) vs. Vermont (8)
ACC: Miami (30) vs. NC State (2); UNC (3) vs. Maryland (0)
Big West: UC-Irvine (4) vs. winner of Cal Poly (1)/Pacific (8)
MEAC: Morgan State (0) vs. NC A&T (0)
Pac 12: UCLA (20) vs. winner of Oregon (24)/Utah (0)
WAC: New Mexico State (7) vs. winner of UTSA (0)/TX-ARL (0)

MONKEY WINS ON A TECHNICALITY
(no team in these conferences was chosen by a majority of us, but the top votegetter is still alive)
Atlantic 10: St. Louis (46) vs. Butler (31); Massachusetts (0) vs. VCU (17)
Big East: Louisville (37) vs. Syracuse (19)

COULD GO EITHER WAY
Big 12: Kansas (75) vs. Kansas State (13)
Big Sky: Montana (63) vs. Weber State (36)
Big 10: Indiana (63) vs. Wisconsin (6); Michigan State (17) vs. Ohio State (5)
Conf USA: Memphis (89) vs. Southern Miss (10)
MAC: Akron (88) vs. Ohio (10)
Mountain West: New Mexico (62) vs. winner of UNLV (24)/Colorado State (10)
SEC: Florida (84) vs. Alabama (1); Ole Miss (1) vs. Vanderbilt (0))
Southland: Stephen F. Austin (74) vs. Northwestern State (18)
SWAC: Southern (68) vs. Prairie View A&M (0)

So if you're scoring at home, well, then you're probably not reading this. Nevertheless, the monkey now has at least 13 out of 31 conferences, 15 if you count the Atlantic 10 and the Big East, conferences that had no majority. That means for the monkey to beat our pool participants, just one more conference upset has to happen (three more if you don't count the A10 and the Big East).

We know what we're rooting for.

Shock the Monkey

Bucknell took the Patriot League tonight, and since 88 of us thought that was going to happen, it gives our majority 7 out of the 14 conferences decided at this point, bringing us even with the mythical monkey flinging coins and who knows what else.

As we've noted previously, however, the America East conference is a victory for the wayward primate, since when they finally get around to deciding the winner in that conference it'll be Albany (chosen by 7 of us) facing off against Vermont (chosen by 8).

Well, add the MEAC to the monkey's side of the ledger, because in their very first game, both top seeded Norfolk State (picked by 76) and second fiddle NCCU (selected by 18) went down. Hard. So while there are six MEAC teams still alive in their tournament, only one of those teams got any votes from our entrants, and that was Savannah State, the favorite of five contestants (Alberts, Booth, M Peloso, Pogach, R Simon).

The standings look more or less the same as they did before (since all the leaders chose Bucknell). About the only visible change is we've been told that Biebel 1 and Biebel 2 are really just Biebel. We guess he was just stuttering or something.

Three more

If Long Island won its third straight NEC championship, but nobody picked them, does the three-peat still make a sound? Fortunately, we don't have to answer that classic philosophical question, since Gorenstein and M Leach were clever enough to pick the Blackbirds.

Also winning tonight were Valparaiso (chosen by 73) and South Dakota State (63). So our majority has been correct on 6 of the 13 conference champions decided so far, a nifty 46% and not quite as good as the mythical monkey.

M Kline maintains his lead, with 9 correct conference champions for 45 points. K Biebel 1, K Biebel 2, Brindisi, Moscow, and G Wright are tied for second with 40 points (8 correct champs), and Adams, Frame, Gorenstein, and B Wright are currently in third with 38 points (7 champs).

At the bottom of the standings, Pogach has been right in just two (2) conferences for 13 points. Next in line for the distinction of dubiosity are Fitch (18 points) and Cristinzio (19).

Full standings are available using the link on the right hand side of the page.

Five more dancers

Five more conference champs have been decided. And our contestants guessed right in two of the five, giving the contest majority a whopping four out of nine conference tournaments correct (five of ten if you count Harvard in the Ivy, once again matching the monkey with a silver dollar). Of course, that score goes down if you include the two conferences in which both finalists were chosen by fewer than 10 of us, which would bring our overall tally to four out of 11 (a fine 36% accuracy; so much for matching the monkey).

Tonight's champions include Sun Belt (hill)topper Western Kentucky (selected by exactly none of us), Colonial champ James Madison (chosen by four of us: Brindisi, Gorenstein, M Josephs, Leace), King of the MAAC Iona (picked by 11: Adams, Baumgarten, Gorenstein, Harlan, D Kedson, M Kline, M Paston 1, M Paston 2, Sanders, Serri), Southern maven Davidson (90), and WCC top dog Gonzaga (93).

New standings may (as always) be found on the link at the right of the page.

Our new leader is M Kline, who has seven correct champions out of ten, for 35 points. Just behind the leader are Frame and B Wright, both of whom have six correct champions and 33 points.

The Summit semifinals were also played this evening, and it looks like tomorrow will feature an old fashioned Dakota hoedown, with South Dakota State (chosen by 63) taking on North Dakota State (picked by 24). Also tomorrow will be the Horizon final, with Valparaiso (73) against Wright State (0), and the NEC final, in which Mt. St. Mary's (0) will face Long Island (2: Gorenstein, M Leach).

Some fun.

Give me Liberty...

...or give me Florida Gulf Coast. Once again our entrants have proven that when it comes to predicting conference champions we can compete with a monkey flipping coins.

So far this season, 14 conferences have played tournament games. And so far, the majority of our contestants are dead wrong in at least seven (7) of those 14. To our credit, we were correct in the OVC (Belmont was chosen by 81 of us), and still have a shot in six other tournaments that are still going on.

But first, let's take a look at our many errors. Leading the way is Liberty, chosen by none of us, a team that beat our favorite Charleston Southern (taken by 56) in the Big South. The Sun Belt championship won't be played until tonight, but since the championship game participants are Florida International (chosen by 0) and Western Kentucky (also chosen by 0), it's safe to say that's two goose eggs for the rabble.

The MAAC also plays its championship game tonight, but while none of our contestants chose Manhattan, at least there were 11 of us who took Iona (Adams, Baumgarten, Frame, Gorentstein, Harlan, D Kedson, M Kline, M Paston 1, M Paston 2, Sanders, and Serri). The NEC finishes its tournament tomorrow, pitting Mt. Saint Mary's (selected by none of us -- see the trend here) against Long Island U. (taken by only Gorenstein and M Leach). The America East final won't happen until Saturday, but when it does it'll feature Albany (chosen by 7: Broder, Frame, Gorenstein, Steitz, M Josephs, J McAtee, Selig) and Vermont (liked by 8: Bi Acchione, Atkinson, Colleran, Cristinzio, Pogach, Sanders, Templeton, Yolles).

Two tourneys that have finished also finished with champions chosen by the few, rather than the many. In the Atlantic Sun, Florida Gulf Coast (picked by 28) beat out Mercer (69). And in the MVC, Creighton (40) outlasted Wichita State (52).

As we said earlier, six other tournaments have started in which the majority of us still have a chance. In the Colonial, Northeastern (liked by 69 entrants) faces James Madison (favored by only four: Brindisi, Gorenstein, M Josephs, Leace). In the Horizon, Valparaiso (73) takes on Wright State (another "zero hero"). In the Patriot League, Bucknell (88) hopes to hold on against Lafayette (yet another "goose egg gamer"). In the Southern conference, it's Davidson (90) against Charleston (5: Bi Acchione, Eberly, Gorenstein (seems like we're typing his name a lot, doesn't it?), Hahn, D Kornfeld). In the WCC, Gonzaga (93) tries to tame St. Mary's (6: Canning, Cristinzio, D Kedson, Kovalski, Pogach, Yolles). Finally, the Summit semifinals feature South Dakota State (63), North Dakota State (24), Western Illinois (9), and Oakland (4).

The Ivy League, the only conference that doesn't hold a tournament, also crowned its automatic qualifier, and not surprisingly it was Harvard (chosen by 91), the team that was winning the Ivy when the pool was due. Thus spoiling the always-unlikely scenario spun by dreamers like Alberts, Canning, Cristinzio, Harlan, Steitz, D Kornfeld, Leace, Sa Leach, and B Whiteside.

With five conference winners in the books, we have standings, as well as a ten-way tie for first (among Biebel 1, Biebel 2, Blatt, B Brenner, Crotty, M Kline, Moscow, Selarnick, B Wright, and G Wright) with 20 points. Just behind the many leaders are eight more entrants with 18 points (Frame, Grossman, D Kedson, B Peloso, Rybaltowski, Templeton, Warner, Yolles). Down at the bottom, six contestants have a meager 8 points (Hymowitz, Leace, Sa Leach, Sanders, Watson, B Whiteside), and eleven more are almost as bad (with 10 points: J Broder, J Donadio, Harlan, Kaelin, Karlsruher, M Kleiman, D Kornfeld, M Leach, M McAtee, Pogach, Sciarabba). Full standings may be found at the link on the right of this page.

Tonight, conference champs will be determined in the Colonial, MAAC, Southern, Sun Belt, and WCC. Happy watching.

Well, isn't this embarrassing?

After all the clever remarks about how easy it is to know which teams are ineligible, here's one we missed: regular season SWAC winner Texas Southern is not allowed to participate in either the SWAC tournament or the NCAA tournament due to various NCAA violations. That's apparently news to 24 entrants, including commissioner D Kedson.

And in fairness to the contestants we called out in our earlier post, it's only right we list those who failed to ferret out the truth about Texas Southern, too: Adams, Alberts, Baumgarten, Booth, B Brenner, Butscher, Coach Doc, J Donadio, Gorenstein, Harlan, Huffnagle, D Kedson, P Leach, Su Leach, M McAtee, M Peloso, Pogach, Rubinson, Rybaltowski, Sanders, Serri, Templeton, G Wright, and Yolles.

That is all.

Not such a High Point

Two more days have passed, giving us two more days of bad predictions to discuss. The biggest surprise of Thursday/Friday was the demise of High Point in the Big South. Well, at least it was a surprise to 15 of our contestants. Also out are Jacksonville (Colleran, Gorenstein) and Stetson (Sa Leach) in the Atlantic Sun, Eastern Kentucky (Booth, J Donadio, Frame, Hymowitz, Su Leach, J McAtee, and Watson) and Tennessee State (Brenner) in the OVC, and BYU (Brenner) in the WCC.

Brenner deserves mention for losing three of his conference champions (High Point, Tennessee St., BYU) in two days, all before the first conference championship has even been decided. Also deserving similar mention are J Donadio (unhappy with High Point, Eastern Kentucky, Towson) and Sa Leach (low about High Point, Stetson, Eastern Kentucky). Down two already are Nocilla (High Point, Ark-Pine Bluff), Rubinson (High Point, Quinnipiac), Gorenstein (Jacksonville, Coastal Carolina), Booth (Eastern Kentucky, UNCA), and J McAtee (Eastern Kentucky, UNCA) (along with Bi Acchione, M Kline, M Wanger, Grossman, Steitz, Cristinzio, Leace, and M Peloso, all of whom were mentioned in our previous post).

The first two dancers will be chosen today. In the Atlantic Sun, Mercer (chosen by 69 of us) squares off against Florida Gulf Coast (chosen by 28), and in the OVC it's Belmont (81) vs. Murray State (11).

Tune in tomorrow for more fun, fun, fun.

The Madness Begins

According to ESPN, "week one" of Championship Week is upon us. How can something named "Championship Week" have more than one week in it? Well remember, these are the same people who when Joe Lunardi updates his page, flash his latest guesses on their news crawler as "breaking news." Kentucky moves from 'last four in' to 'first four out.' Oh, my.

But obviously we all have to live with the foibles of the Worldwide Leader. After all, we wouldn't want either Dennis Rodman or North Korea to threaten a nuclear attack against us, would we?

Tuesday marked the first conference tournament games of 2013. So it also marked the first failures for our contestants, as 17 entrants lost a conference winner on the opening day. UNC-Ashville got clobbered by Longwood in the first round of the Big South tournament, contrary to the predictions of Bi Acchione, Booth, Grossman, Steitz, M Josephs, M Kline, D Kornfeld, M Leach, Su Leach, J McAtee, L Schlegel, R Simon, and M Wanger, while also in the Big South, Coastal Carolina (chosen by Coach Doc, Gorenstein, Karlsruher and Sanders) was whipped by Liberty. Day two of week one of the Week was marked by 24 additional contestants with punctured dreams, 23 of whom picked Bryant in the Northeast conference (though unfortunately they are too numerous to conveniently mention individually). Finally, much to the commissioners' pronunciative delight, someone also picked Quinnipiac (Rubinson).

In an impressive display of anti-acumen, Bi Acchione, M Kline, and M Wanger have each in the first two days lost two of their conference champions (all choosing both UNCA and Bryant). If you count those who chose ineligible conference champions, then you can add Grossman, Steitz, Cristinzio, J Donadio, Leace, and M Peloso to this illustrious group.

Tonight we have conference tournament games from the Atlantic Sun, Big South, MVC, OVC, and WCC. Make sure to watch that ESPN news crawler!

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.

Get Smart

Anyone who has ever watched Maxwell Smart bumble across the television or the big screen, or even listened to the old Toto song, knows the value of 99.

Well this year, we're proud to announce that 99 contestants have dipped their toes into the pool. That's two more than last year, and it's always good to move in the right direction. We don't yet know how many are paying entrants, but we do know whoever wins will have bested almost a hundred other college basketball fans.

So here we go. Good luck to all.

Helpful Hints

Back in the day, when the Entry Form was made of paper, the Commissioners used to delight in pointing out our entrants' mistakes (in our periodic newsletters*). Every time some hapless contestant only chose two Final Four teams or picked Illinois three times or chose Southwest Missouri State** to both win their conference and make the field at-large, we'd point it out and laugh and laugh. And don't even get us started on creative pool-related spelling (Perdue, anyone?).

Then we came up with the bright idea to do everything electronically. The new-fangled Entry Form makes it easier for everyone, but it does seemingly give us fewer opportunities to harp on the inadequacies of our entrants, much to the chagrin of many. Sure, we can't stop a participant from picking Quinnipiac***, but most silly errors are caught by the form. No longer can a contestant misspell their favorite team or select a team multiple times or choose the wrong number of Elite Eight squads. It's almost boring.

But there are still a couple of pitfalls our contestants can potentially run into. For example, every single year at least a couple of contestants decide to choose a Wild Card that is listed in the AP Top 25 linked on the Entry Form. Either they forget the rule completely or they use a more current Top 25, an act which clearly does not comport with the Official Rules. So if you're filling out the Entry Form sometime between now and the due date of Thursday, February 28, 2013, remember to use the AP Top 25 from 2/11/2013, NOT the current Top 25.

Another potential sticky wicket is when entrants have their hearts set on choosing a team that is ineligible to compete in the NCAA tournament. This season, for example, the new rule requiring a minimum Academic Progress Rate has knocked several schools from competing in the Tournament, including Connecticut. While you are certainly free to select such teams on your Entry Form, our advice is to refrain from such conduct.

So don't say we never did anything for you.****

---------------------------------------------------------------

* -- also published on el papel, unlike this nifty blog

** -- Now saddled with the much less amusing moniker of Missouri State.

*** -- Nor, of course, would we want to.

**** -- OK, go ahead and say it. Obviously we're only pointing this stuff out so when some entrants inevitably do these things anyway, we can doubly embarrass them by linking back to this blog entry. We need something to write about over the next six weeks, don't we?

Here we go

It has been a quarter of a century since the world was without our Pre-NCAA contest. And we'd hate to go back to the eighties, wouldn't we? Remember those hairstyles?

Well, we'll do our part: The TWENTY FOURTH annual Pre-NCAA Contest is ready to roll.

Here's the entry form.

Here are the rules.

So make a splash -- jump on into the Pool.

UK > KU

Well, it's done. The tournament is over and Kentucky has become the youngest team ever to win an NCAA championship.

Congratulations to Harlan (356), Buddy Acchione (330), and 9 year old Jack Whiteside (327), who guaranteed that he'd beat his aunt (Booth (245)) and ended up beating a lot of other folks as well.

If we feel up to it, we'll post All Name teams tomorrow. If we don't feel up to it, we won't. Otherwise, it's been another fun season. See you next February.

A O "K"

An all blue "K" team final. Kentucky, with three freshmen and two sophomores starting, and only one upperclassman in its rotation, would be the youngest team ever to win a championship. If they win. Kansas, with four juniors and a senior in its starting lineup, has the experience usually necessary to win a championship, but seemingly less talent. Hmmm.

Harlan wins the first place money, no matter what, although if Kansas wins we'll have the added bonus of being able to make fun of Kovolski for winning the pool but failing to pay for it. No matter how you slice it, some Whiteside is going to win some $$$, meaning no matter what, Booth has to live with once again being trashtalked by a close in-law relative.

Tune in Monday for the end of the ride.

The big question...

Who's gonna win? No, not the tournament. If we knew that, the average Commissioner (261.0) would be a lot more than a lousy conference champion ahead of the average pool entrant (255.46). Honestly, who cares whether Kentucky can beat some in-state rival, when the winner of our contest is up in the air?

So, here goes (note that we had 77 paying entrants this year):

IF KENTUCKY WINS:
Harlan 356
Bud Acchione 330
J Whiteside 327

IF KANSAS WINS:
Kovolski** 319
Harlan 316
Nowakowski 315
B Whiteside 314
C Whiteside 314

** Note that Kovolski chose to be a non-paying entrant, playing for the pure joy of competition and obviously disinterested in mundane things like money. So, like Crotty in 2010, a Kansas win on Monday will make Kovolski our champion... but Harlan will score the cash.

IF OHIO STATE WINS:
D Kedson 344
Harlan 316
Steinhardt 301

IF LOUISVILLE WINS:
Harlan 316
D Kedson 304
Steinhardt 301

Congratulations to our contest winners, whomever they may turn out to be.

Rivalicious

Two more Whitesides entered this year's fray, and it seemed to hurt C Whiteside's mojo. The famed and fabled "Shabba" put up only 274 points, losing to his nine year old son, J Whiteside (287) and just scraping by with a tie against his nine year old daughter, B Whiteside (274). McKillip (275) continued his ownership of his colleague. For the first time in three years, even co-worker Butscher (277) joined the C Whiteside-topping fun. C Whiteside did manage to avoid the ultimate ignominy, however, as Booth's performance (245) was less than "Nantastic."

Long-deceased Haklar claims to be close to the Almighty except he's not "chattty chatty," and her score (236) backs that up. D'Zuro (253) beat up on his dead mother, but lost by 22 to K Sullivan (275), his future-Nobel-laureate wife. K Sullivan said she hoped she didn't make B Peloso cry this year, and while she pounded her annual whipping boy, we'd say she got her wish, as we assume B Peloso's tears were caused entirely by his embarrassing scoring total (213). As you might guess, B Peloso also lost to his Duke-loving wife, M Peloso (282) by almost 70 points.

Last year, K Ripley (238) blamed her low point total on going into labor during the contest, but this year it appears parenthood is a long-term malady. The former dominant member of the Ripley/Wanger clan lost handily to both husband P Ripley (270) and father R Wanger (272). For years, P Ripley has tried unsuccessfully to beat out father-in-law R Wanger, and this year he both did and didn't, as his 270 points lost out to R Wanger 1 (272) but beat R Wanger 2 (264).

It's not just K Ripley, though. Also rumored to be with child is S Adams (278) who for the first time in recent memory trails father Coach Doc (286). It might not be the fetus, though, as it just seems to be a good year for fathers generally. R Schlegel (258) has a comfortable lead over offspring L Schlegel (246), and D Josephs (277) completely dominated son and co-commissioner M Josephs (218). Mike Mc (251) handled youngster Owen Mc (247), as well as grandpa Joe Mc (237).

In Leach World, P Leach (278) dispatched daughters S Leach (239) and Madison Leach (212), as well as in-law Pogach (259) and patriarch E Leach (263).

J Donadio (246), on the other hand, seems to have completely lost control of his own family, getting stomped by both daughter L Donadio (274) and son Jr Donadio (271), although he salvaged a sliver of his dignity by edging son N Donadio (241).

G Wright (243) smacked around her husband, B Wright (242), for the third straight year, but at least this year B Wright got within 67 points of his spouse.

It has been awhile since all three of the Alliterative Acchiones have graced our contest with their simultaneous presence. This year, the Easter bragging rights go to Bud Acchione (290) by a comfortable margin over Bill Acchione (265) and Butch Acchione (224). In the Kornfeld family, R Kornfeld (244) can sleep easier knowing he once again punished brother D Kornfeld (215) and eked by daughter's boyfriend J Hoffman (242).

Among those admitting to a DBR affiliation, Kedsy (304) and ACCBballFan (271) topped Superdave (257) and gam7 (256).

And, as usual, several contestants chose to beat themselves: M Paston 2 (257) edged M Paston 1 (253); R Wanger 1 (272) shoved past R Wanger 2 (264); and Brenner (242) lost to both B Brenner (243) and Brett Steven B (249).

T-T-Tag Team Tallies

A lot of close races this year, starting with our annual Tag Team competition, which is currently in a dead heat. Whiteside and his Detractors average an outstanding 272.0 points, but so does a new group, Members of DBR (272.0). Trailing the co-leaders are the Ripley Believe-it-or-nots (261.0), just ahead of the Donadios (258.0). Last year's shocking winner, the Leach Gang (250.20) has begun to descend toward its natural position, although at the moment the Gang currently leads the D'Zuro Group (249.83) and the Urban Engineers (249.67), both by less than a point. Secure in the cellar, 16+ points behind even the Leaches, is the Kornfeld Confab, averaging an embarrassing 233.67 points.

EDIT: We apologize to the Alliterative Acchiones (259.67) for forgetting to add their team score in the above paragraph. The Acchiones themselves will have to apologize for finishing less than ten points ahead of the Leaches.

We'd offer to apologize for also forgetting to include the Big Mc's (245.33), but with their score, we assume they'd rather thank us.

Males (256.97) are skating just three and a half points ahead of females (253.47), despite the ladies occupying two of the top three spots in the standings. Humans (256.34) have scratched and clawed their way above Felines (256.0) by a mere third of a point while Lawyers (248.20) and Spiny Anteaters (240.0) trail both. Bureaucratic corporate departments (181.0) probably don't even deserve to be part of this discussion.

In the name game, Andrew (272.0) and Chris (272.0) are tied for tops, just ahead of Ed (269.0) and Randy (268.0). If you're thinking of naming your next child Al (261.50), David (261.40), Mike (261.0), Nick (260.0), Luke (260.0), John (259.80), Rick (259.0), or Kevin (258.50), just go ahead and flip a coin. When it comes to picking pools, they're all more or less equivalent (eight names within 3 points of each other). If you're contemplating naming your future offspring George (252.0), Bob (247.60), Brett (244.67), Fred (243.0), Colin (239.0), or Matt (238.0), we recommend birth control.

When it comes to favorite colleges, our top four performances all came from schools who entirely missed the NCAA Tournament: Washington (286.0), Duquesne (279.0), Pittsburgh (277.50), and Delaware (277.0). Arch-rivals North Carolina (268.0) and Duke (267.88) are separated by an eyelash, while ACC would-be-rival Maryland (265.7) is carrying their bags. Indiana (273.0) rules the Big 10 over Penn State (256.25), Northwestern (242.0), and Michigan (210.0), while Pitt (277.50) leads the Big East over Villanova (259.50), UConn (253.0), and Syracuse (216.0). Only three of the Philadelphia Big Five are represented, and this year's trophy goes to Temple (262.22) over Villanova (259.50) and Penn (252.50). Drexel (255.0), who really wants to be in the Big Five but realistically never will be, can still compete. Among Division III schools, Widener (268.0) controls the landscape over Johns Hopkins (247.0) and Carnegie Mellon (168.0). We have no Kentucky fans in our contest, but the other members of last year's Final Four -- UConn (253.0), Butler (243.0), and VCU (239.5) -- all showed why they're not back again this season.

When it comes to gambling acumen, Washington DC (272.0) may not be a state, but other than Louisiana (282.0), it's the best we got. Maryland (261.33) and California (259.33) are slightly better than Pennsylvania (257.34), and a lot better than New Jersey (252.0), Florida (251.0), and Illinois (248.0). Next year, if you feel the urge to fill in a pool from New York (245.67), Michigan (244.0), or Virginia (242.80), we recommend you ignore it. And if you live in Delaware (209.0), you might as well just mail your check now.

Among Pennsylvanians, both Philadelphia (232.25) and Pittsburgh (266.67) have to bow down to the "Alabama inbetween" (274.0). Philadelphia's PA suburbs (256.97) have edged ahead of the NJ suburbs (256.0). Around the nation, the Far West (259.33) has a better angle than the Deep South (257.20), while the DMV (248.30) has boasting rights over the Midwest (246.0). Apparently there's little difference between Africa (240.0), New York City (239.50), and the Afterlife (236.0).

Computer professionals (277.33) and Writers (275.0) seem to know what they're doing. Accountants (266.0) can jiggle the numbers a little better than Engineers (258.57) and those in the Financial industries (248.67). Teachers (279.0) should command the respect of Students (248.13), but we all know better, don't we? People who think they know things, like Executives (252.0) and Attorneys (248.20), probably ought to consider Retirement (257.75).

All Four

Kentucky (chosen by 81 entrants) and Kansas (37) rounded out the Final Four today, joining Ohio State (23) and Louisville (nobody), and moving Harlan (316 points) into the lead. D Kedson (304) and Steinhardt (301) linger behind the leader, followed by Bud Acchione (290), J Whiteside (287), Coach Doc, Huffnagle, and Patashnik (all three with 286).

Only two contestants (Harlan and K Sullivan) accurately predicted three of the Final Four. Forty six entrants picked a paltry two of the Four, 43 selected a single correct Final Four team, and five entrants managed not to guess any correctly, despite the Final Four containing three of the top eight seeded teams. For the record, the names of those five entrants are: D Kornfeld, B Peloso, Quint, M Josephs, and Spitz.

About the only thing uglier than Spitz's performance was Baylor's uniforms, as the otherwise savvy architect combined her Final Four goose egg with only two accurate Elite Eight selections to tally only 168 points and drop behind HR (181) into last place, a status not likely to be improved by Spitz's choice of North Carolina as her national champion.

Full standings (along with everyone's choice for national champion) may be seen from the link on the right hand side of the page. In the next few days we'll be posting Tag Team totals and grudge match results, and hopefully also this year's All Name Team selections.

OH!

No state had ever gotten four teams to the Sweet 16. Until this year, when Ohio State, Cincinnati, Xavier, and Ohio U made it. No #13 seed had ever advanced to the Elite Eight. Until... well, that one's going to have to wait, after #13 Ohio University fell to sort-of-mighty North Carolina in overtime. Baylor and Kansas also had tough times beating double-digit seeds (Baylor over #10 Xavier by 5; Kansas over #11 NC State by 3), but in the end the higher seeds all won tonight, making our contestants look much better than they deserve.

Fifteen entrants got six right out of the Elite Eight, 45 fielded five on the high side, 23 managed four correct, and 11 contestants guessed just three. The two entrants at the bottom of the standings, HR (last place with 161 points) and Spitz (168) figured out a mere two Elite Eight teams in an accurate manner.

D Kedson remains on top, with 264 points, still followed by M Peloso (262), Steinhardt (261), and Harlan (256). D Kedson (Kentucky, Duke, Baylor, Ohio State) and Steinhardt (Kentucky, Michigan State, Kansas, UNC) will get a minimum of one and a maximum of two Final Four teams, while M Peloso (Duke, Kentucky, UNC, Syracuse) and Harlan (Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio State, and Michigan State) can range anywhere from zero to three Final Four teams, perhaps leaving the door open for someone like J Whiteside (247 points; Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Syracuse), Huffnagle (246 points; Kentucky, Michigan State, Ohio State, Syracuse), or Coach Doc (246 points and all four of Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, and Syracuse alive) to surge into the lead.

We won't have to wait long to find out.

Half of Eight

First night of Sweet 16 activity, and it's Syracuse (chosen by 90 of us to reach the Elite Eight) by one measly point over Wisconsin, along with Ohio State (61), Florida (12), and Louisville (9).

Ten of us got three of the four: R Wanger 2, Kovolski, Crotts, Leace, Patashnik, M Kline, M Peloso, Mahalko, Pogach, and D Kedson. Updated standings (which may be found through the link on the right hand side of the page) show D Kedson temporarily in first place, with 234 points, followed by M Peloso (232), Steinhardt (231), and Harlan (226).

Of course it doesn't mean much until the rest of the Elite Eight is revealed, tomorrow night. Kentucky (selected by 90), Kansas (78), and UNC (78) are the favorites, although we doubt too many contestants counted on Kendall Marshall breaking his wrist. Baylor (26) and Indiana (6: Brenner, J Broder, T Joseph, Selarnick, Spitz, Brett Steven B) have at least some support. NC State (M Kline), Ohio (nobody), and Xavier (nobody) have exactly one (1) vote combined.

Stay tuned.

Fourbles

Not surprisingly, our Final Four predictions more or less mirror our Elite Eight choices. In this case, only three entrants picked Final Four teams that didn't make the field. And two of those three choices (Seton Hall, picked by HR, and Northwestern, taken by Brenner) aren't playing anywhere anymore. Day should feel proud that his choice, Washington, is at least still alive in the NIT.

Seven teams taken by at least one contestant to make the Final Four didn't even make the final 32: Missouri (selected by 30), Duke (29), Indiana (2), Notre Dame (1), Wichita State (1), UConn (1), and Michigan (1). Another three teams (Georgetown (2), Iowa State (2), and Florida State (2)) dropped by the wayside in the second round.

Overall, 34 of us still have all four Final Four teams standing; 54 of us still have three. Eight edgy entrants are holding tight to a mere two Final Four teams: Pogach, B Peloso, Joe Mc, Butch Acchione, Pangolin Palace, Atkinson, HR, and D Kornfeld.

Full Final Four breakdown may be perused here.

Eight track

Let's start off by saying five (5) entrants chose Elite Eight teams that didn't even make the tournament. And we are delighted to name them: Spitz decided on Drexel, Day wished for Washington, Packman picked Minnesota, and Brenner brainstormed for Northwestern. In a performance for the ages, HR selected Drexel, Seton Hall, and Pittsburgh (a team who went 5-13 in the Big East). Wow. Just wow, right?

Another ten teams who one or more of our contestants selected to make the Elite Eight dropped out after the first round: Duke (chosen by 66), Missouri (64), Wichita State (10), Michigan (8), Temple (5), Notre Dame (4), UNLV (3), UConn (2), St. Mary's (2), and San Diego State (1). Seven more teams we liked went down before the end of the first weekend: Georgetown (12), Murray State (6), Florida State (5), Vanderbilt (3), Gonzaga (1), Kansas State (1), and Iowa State (1).

Despite all that, 22 poolsters still have seven Elite Eight teams remaining; 49 have six left; and 21 have five. Three unfortunates are sitting with a paltry four (4) Elite Eight teams that are still alive: D Baum, co-commissioner M Josephs, and perennial bottom feeder Mad Leach, who this year is actually ahead of seven other contestants (at least for now). HR, of course, is one of them, currently in dead last place, with little hope of making a comeback thanks to a lousy two (2) Elite Eight teams left. If you're looking for the next big upsets, those two teams are Syracuse and Kansas.

Full breakdown of our Final Eight choices may be found here.

We're back

Sorry about our weekend absence. The tournament's heading into the Sweet 16 now, and this is generally the round where clever entrants charge through the ranks on the backs of their astute wild card selections... Oh, wait, we're talking about our entrants. In what may be a record (although we're too lazy to check; it certainly ties a record), a grand total of zero (0) contestants had a wild card that reached the Sweet 16. That's zero, zilch, nada, the big oh. Nobody.

Six wild card selections did manage to reach the round of 32 and thus garnered a critical (albeit single) point for those savvy enough to select them:

Vanderbilt (Barone, Butscher, Fitch, S Leach, C Whiteside)
Iowa State (B Brenner, T Joseph, Leace, Yolles)
Kansas State (C Brown, HR, Brett Steven B)
Gonzaga (Alberts, Pogach, Slayen)
St. Louis (Paston 1, Warner)
Purdue (BRENNER)

Congratulations, all. If you win by 1 point, you have your wild card selection to thank.

Updated standings may be found using the link on the right hand side of the page. Tomorrow, we'll give a full Final Eight and Final Four analysis.

Yikes!

To think, just yesterday we complained that there hadn't been enough upsets. Well, today seven double-digit seeds advanced, bringing the tournament total up to nine, including two #2 seeds, Missouri and Duke, failing to make the 2nd round, something that hadn't happened to even one #2 seed since before D Kornfeld last picked a valid wild card (2001, to be precise).

Strangely, other than Missouri losing to Norfolk State, eight of the nine upsets happened in two regions: the South, where #10 Xavier, #11 Colorado, #12 VCU, and #15 Lehigh advanced; and the Midwest, where #10 Purdue, #11 NC State, #12 South Florida, and #13 Ohio all moved forward.

Lots of entries suffered big damage today, but this particular Duke fan commissioner is too tired and too depressed to analyze it now. We'll try to get to it tomorrow.

Yawn

Twelve and a half hours of first round action and all we get is two lousy upsets? At least one of them rocked the pool, though, as our overwhelming favorite for wild card, Wichita State, went down to VCU. So when it comes to wild card points, the 30 of us who took the Shockers now get nothing and like it. In addition, ten of us incorrectly took Wichita into the Elite Eight.

Connecticut (picked by Crotty and Huffnagle as wild card, by J Hoffman and Rybaltowski into the Elite Eight, and by J Hoffman into the Final Four) also failed to survive the first day. The only other losses that meant anything to our contestants were UNLV (picked by M Josephs, M Leach, and B Wright into the Elite Eight), Long Beach State (chosen by M Josephs and Templeton as wild card), and Southern Mississippi, which was D Kornfeld's first legal wild card selection since 2003. Ah well, we suppose legality isn't everything.

In real life, Colorado won its first NCAA tournament game in 15 years and VCU won it's third first round game in six years, seeded 11 or lower all three times.

Actually, for VCU it's more amazing than that. In the past six years, they've made the tournament four times, seeded 11 three times and 12 this year. From those lowly seeds, their record so far in the four tournaments is 7-3, with the three losses being a 1 point loss to UCLA, an overtime loss to Pitt, and a loss in the Final Four. Next up for the Rams: #4 seed Indiana on Saturday night.

The most exciting moment of the day was watching UNC Ashville come within a few egregious calls of accomplishing something no 16 seed ever has -- finding truTV in their local cable lineup. The most terrifying moment of the day was when Baylor took the court in their truly heinous day-glo green uniforms. Oh, also, don't sell your hair to a wig shop.

That is all.

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.

Mind meld

Well, our contestants appear to have been in lock step with the Selection Committee, although we're not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Our four most popular Champions are the four #1 seeds: Kentucky (34); Syracuse (20); Michigan State (9); and North Carolina (8). Our next four most popular Champions are the four #2 seeds: Kansas (7); Missouri (5: Haklar, Pogach, Joe Mc, K Ripley, Rybaltowski); Duke (5: C Brown, Claude, Jr. Donadio, G Meyer, K Sullivan); and Ohio State (4: Butch Acchione, George B, D Kedson, Selarnik). The only other champions chosen were #3 Baylor (3: Booth, B Brenner, D Kornfeld) and #4 Wisconsin (L Schlegel).

One thing we'd like to mention, however, is that our contestants have been correct about the national champion exactly five (5) times in 22 years (that would be a 22.7% success rate). So we wouldn't feel so good if we were Kentucky right now. Or anybody else, for that matter.

Wild is a state of mind

We've already written about our three rulebreaking entrants, who chose illegal, immoral, and otherwise naughty wild cards. So there's really no need to drag Blatt, Babenzien, and current leader Steinhardt out of their tar-and-feather coated five-by-eight cells and parade them naked in front of a jeering crowd again, is there? Honestly, is there? Well, since when does "need" have anything to do with it?

We bring this up primarily as a brief introduction before we bring a second group into the limelight. That group being the ten (10) contestants who chose wild cards that didn't even make the field. Yes, that's right, over 13.5% of our entrants have guaranteed themselves zero (0) wild card points before the Tournament even starts. Pretty impressive, right?

To be fair to Day, Doherty, L Schlegel, B Wright (all of whom selected Drexel), J Hoffman (Northwestern), Joe Mc (Seton Hall), Spitz (Valparaiso), Patashnik (Washington), Speakes (Cleveland State), and Quint (Arizona), every single one of them would be sitting pretty if this was a pre-NIT contest. So they have that going for them.

We'll breakdown our contestant's consensus choice of champions later today.

Get ready, get set...

The field has been selected. The first $100 has been awarded. And the winner of that C Note is... Steinhardt, with 211 points. Lagging in Steinhardt's wake are Harlan (206), D Baum (204), D Kedson (204), and M Peloso (202).

We'll have more analysis as the week unfolds. First play-in games are just two days away. Full standings may be found through the link on the right hand side of the page.

Vive le tournement, tres bien viola...

(that's Fake French, for all you linguists out there, or as we like to call it, Faux Francais).

Topsy Turvy World

Vanderbilt in the SEC. Florida State in the ACC. St. Bonaventure in the Atlantic 10. But at least there's one constant in this topsy turvy world, and that's the immutable fact that our entrants couldn't pick any of them.

Congratulations to D Baum, S Leach, and Rybaltowski (Vanderbilt) and Pogach and Steinhardt (Florida State) for closing their eyes and randomly choosing the winning teams. Nobody managed to do even that for St. Bonaventure.

On the strength of her Florida State selection, Steinhardt has charged into the lead, with 104 points. D Kedson (102), Harlan (98), M Peloso (98), and C Brown (96) are breathing down the leader's neck.

Just one more conference final and the real fun begins. For what it's worth, Steinhardt, M Peloso, and C Brown have Michigan State, while D Kedson and Harlan have Ohio State.

Full updated standings can be seen from clicking the link on the right hand side of the page.

Buffaloed

The University of Colorado competed in 35 Big 8/Big 12 tournaments in school history. You know how many they won? We're talking goose egg, zilch, the big nada. They've now competed in precisely one (1) Pac 12 tourney and, you guessed it, they came out on top. Well, let us rephrase that. If you're playing in our contest, you didn't guess it at all. Exactly nobody in our contest picked the Buffaloes to win the Pac 12. Which quite frankly doesn't distinguish them that much from most other conference tournament winners. So far 26 automatic bids have been decided, and a majority of us chose the winner in only 11 (42.3%).

Since our last blog entry on this topic, the majority has ruled in four conferences -- the MEAC (Norfolk State, chosen by 51); Conference USA (Memphis, 72); the SWAC (Mississippi Valley State, 92); and the Big West (Long Beach State, 91). The majority was fooled in another seven conferences -- the Big 12 (Missouri, 33); America East (Vermont, 31); the MAC (Ohio, 27); the WCAC (New Mexico, 19); the Southland (Lamar, chosen by 3: Baumgarten, C Brown, B Wright); the Big East (Louisville, selected by 3: Fitch, D Kedson, Steinhardt); and the Big 12 (the aforementioned Colorado Buffaloes, picked by nobody).

It's not going to get any better in the last five tournaments, either. Tonight, in the WAC, New Mexico State (only picked by 19) faces off against Louisiana Tech (0). Tomorrow, it's Xavier (8: M Barone, Brenner, B Brenner, Brett Steven B, M Josephs, Pogach, Rybaltowski, and Steinhardt) vs. St. Bonaventure (0) in the Atlantic 10; North Carolina (46) against Florida State (2: Pogach, Steinhardt) in the ACC; Ohio State (40) v. Michigan State (49) in the Big 10; and Kentucky (89) against Vanderbilt (3: D Baum, S Leach, Rybaltowski) in the SEC. So, at most two of the five remaining champions will have been picked by a majority of us, meaning the best case scenario is we'll get it right in 13 of 31, or 41.9% of the conferences, and our worst case this year is 11 of 31 (35.5%). Which, mind-boggling as it may be, would actually be better than last year, when the majority of us were correct in only 10 of 31 (32.3%)

So, nice job, folks.

M Peloso (92 points) is still our leader, clinging to a one (1) point lead over Steinhardt (91) and D Kedson (91). Huffnagle (89), Harlan (87), Alberts (85), and C Brown (85) are all hanging around too.

Pogach (48) has pulled out of the cellar and now leads Slayen (42), although Pogach is still 9 points behind M Leach, N Donadio, and Brenner (all with 57) in the race for 3rd-to-last place.

Selection Sunday tomorrow -- stay tuned.

We're wrong again

Add the Big East and Big 12 to the growing number of conferences our contestants have gotten wrong. Big East favorite Syracuse (picked by 75) took a fall to Cincinnati (picked by nada), and Big 12 maven Kansas (selected by 54) dropped one to Baylor (chosen by 9).

But what do you expect from a conference that doesn't even know how to count it's own membership properly? First, the Math Gods strike down the Atlantic 10 leader, now the Big 12. All we can say is Michigan State better watch out in tomorrow's Big 10 semifinal.

Temple of Doom

So far this year, 15 conferences have decided their champions. Of those, a majority of our contestants have correctly chosen seven (7) of them -- Murray State (chosen by 95), Davidson (90), Harvard (90), Belmont (85), UNC Ashville (82), St. Mary's (56), and LIU (50). If you're calculating at home, that's a rousing 46.7% success rate, not quite as good as flipping a coin. The eight conferences so far that have mystified us are: Montana (40), VCU (40), South Dakota State (28), Creighton (18), Lehigh (17), Loyola-Maryland (15), Detroit (3), and Western Kentucky (0).

The Atlantic 10 doesn't decide its champion until Sunday but we can already chalk it up to the mystified side of the ledger, as overwhelming favorite Temple (selected by 69 of us) dropped its first game to UMass (chosen by C Brown, SLayen, and Leace). Also helping to wreck our collective self-esteem was Texas Arlington (picked by 88 out of our 96 entrants), who took a 20 point beating at the hands of McNeese State (guessed by Leace, Booth, Bud Acchione, R Kornfeld, and Rybaltowski).

In other Thursday night action, Washington (chosen by 36) went down in the PAC-12, and Delaware State (selected by P Leach, M Josephs, Jr. Donadio, and Alberts) made an early exit in the MEAC.

A full day is currently in swing. We'll report back later tonight with more.

Keep on keeping on

Since our last post, seven more teams have punched their ticket, but only two of them were picked by a majority of our entrants. Lehigh (chosen by 17 of us) snagged the Patriot League automatic bid with a big victory over Bucknell (chosen by 73). In Big Sky country, Montana (40) played at home and clobbered Weber State (56). Detroit (picked only by M Josephs, Leace, and Rybaltowski) sneaked by Valparaiso (50) in the Horizon. South Dakota State (28) edged Western Illinois (0) in overtime in the Summit. And in a battle of zero heroes, Western Kentucky (0) nicked North Texas (0) in the Sun Belt.

The only conference titles we got right were the NEC, where LIU (50) beat Robert Morris (just 3, Kovolski, M Leach, and McKillip), and the Ivy, where Harvard (90) backed into the title because Penn (chosen by 5: M Josephs, Kovolski, E Leach, L Schlegel, and Pogach, who added to his already brave and impressive collection of selected also-rans) lost to arch-rival Princeton.

In other conference tournament news, Savannah State (chosen by 40 of us) lost to Hampton (chosen by none of us) in the MEAC quarterfinals. UConn (picked by 72 at-large) won their 2nd consecutive game in the Big East tournament, beating West Virginia, and now the Huskies only have another 148 games to go to win the Big East title (really only three more, just like last year). In other Big East action, Seton Hall (picked by 75 at-large) lost to Louisville, and South Florida (36) beat Villanova.

Updated standings may be found from the link on the right hand side of this page. M Peloso is now alone in first place, with 63 points, followed by Huffnagle (58) and three tied with 53 (P Leach, D Kedson, M Paston 2). Gutsy Pogach (24) is alone in last place.

No more automatic bids decided until Saturday, when 13 conference championships are on the line. Talk to you soon.

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.

Dance Cards

We're up to 8 conference champions, which means we have standings. We currently have a four way tie for first, with M Peloso, Steinhardt, Templeton, and B Wright sharing the top spot with 38 points. Just behind the leaders are Day (36), Mahalko (35), Packman (35), and Bland (34). The good news for the rest of us? Steinhardt picked an illegal wild card (Louisville -- more on that story tomorrow).

In the Atlantic Sun conference, Belmont won, to the surprise of few, since 85 of our 96 entrants chose them to win. Ten of us foolishly went with Mercer (G Wright, Speakes, Butch Acchione, N Donadio, J Hoffman, HR, M Kline, S Leach, Patashnik, Slayen) and one lonely contestant chose USC Upstate (Pogach).

In the Colonial, VCU (chosen by 40) topped Drexel (51). In addition to disappointed Dragon supporters, four people plugged George Mason (M McAtee, Pogach, Quint, Slayen), and one entrant chose Old Dominion (Coach Doc),

Big South favorite UNC Ashville (82) lived up to its billing, although 13 individuals erroneously rooted for Coastal Carolina and one misguided soul selected Charleston Southern (Pogach). MAAC heavyweight Iona (72), on the other hand, couldn't seal the deal, leaving the MAAC to Loyola, Md (chosen by 15), who beat Fairfield (picked by M Josephs and S Leach) in the conference final earlier tonight. The remaining 6 MAAC votes went to Manhattan (Bud Acchione, Brenner, B Brenner, Pogach, Simon, and Brett Steven B).

In a shocker, MVC top dog Wichita State (77) succumbed yesterday to Illinois State (picked by nobody), who in turn dropped their game to Creighton (18) in overtime. S Leach liked Northern Iowa, for reasons best left unstated. In the OVC, everybody's team Murray State (95) delivered. Although apparently Booth wanted Morehead. Southern Conference hotshot Davidson (90) prevailed over Western Carolina (0), in double OT. Much to the chagrin of R Kornfeld and M Leach(UNCG), Booth and C Brown (Elon), Leace (Georgia Southern), and Pogach (Charleston).

In another overtime thriller, St. Mary's (56) took the WCC over Gonzaga (37), while three entrants wondered why they chose BYU (Atkinson, M McAtee, J Whiteside).

We're not ready to talk about individual's selections, but just reading the above we want to send out happy vibes to Pogach, who went out on a limb for George Mason (picked by 4), Manhattan (6), Charleston (nobody else), Charleston Southern (ditto), and USC Upstate (see the trend here?), and hit on none of them. More on that story later in the week, but if you're looking to place a bet, Pogach's champion is Missouri.

Six more conferences are down to their league finals: In the Summit, it's South Dakota State (28) vs. Western Illinois (0), while favorite Oral Roberts (68) wants Morehead. The Sun Belt features two directional schools (North Texas and Western Kentucky) picked by absolutely nobody we know. The America East conference pits Stonybrook (61) against Vermont (31). In the Horizon League, Valparaiso (50) faces Detroit (3 -- M Josephs, Leace, Rybaltowski), and in the Northeast Conference, LIU (50) tries to stare down Robert Morris (3 -- Kovolski, M Leach, McKillip). Finally, we'll see Bucknell (73) against Lehigh (17) in the Patriot League.

We'll be back tomorrow with more fun. Enjoy!

First Blood

It wasn't even March before 13 unfortunate individuals lost their Big South champion, as Coastal Carolina went down to VMI. Guess you guys (and we'd be happy to name you: Babenzien, Crotty, N Donadio, Eberly, HR, A Leace, S Leach, Joe Mc, Rybaltowski, R Simon, Slayen, B Whiteside, Yolles) are playing catchup now...

Also having the ignominious honor of having their March Madness end in February were High Point, Campbell, Liberty, Jacksonville, Lipscomb, Holy Cross, Navy, Army, Colgate, Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay, and Santa Clara. But none of our entrants fell into the trap of picking any of them.

Other games with bubble implications: Poor Northwestern (chosen at-large by 50 of us) lost by 2 to Ohio State, St. Joe's (chosen by 19) lost in double OT to St. Bonaventure, and Miami (58) lost by 4 to fellow ACC bubble team NC State (27). South Florida (37) beat Louisville, and Cincinnati (80) beat Marquette.

And now March really starts.

March Madness, Bonus Edition

Since February has an extra day this year, what better time to start our contest?

The entries are in, and it looks like we have 97 entries this year (give or take). No idea yet how many are paying entries, but that's 15 more than last year, proving the contest still has legs after 23 years.

To put in context how long we've been playing the pool, our Pre-NCAA Contest is older than every player who will appear in this year's tournament -- except Florida State's Bernard James, who rumor has it served in the U.S. armed forces in the Spanish-American War.

The Horizon League began this year's first conference tournament last night. It was a bad night for Chicago, as Loyola, CHI and Illinois-Chicago both lost, along with Green Bay (formerly Wisconsin-Green Bay, as opposed to the Packers). None of our savvy entrants were tricked into picking any of those teams, however, so we're all still tied for first place.

In regular season action, Michigan State, Florida, Xavier, and UConn all lost last night. Joe Lunardi says that puts Xavier on the outside, looking in, much to the probable chagrin of the 79 of us who picked the Musketeers. He says UConn (now 7-10 in conference and guaranteed to have an under .500 conference record) is still in, but the 73 of us who picked the defending national champions at-large have to be at least a little nervous.

Perhaps last night's most important game however, happened in Missoula, Montana, where the Montana Grizzlies beat Weber State to clinch home court advantage in the Big Sky tournament. And that's big. Or at least Big Sky.

So, here we go. Sit back and enjoy the best month of the year.

Contest Deadline is MONDAY

Yes, MONDAY, February 27.

So, now would be a really good time to start looking into it.

Here's the entry form.

Here are the rules.

Ready to Roll

You know what they say: Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

It's somewhat less publicized, but they also say: The TWENTY THIRD annual Pre-NCAA Contest is locked and loaded!

Here's the entry form.

Here are the rules.

So jump on into the Pool. The water's fine.