My apologies for being late today, but it was Marlins Spring Training Home Opener today, so I took a reprieve from basketball with baseball, before settling in for another day of basketball. Apparently I missed a humdinger in North Carolina-Baylor, but that will be for discussion tomorrow.
So, yesterday I informed you that we have 140 entries in the pool. I was wrong. Paul Cummings of Lewis Center, Ohio notified me that only one of his entries showed up in the standings. He is correct. When typing up the standings, I completely skipped his second entry. It is completely scored and entered into the current standings. So, 141 entries it is!
I also erred in counting the number of champions. I thought we had 11, but as it turns out we have 12. I was so shocked that Edith Pecan of West Palm Beach, Florida had selected Virginia Tech as her champion, that I completely forgot to list it. Even with losing Virginia Tech, Edith is still doing pretty well in the standings, but since she lost her other finalist also - LSU - so that will not last too long. So, since we lost 0 other champions besides Virginia Tech, I am just adding them and leaving the remaining selections. The teams will remain capitalized in bold so long as they remain in the tournament. The selected champions are: AUBURN, ARIZONA, BAYLOR, DUKE, GONZAGA, KANSAS, Kentucky, TENNESSEE, TEXAS TECH, VILLANOVA, Virginia Tech, WISCONSIN.
A lot of favorites were victorious yesterday (12), and only 2 qualifying bonuses, and a good number of people selected at least one of Notre Dame over Alabama or Iowa State over LSU, and even more than you would expect picked both of those upsets. But, five entries had both of those upsets AND guaranteed one or other, for a maximum of 15 bonus points yesterday. Those entrants are: Scott Bieterman 1 of West Palm Beach, Bill Ganoe 3 of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Brian McMahon of Boca Raton, Florida, Barkley Sosa of Riviera Beach, Florida, and Paul Cummings of Lewis Center, Ohio. Not only do these five receive the 15 bonus points and a huge rise in the standings, but they also become Co-Winners of the "Selection of the Day" award.
And because of that, we have old/new leaders. Scott Bieterman 1 of West Palm Beach, Florida, Javier Rodriguez 2 of Coral Gables, Florida, and Day Yi 1 of Forest Hills, New York are co-leaders. Lots of people are close after the close of round 1.
Since one entry each selected Cal-State Fullerton over Duke, Wright State over Arizona and Delaware over Villanova, only one team was a unanimous selection yesterday, the Auburn Tigers. And, for the betterment of all of our brackets, they did not disappoint. Although nowhere near unanimous, a large number of entrants chose Virginia Tech as their guaranty, and a surprising number of people selected Davidson to defeat Michigan State (which almost happened!). This reminds me ....
Way, way back in 2008, The Davidson Wildcats were making their third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Given their previous experience in the NCAA Tournament, Davidson was seeded 10, which gave them a first round matchup in Raleigh, North Carolina against the 7th seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs. Davidson beat Gonzaga 82-76 behind 40 points from Stephen Curry. That gave them a second round matchup with the 2 seed, Georgetown. Davidson defeated the Hoyas 74-70 behind Curry's 30 points to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
The Midwest regional was held in Detroit's Ford Field, and where the 3 seeded Wisconsin Badgers waited. The Badgers were no match for a hot-shooting Curry, who scored 33 as the Wildcats won 73-56 to move on to an Elite Eight matchup with the 1 seed, Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas was loaded, behind Sasha Kaun, Cole Aldrich, Darrell Arthur and Mario Chalmers, but Davidson gave the Jayhawks all they could handle, only to fall 59-57 behind 25 points by Steph Curry.
Kansas went on to defeat North Carolina 84-66 in the semifinals, and defeated Memphis 75-68 to win the championship. Steph Curry went on to be drafted 7th overall in the 2009 draft by the Golden State Warriors, win the NBA Championship 3 times (and counting?), win 2 NBA MVP Awards, and become the greatest three point shooter in the histrory of the game.
Back to yesterday's action, most of the games were uneventful. Only 4 were really exciting, with my favorite being the Miami/USC game. After Charlie Moore made 2 free throws to put Miami up with 3 seconds left, I thought to myself, we haven't seen a true buzzer beater yet this tournament. Luckily for Miami, Drew Peterson, fresh out of jail after murdering his third wife Kathleen Savio in 2003 - oh, not that Drew Peterson. Let me try that again .... Luckily for Miami, Drew Peterson, who up until that point was 3-6 from three-point range, missed a long-range three that would have eliminated the Hurricanes and advanced the Trojans
Players of the Day
5. Joey Hauser, Michigan State. 27 points on 9-12 shooting (4-5 from three), along with 8 rebounds.
4. Cormac Ryan, Notre Dame. 29 points while shooting 7-9 from three point range.
3. Tyrese Hunter, Iowa State. 23 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals (7-11 from three).
2. Jabari Smith, Auburn. 20 points, 14 rebounds and 1 thunderous dunk! You can see that HERE.
1. Johnny Davis, Wisconsin. 25 points, 8 rebounds, and led Wisconsin down the stretch.
Stats of the Day
4. Illinois led Chattanooga for a grand total of 25 seconds.
3. Miami had only 3 turnovers in its game against USC.
2. Andre Curbelo's plus/minus in Illinois' win over Chattanooga was 32. He played 30 minutes off the bench.
1. Tyrese Hunter of Iowa State is only the second person to hit 7 three pointers and have 5 steals in a tournament game. The first was some guy named Steph Curry!
Best Social Media Posts
Nothing really caught my eye from yesterday.
On to the standings .... Again, if you think I have made a mistake, just let me know and I will go re-check when I have the chance. Ties listed alphabetically.
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