So our first round is complete, and boy was yesterday exciting. Not necessarily in the "a whole lot of games went down to the wire" exciting, but in a "boy were the favorites a bit overrated" type of exciting. The lower seeds held their one, literally, but winning exactly half of the games yesterday, going 8-8. And these were the good kind of lower seeds, with four teams big upsets and earning our pool lots - AND I MEAN LOTS - of bonus points. Even though they don't count towards our bonuses, it was interesting to me that all four number 9 seeds defeated their 8th seeded opponents in round 1. Numerically that was interesting to me, at least.
The big upsets were 11th seed Ohio State over Iowa State, 12th seeds Oregon over Wisconsin and Liberty over Mississippi State, and 13th seeded UC-Irvine over Kansas State. With the guarantee that is a total of 25 bonus points that could be awarded yesterday in any given bracket, and several entries benefited greatly by selecting a number of correct upsets. A special mention goes to Measha Williams #3 of Houston, Texas, Carolyn Fowler of Greenacres, Florida, Matt Hopps of Quincy, Massachusetts, Katie Kollmeyer of Lantana, Florida, Max Macon #s 2 and 4, of Jupiter, Florida, Edy Pecan of West Palm Beach, Florida and Chad Phillips of Syracuse, New York as all 8 of those entries had 3 of yesterday's 4 upsets, with one of those as the guarantee. Both of Max Macon's entries went 15-1 on the day.
But, they pale in comparison to the dazzling picking skills of Justin Yung of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who selected all 4 of the primary upsets yesterday, betting on UC-Irvine, Liberty, Oregon and Ohio State yesterday. The only reason that he isn't higher in the standings is that he did not have any of those 4 selections as his guarantee, having missed out when Villanova eeked by Saint Mary's. Nevertheless, Justin is our "Pick of the Day"!
Despite all of our upsets, this is the first consecutive year that all 4 number 1 seeds advanced to the second round. Although Virginia, North Carolina and Duke were all incredibly close at the half. But their talent and depth - well as much depth as they needed - kicked in for the top 3 to advance yesterday (Gonzaga having advanced Thursday).
But, we did lose another champion, when the UC-Irvine Anteaters defeated the Kansas State Wildcats. That leaves us with 14 remaining champions. I will update the standings to reflect which entry has which champion later next week. Our champions (with remaining teams in bold) are: Duke, Florida, Florida State, Gonzaga, Houston, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, North Carolina, Purdue, Syracuse, Tennessee, Villanova, Virginia.
Given that someone lost a champion, the Worst Pick of the Day goes to Krystal Travers from frankly I have no idea. If someone wants to enlighten me that would be great. She lost Kansas State - her champion. A close second goes to Kline Kroesen of Port St. Lucie, Florida who selected North Dakota State over Duke, but Kline gets a bit of a pass because he is 3 years old.
Which means that Duke was not a unanimous selection yesterday (if you can believe that?!) The only unanimous picks from yesterday's games was Virginia and North Carolina. Iona's three-point barrage in the first half was intriguing, but the Tar Heels prevailed to move forward.
Which brings me to today's history lesson. Admittedly, it was hard for me to decide what was the applicable history lesson to learn from yesterday's games. I immediately thought that Iona had a chance to break the three point record and I could have discussed Loyola Marymount from 1990, but Iona cooled off. Then when I saw Kenny Wooten with monster block after monster block, I thought about writing about Oregon's Jordan Bell and his blocked shot barrage from a few years ago, but then they showed Bell in the audience and the announcers discussed that during the game. UC-Irvine has 3 players with star NBA and NCAA lineage, with the grandson of Walt Hazzard and the sons of Caron Butler and Doc Rivers, but that has been all over ESPN all week. As an aside, I highly recommend reading Caron Butler's autobiography Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA, it is fantastic, and I believed it has been purchased to make a move. But, I found my historical tangent regarding another smaller school from California that did well in the NCAA tournament.
In 1996 in the Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona, tiny little Santa Clara University and its Broncos played the University of Maryland Terrapins in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Santa Clara, the 10th seed, defeated Maryland 91-79 behind the stellar play of little known Canadian point guard Steve Nash, who had a game high 28 points and 12 assists, and even gathered in 6 rebounds (and 2 steals). Steve Nash, who in turns out can dribble a little bit, used his skills to get into the lane time and time again, getting to the free throw line 18 times (hitting 17). Nash defeated a Maryland team that boasted such current and future college stars as Keith Booth, Obinna Ekezie, Exree Hipp - one of my favorite names of all time - Laron Profit and Sarunas Jasikevicius. Unfortunately for the Broncs, they ran into second seeded Kansas and promptly lost 76-51. But, Steve Nash was not content to remain a small college player that only starred in the NCAA Tournament, as he went on the NBA as a first round pick (15th overall) of the Phoenix Suns, where he played 19 seasons for 3 franchises, won 2 NBA MVP titles (2005/2006), was an ALl-Star 8 times and will likely be in the basketball Hall of Fame within a few years.
We have a 4-way tie for first among Carolyn Fowlerof Greenacres, Florida, Max Macon #2 of Jupiter, Florida, and Measha Williams #2 and 4 of Houston, Texas.
Welcome to the Pool Karen Katz of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Annette Pritchard of West Palm Beach. Annette sent her bracket to the participant that invited her instead of me, but the dates on the e-mail chain were sufficient enough for me to include both her entries. Next time, Annette, send the bracket ot me.
I hand score the brackets, so it is possible that I may have made a mistake. I know, I know, you are surprised that I am fallible. Feel free to bring any questions you have to my attention at sosalaw@yahoo.com. I will re-visit your sheet and re-score. Keep in mind, though, that while if I find a mistake in your favor I will give you your proper points, but if I find a mistake in the opposite direction, I will make the appropriate downward correction. Also, let me know if I mis-spelled your name. I would like to correct it if I did so.
Good luck watching today's games, which begin momentarily with Maryland playing LSU!
1 - Carolyn Fowler - 52
Max Macon #2 - 52
Measha Williams #2 - 52
Measha Williams #3 - 52
5 - Max Macon #4 - 51
Ashley Poer #2 - 51
7 - Marcus Jackson - 50
Matt Hopps - 50
9 - Silas Nichols - 49
10 - Katie Kollmeyer - 48
11 - Krystal Travers - 47
Justin Yung - 47
13 - Scott Bieterman - 46
Debbie Igdaloff Nieman - 46
William Pujals -46
16 - Brian Hinaman - 45
17 - Martha Kroesen - 44
Edy Pecan - 44
Michael Spicer - 44
20 - Chad Phillips - 43
Steven Usma #4 - 43
George Walks #3 - 43
23 - Kline Kroesen - 42
Duncan Merchant - 42
Steven Usma #2 - 42
26 - Karen Katz - 41
Philip Kroesen - 41
Mango Merchant - 41
29 - Max Marion - 40
Dave Piasecki 1 - 40
Steven Usma #1 - 40
George Walks #2 - 40
George Walks #5 - 40
Jonathan Wasserman - 40
35 - Dan Barsky #2 - 39
Mac Kroesen - 39
Anthony LaPira - 39
Ty Leatherman - 39
Max Marion #2 - 39
Colonel Kareem Montague - 39
Steven Usma #5 - 39
42 - Paul Cummings - 38
Jacey Fowler #2 - 38
Hilary Kroesen #1 - 38
Coby Kroesen - 38
Rich Samuels #2 - 38
Melanie Scherr - 38
Jason Spuhler - 38
Steven Usma #3 - 38
50 - Allison Parker - 37
Brittany Sosa - 37
George Walks #1 - 37
53 - Eric Inge - 36
Measha Williams #1 - 36
55 - Alyssa Ave - 35
Max Macon #1 - 35
Dave Piasecki #2 - 35
John Santucci - 35
Kyle Sheehan - 35
Barkley Sosa - 35
Harrington Wax III - 35
62 - Dan Barsky #1 - 34
Jenna Finkelstein - 34
Carolyn Fowler and Jane Reynolds - 34
Alvaro Gonzalez - 34
Adam Jorgensen - 34
Sasha Moon - 34
Jordyn Sheehan - 34
Traci Sheehan - 34
Jeremy Spuhler - 34
Mike Zachary - 34
Josh and Katie Zdrowak - 34
73 - Robert Hosmer - 33
Chris Kroesen - 33
Hilary Kroesen #2 - 33
Michael Litsey - 33
Sean McInerney - 33
Glen Merchant - 33
Matt Nieman - 33
Kingfish Rod Parham - 33
Annette Pritchard #1 - 33
Jane Reynolds - 33
Brittany Sosa - 33
Robert Tanen #1 - 33
George Walks #4 - 33
86 - Jacey Fowler #1 - 32
Bill Ganoe #1 - 32
Robert Tanen #1 - 32
89 - Jean Calixte - 31
Bill Ganoe #2 - 31
Skip LaForte - 31
Jeff Plamondon - 31
Pepe Sosa - 31
94 - Scott Hansel - 29
Ira Schulteis - 29
Hannah Sosa - 29
Amy Zdrowak - 29
98 - Rachel Bornn - 28
Ashley Poer #1 - 28
Katie Zdrowak - 28
101 - Arlene Amo Hopps - 27
Max Macon #3 - 27
Annette Pritchard #2 - 27
Richard Samuels #1 - 27
105 - David Olson - 26
106 - Dana Mandelbaum - 25
Chris Petit - 25
Meredith Tanen - 25
Wes Wiggins - 25
110 - Abigail Sosa - 24
111 - Jennifer Armstrong - 23
Luis Briones - 23
James Garvin - 23
Cubbie Kroesen - 23
Cheryl Spuhler - 23
116 - Jessica Samuels - 22
117 - Tara Telliott - 21
Biscuit Zdrowak - 21
Joshua Zdrowak - 21
120 - Griffey Parker - 20
Samantha Sheehan - 20
Keith Zdrowak - 20
123 - Liz Carew - 19
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