NCAA Tournament Pool Results - Round 1/Day 2

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

Let Me Be Loud Wrong Early...

The final College Football Playoff rankings will be revealed on Sunday night, and I am positive that I will be really wrong about what I think should and will happen. Why do I say this? Well, because I believe that there should not be a path for Ohio State to be in the final four.

I said Ohio State has to be left out!

If everything stays status quo, I think that the final four should be:

1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Washington
4. Penn State/Wisconsin winner

Okay, let me defend this since every expert says that Ohio State is clearly the second best team in the country. Why shouldn't I believe this?

I hate the eye test. They just look like the second best team. Or, the conference is the best this year, it deserves to have two teams. To me, this is the classic old school thinking that got us to a need for playoff committee and process to begin with. If this were just about an eye test, then yes, Ohio State looks great. Unfortunately, we have conferences. We have 12 game schedules. We have conference championship games. We can ACTUALLY determine the best teams in each conference.

How you ask?

WIN. YOUR. FREAKING. CONFERENCE.

The College Football Playoff Committee was established to find the best four teams at the end of the year. If you go to their website, you will find the following regarding the selection of the teams:

The selection committee ranks the teams based on conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, comparison of results against common opponents and other factors.

Ohio State will not play for its conference championship, because it lost to Penn State. If you aren't eligible to play for your conference championship, how can you be considered the best team in that conference? It invalidates the season and renders having a clear conference champion useless.

Look, this is going to be a very hard decision for the committee. The case for Ohio State and/or Michigan appears really strong:

• The Big 10 Champion is going to be a 2-loss team, and everybody really wants to see Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh in the playoffs. College football is a coaches game, and they are the stars
• The Big 10 Champion will have a head to head loss to Michigan
• Wisconsin lost to both Michigan and Ohio State
• The popular vote (polls) have had both Ohio State and Michigan highly ranked the entire year

But again, neither team figured out how to get enough wins to win their division, and there cannot be a reward for not playing in the conference championship.

Again, I am going to be loud wrong. While I truly hope for it, I don't believe that the committee will leave Ohio State out of the playoff. If the Big 12 Champion, and either the Big 10 or Pac 12 Champion is left out, there should be an investigation. Otherwise, there isn't really a need to play the regular season. Want to know who the playoff will be next year? Because I already know. It will be Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, and USC. Boom. Now you can all spend your Saturdays next fall playing golf and completing honey-do lists.

End of an Era? Not just yet...

I am fascinated by the results of the five New Year's Day bowl games. Not because your boy Sinickal had EVERYTHING wrong. After all, everyone had most of them wrong. And for those of you claiming that you did have the SEC going winless, Florida State getting blown out, and the Big Ten going 3-1, where were you on New Year's Eve? I don't remember hearing the trash talk before the games at the volume that I am hearing it now. And if you did believe it before you saw it, you were in a very small minority of sports fans. And none of you said anything!

Okay, back to football. What the hell happened yesterday? I am not quite sure yet, but I am going to classify it as more aberration than evolution. Let's discuss this in the form of questions and answers...

1. Is the SEC over rated?

No, I don't believe it is. I still think that the SEC is a formidable conference and either the best or second best in the country. If I were a school in the Big Ten, I would not start scheduling SEC teams for homecoming just yet. I get that five of the top teams in the conference lost in big spots over two days, but lets look as some of the facts regarding the conferences...

According to fbschedules.com, here are the non-conference winning percentages for the power five conferences against power five teams prior to conference play this year.

Big Ten - 31% 
Big 12 - 40% 
ACC - 44% 
SEC - 71%
PAC 12 - 75% 

With regard to the bowl season, the current record for the SEC is 5-5. By comparison, the Big Ten is 5-4, The ACC is 5-6, and the Big 12 is 1-4. The star of the group is the Pac 12 which is currently 5-1.

So, let's not consider the SEC on the same level as the Sun Belt conference just yet. I am pretty sure that the depth of the conference is real and that the top teams will be just fine.

2. Certainly, we can agree that this is the end of the  current SEC run, correct?

Again, I am not sure that I would stretch that far based on a 40 hour snapshot. Over the last decade, the SEC has shown in wins and in talent that this current run of dominance is not a fluke. Again, here are the facts...

The SEC has produced 8 of the last 10 National Champions, including 7 in a row from 2006 to 2012. This is a near impossible run in which 4 different teams from the conference won more than half of the national championships awarded in the BCS era!

Looking at the NFL draft over the last few years gives the following. According to NFL.com, the SEC has had:

• The most players drafted in each of the last 8 years. 49 players were drafted in the most recent NFL draft.
• The most players drafted in the 1st round in each of the last 4 years. In all four years, at least 10 players have gone in the 1st round. By comparison, the only other conference with as many as 8 during that time is the Big 12.
• The number of 1st round picks by conference in the last five drafts are
• SEC - 50
• Big 12 - 27
• ACC - 21
• Big 10 - 18
• Pac 12 - 17
• Big East - 6
• The total number of picks by conference in the last five drafts are
• SEC - 241
• ACC - 169
• Big 12 - 150
• Big 10 - 154
• Pac 12 - 124
• Big East - 73

It is noted that conference realignment would increase the numbers for the Big East schools that moved to the ACC, Big 10 and Big 12. Despite that, it is difficult to reload over and over again with the amount of talent leaving the SEC every year. And it is an obscene amount of talent!

3. Okay, then what does it mean that Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss all lost in a matter of 40 hours?

I am going to concentrate on Alabama and, to a lesser degree LSU here. Specifically, let's look at two things a little more closely here.

First, go back and look at the rosters of Alabama and LSU from their 2011 regular season game. As of the 2014 NFL Draft, 42 players from those two rosters were selected by teams. By the time all of the players from the rosters have completed their colleges runs, it is estimated that 70 could be drafted. Let me repeat that, 70 players drafted from two rosters in one college game in an "over rated" conference! If you want to see the names and some mind blowing stats, check out this cbssports.com link.

Second, based on information from NFL.com, Alabama has been a talent pipeline for the NFL over the last few years. We can agree that Alabama's biggest weakness was in its secondary this year. It simply gave up too many big plays. That is just one glaring problem caused by the amount of talent lost recently. Consider that Alabama has had 9 defensive backs drafted in the last 5 years, with 5 in the 1st round. The Crimson Tide has also gone 5 consecutive years with multiple 1st round draft picks. That has never been done before. By the way, I could have done the same thing with LSU and it would have been as impressive.

I am not going to say that these schools shouldn't be able to reload, I am saying that sometimes it takes a little time to overcome significant loss. Again, I wouldn't start loading up these teams to enhance your non-conference record.

4. Fine, you can admit that the Big Ten is a much better conference than you thought, right?

Hell. And. No.

Ohio State is really good and Urban Meyer is simply a great football coach. Michigan State is consistently the second best team in that conference and a really good football team. The rest of the Big Ten is dog shit and you can have it.

5. How do we know that the SEC was that good over the last decade, since the playoff system clearly exposed Alabama?

I would simply go back and look at the talent produced. It was not an accident that SEC was pounding anyone it faced when it mattered. This year, the playoff format matched the four best teams in the country. No one, and I mean no one argued that Alabama was not one of them. Even those of you who think that the SEC is over rated as a conference thought Alabama belonged in the Final Four teams.

6. Is this the end of SEC dominance?

Let's not treat the last 48 hours with Twitter gloves. The SEC is not going to stop recruiting or simply not try anymore because its top teams lost in bowl games this year. Dominance in college football is most often ended by external means. That is, scandal and sanctions. I don't believe that the entire conference is going to be placed under probation anytime soon. Therefore, you can continue to fear the talent showing up at those schools

7. Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Yes!! In a separate post, we are going to talk about trash talking among fans and fan bases. The trolling that you currently see and hear is not trash talk. It is gloating and post-game posturing. That is different. If you are confident enough in your team to trash talk and tongue wag, then do it right. Damn, I hate people that hide before and during a game then tell you how great they are after the fact!