20060317

Standings

What kind of deranged lunatic
would pick Bradley??

I'm afraid it won't be such a happy St. Patrick's Day for Gerry McNamara and his band of Orangemen. For the second straight year, Syracuse wins the Big East tournament only to be eliminated in the first round of the NCAA as the Texas A&M Aggies show why you always pick a #12 in the first round. As for "G Mac," he follows probably the greatest week of his career with his worst performance ever, accounting for only 2 points in the 66-58 loss.

Wow. What an opening day. With the possible exception of the Super Bowl, there is no greater sporting event in this country than the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and yesterday's games proved to be no exception. Some of the highlights included Boston College having to go 2 overtimes before finally disposing of Pacific, Winthrop almost making Lauren Dennehy look like Nostradamus in their heartbreaking loss against Tennessee, GW needing overtime to take care of UNC-Wilmington, and Indiana winning on a last second "3" despite being thoroughly outplayed by San Diego State. Aside from Texas A&M's win, the two other biggest upsets of the day were #12 Montana taking out Nevada, and #11 Wisc-Milwaukee knocking off Oklahoma ... both of which I had. Wink, wink.

The Great American
March Madness
NCAA Basketball Pool

McNAMARA'S BAND OUT!

from Bradley or something as he has the Braves going to the Elite Eight, knocking off the likes of Kansas, Pittsburgh, and Memphis in the process, before eventually bowing out to Gonzaga. I do understand however that Pat is not the only "Office pool" participant to take a flyer on Bradley.

But hey, sometimes it pays to throw your support behind the alma mater as Dave "husband of former champ Lisa" Allard can attest for us. Dave, as you'll recall, won the prize for "Best 1st Round Score" last year via tiebreakers due to his selection of Vermont over Syracuse. So who am I to throw stones at someone for going out on a limb? (sorry to keep harping on various Syracuse failures, Dave Bach)

However, for those of you who are indeed hellbent on actually following the games today (despite the fact that "The Bracket Master" has ruined all our fun), the schedule for today shakes out as follows:

12:15 p.m. Ohio St. vs. Davidson
12:25 p.m. Iowa vs. N'western St.
12:30 p.m. Arkansas vs. Bucknell
12:30 p.m. Arizona vs. Wisconsin
2:35 p.m. Georgetown vs. No. Iowa
2:45 p.m. W. Virginia vs. So. Ill.
2:50 p.m. Villanova vs. Monmouth
2:50 p.m. Memphis vs. Oral Roberts
7:10 p.m. Pittsburgh vs. Kent St.
7:10 p.m. Mich. St. vs. G. Mason
7:20 p.m. California vs. N.C. State
7:25 p.m. Connecticut vs. Albany
9:30 p.m. Kansas vs. Bradley
9:30 p.m. UNC vs. Murray St.
9:40 p.m. Texas vs. Penn
9:45 p.m. Kentucky vs. UAB

In addition, the NCAA and CBS have teamed up to make available on the internet every game for the first 3 rounds for the low, low price of "free". Yep. Every game available online for free. Tried it at home last night and it was very, very, cool. You can sign up for "March Madness on Demand" � here . Also, if you've got a laptop with wireless internet at home and the ability to plug it into a big screen TV, let me know what time I should be over, because now that I think about it � I've already seen Weekend at Bernies II.

Boston College's epic win over Pacific was easily the most exciting game of the day. BC fans are naturally feeling a little spooked right now after coming within a missed layup of being up Dave Dawson's Creek without a paddle. Take heart though. There are two things that are generally accepted to be "conventional wisdom" when it comes to winning the NCAA tournament. In order to win, you need 1) guards, and 2) a gut check game. I.e.: you need a game in the tourney where everything is on the line late and your boys reach down deep and pull out the win. BC got theirs yesterday.

A check of the standings finds a 4 way tie for the top spot between Adam "Must be adopted" Jabs, Laura "Take that, Chris!" Reilly, Matt "Even" Stevens(3), and Sebastian, who is back on the air in Hartford on WCCC these days by the way. Other notables, last year's champion, Craig "Bartman" Antas, is in the clubhouse with 13 points and is part of the logjam at 10th place. Yours truly, along with daughter Lauren, had a respectable 12 points.. As a reminder, complete standings can be found over at CBS Sportsline.

Entrant Pts

15
15
15
15
14
14
14
14
14
13

Adam Jabs (2)
Laura Reilly
Matt Stevens (3)
Sebastian
Allyson Bernert
Frank McGurrin (1)
Glenn B (2) (*)
Lisa Allard
Matt Stevens (1)
9 others tied at

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

A review of some of our participant's entries indicated some very interesting selections. First off, I think Pat Sinnard must have graduated

practically the King of Basketball Pools, given his alleged first place finish in his former employer's pool. Well, Antonio found out the hard way that it's tough to make the jump to a big boy pool like ours (aka "the show") as he finished a distant 94th in 2005. Despite his underwhelming performance, the self proclaimed "bracket master" was telling anyone who'd listen that if I wanted to cut out the middleman, I should just instruct folks to send their entry fees directly to him. Yes, it seems that this is all a mere formality and Mr. Malachi (no relation to the Malachi brothers of Happy Days "Malachi Crunch" fame) has things just about sewn up. Matter of fact, given that it's all a foregone conclusion that Antonio is going to be bringing home the bacon this year, I'm not even gonna watch any games this evening. Especially since I think I saw that "Weekend at Bernies II" is on one of my HBO channels tonight.

I wonder if Pat and "Dwight" will both be watching?

Syracuse ousted by Texas A&M!

Glenn B (2) is really longtime entrant Kevin Garvin

Switching gears, I'm not sure how many folks know Antonio "Banderas" Malachi over in the GAI Trucking Division? Well, when Antonio started with us last year, he kept telling me how he was

Good luck today. If you missed yesterday's update, you can find it here.

Later,
The Commish