Of our 360 entries, 358 of us have already lost their chance for a perfect bracket – thanks to #14 UAB’s 60-59 upset of Iowa State.

So welcome to our first Cinderella who has stormed the dance.

So, maybe the question about adjustments wasn’t a bad one after all. That is because Ole Miss took advantage of the fast pace of game and scored 62 points in the second half to steal the game from the Cougars.

It is kind of crazy – there are teams who are going to win games in the next three weeks without getting 62 points in the whole game. So was a little sad to watch BYU’s 17 point quickly disappear.

Congratulations to Ole Miss – for once again reminding us why they call this March Madness

After much deliberation, the Lunatic has made his crazy picks.   In the picks that he thinks are more sane, the Lunatic has Florida winning the tournament with Michigan State, Arizona and Louisville joining them in the Final Four.   In his insane picks, the Lunatic goes back to his Big 10 roots and selects Michigan State to win it all – with Florida, Creighton and Duke joining them in the Final Four.

So, sorry to any Gators, Spartans, Wildcats, Cardinals, Bluejays, or Blue Devils fans – the Lunatic has now probably officially cursed your teams.

Right now, we have 251 entries – and there always seems to be a mad rush on Thursday morning.  So, don’t miss your chance to Stomp the Lunatic!!!!!

The 2014 Schedules are updated all the way through Saturday night’s games.  So, at this point, there are only the 5 championship games remaining (Atlantic 10, Sun Belt, ACC, Big 10, SEC) – there shouldn’t be any more bid stealers hanging around – although St. Joseph’s would make their Sunday afternoon a lot less nervous if they were able to beat VCU today.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if either the Michigan / Michigan State or Duke / Virginia game ends up determining the race the for the last #1 seed (as most believe Wichita State, Florida and Arizona are safely the other three #1 seeds).  Then again, at this point, as I prepare my bracketology update, it is one of those years that I am really not sure who is going to be on the top line.  With Arizona losing twice recently, Villanova’s shocking early loss in the Big East tournament, and Kansas falling apart as their star center has been injured, it is really unclear what the committee will do.

Should be a fun day – only 5 games, but they are probably going to be really fun.  March is definitely here.

Those loyal to the Stomp the Lunatic Contest know my opinions of the Bracketology pages.  For those who don’t, I feel they do a lot of teams a dis-service.  My only hopes is that the Selection Committee ignores these folks – but it has got to be hard to not let it influence you.  If Joe Lunardi from ESPN and Jerry Palm from CBS both say that Providence should be one of the last bubble teams in, how much does that make the committee think – maybe they’re right.  If a committee member is questioning what is the right ranking for Ohio State and sees both “experts” listing the Buckeyes as a 6 seed – does that influence the ranking.

I totally think it is entertaining to read – and these guys put themselves on the line as they put their rankings out there for everyone to see.  And in Lunardi’s case, you can even go backwards in the season and see previous rankings.  But then they make these statements that just make my blood boil.

Lunardi is the one who pushed my buttons last night.  When Joe put his last update on Thursday onto the ESPN page, he had the following rankings:

1 – Arizona, Florida, Syracuse, Wichita State

2 – Kansas, Duke, Wisconsin, Creighton

After Virginia’s dominating victory against Syracuse, there was a blurb from ESPN that it looked like Kansas would move up to the top line.   That seems fair enough.  Then came Oklahoma State’s upset of the Jayhawks.  Which then included the next tweet…

“Keeping Kansas on the top line despite latest loss.  Two reasons: (1) overall body of work; (2) rules still require four No. 1 seeds.”

OK – so I realize Twitter’s lack of characters allows for a lot of lack of clarity.  But let me get this straight.  Three days ago, based on important qualities “like body of work” – Joe felt Syracuse was the 3rd best team and Kansas was the 5th.  Then, after Syracuse loses on the road to a team he currently had ranked as a 3 seed (and is now the ACC regular season champion) – and Kansas loses on the road to a team struggling to get to .500 in their conference and keep their tournament hopes alive, it becomes obvious that Kansas should be ranked higher because of only “body of work”.

I get it, a lot of top teams lost – and so it feels like no one is deserving the final top seed.  But it seems awfully inconsistent to say body of work – Kansas’s body of work before yesterday’s game wasn’t better in his mind.  So – how does losing to Oklahoma State (instead of Virginia) make that so obvious he should switch.  I think it is fair to say that now that both teams have blemishes on their resume, the fact that Kansas is still going to win their regular season championship (barring collapse) will give them a leg up in getting the last top seed.  But I don’t think you can claim body of work, when you weren’t saying that three days ago.

You might say, Tom – it doesn’t matter.  Both Kansas and Syracuse will be in the tournament as a top 1 or 2 seed – it is irrelevant.  But in my mind, it isn’t.  Because if Joe uses this type of logic on the top of his bracket, he is likely doing it on the bottom as well.  My only hope is that the committee doesn’t get influenced too much by these experts.

OK – back to getting the Lunatic site back up and running.  I only have two weeks until the madness begins.