But at this very second.  All 4 double digit seeds (including #16 seed Western Kentucky) is winning.   Could be a wild evening!!!!!!!!!!!

I know I am biased being a Purdue fan.  However, I find myself at the moment rooting for Iowa State not being I want my rival to lose (although that would be nice).  I am also not doing it because I am closet Cyclones fan (although as a disclaimer, I have every reason to be with family who lives in Ames, Iowa).

I have every reason to be rooting against Notre Dame – but right now, it is simply one.  The thought of Notre Dame playing in those hideous florescent lime green uniforms on Sunday that they broke out for the Big East tournament is giving me shivers.  I already feel scarred that I am looking at these stupid home uniforms with the green socks and lettering.  I am afraid I will go blind if the Irish are allowed to advance.

Please Iowa State – do the entire world a favor and end the Irish’s fashion disaster.  Do not make us have to turn our eyes from watching this great tournament….

Cinderella has a name – that name is Florida Gulf Coast!!!!!!!!!!!   That’s right – the team who has been mentioned throughout the year as an asterisk – the strange blemish on the Miami FL Hurricanes record early in the year – has a new scalp.  Big East Regular Season champions – the Georgetown Hoyas were expected to be competitive as one of the favorites to win the South Region.  Now they return to DC as a footnote – one of only seven #2 seeds to lose to a #15 seed.   And Florida Gulf Coast has a very memorable story in their first ever NCAA Tournament.

One could argue how it is that a small conference school that won 24 games, their conference’s tournament, and of course a marquis victory against Miami FL ended up as a #15 seed.  But the reality is now everyone needs to take notice.  The Eagles have crashed this March party – and it looks like the newcomer wants to make some noise.

Of course, I would be negligent if I didn’t mention the fact that the day has been rough for favorites.  #9 Temple, #12 Ole Miss, and #13 La Salle also took down favorites earlier today to make this a wild day in the tournament.   Not sure if the late games are going to continue at this pace.  But if I were the favorites (Kansas, UCLA, Notre Dame and San Diego State), I would do my best to jump out to an early lead.  The longer these underdogs stick in the game, they appear to just start to pick up confidence.

Congratulations to the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles on their first ever NCAA tournament victory.

The #14 seeds really put on a show today.  Looked like Davidson was going to pull off the upset earlier in the day – crushed by a last second layup.  But Harvard would not be stopped.  The Crimson held off #3 New Mexico to win their first tournament game in school history.   Fantastic victory for Harvard.

The other big upsets were #12 seeds Oregon and California.   And not to take any credit away from the two Pac 12 schools, but I would also argue that Oregon never should have been a 12 seed – and probably neither should have California….

Congratulations to Dave Zimmerman and Stacy Dooms – our current leaders.  Both Dave and Stacy got 15 of the 16 games correct – only missing the Harvard game.  Also, congratulations to our early leader of the Upset Pool – Rick Flynn.  Rick got 13 games correct, but those included all three of the double digit upsets that happened today.

Good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic!!!!!!

Can’t believe I saw that happen in two consecutive games.

St. Mary’s trying to come back against Memphis with just a few seconds in the game – and Memphis turns the ball over on the in-bounce.  The Gaels get the ball into their star player, but he can’t make the game-winning three pointer to finish the comeback.

Then, it looks like #14 Davidson was going to make an attempt at becoming Cinderella.  But with under 10 seconds and a 1 point lead, the Davidson player trying to extend the play instead of allowing himself to get fouled throws the ball out of bounds.  Marquette gets 6 seconds to win the game, they get the ball into their star player, but unfortunately for Cinderella, he drives to the basket for a lay-up and the clock struck midnight for Davidson.

One can only hope the evening games keep up this pace.  Right now, we have #16 seed Southern only down 3 at half against Gonzaga – and #12 seed Oregon is up 11 at half against Oklahoma State.  Could be more fireworks in store!!!!

Looks like we have 365 entries – should be a really fun tourney.

Good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic!!!!!!!

In my sane picks, I have gone back to my roots and picked Big 10 heavy.  I have Michigan State upsetting Louisville in the Midwest, Ohio State taking down Wisconsin in the West, Kansas beating Georgetown in the South, and Indiana holding off Miami FL in the East.  This will lead to my nightmare as the Hoosiers take down Kansas and Ohio State to win the national championship.

 

In my insane picks, I have Duke upsetting Louisville in the Midwest, Ohio State taking down Kansas State in the West, Kansas beating Florida in the South and Indiana still holding off Miami FL in the East.  This time, the Big 10 teams lose in the semi-finals, as Duke will beat Kansas to win the national championship.

 

My sympathies in advance to Hoosier and Blue Devil fans.  OK – being from Purdue, my sympathy really goes out to Blue Devil fans – picking Indiana knowing my teams tend to get upset early was probably subconsciously intentional.   Don’t worry, I will likely take down a third school with my second chance picks….

 

We already have 248 entries in the contest – and I am sure that we will get our normal avalanche of last-second entries – so we should have a great contest once again this year.  Make sure you get your picks in – and good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic!!!!!

 

Tom

Have to love the fact that the tournament starts off with a 73-72 game that ends with one final drive to try to win the game.  The Liberty player drove a little too far, the NC A&T player had great defensive position and contested the shot – and NC A&T hangs on for the victory.

The St. Mary’s – Middle Tennessee St game wasn’t as exciting.  Couldn’t decide if that was because the experts were right about MTSU potentially not belonging in the field – or if it was because St. Mary’s was just much better than anyone thought.

As for other fun things on the site, Bracketology finally got posted – along with how I did against the experts.  Middle of the pack – considering I literally spent 2 hours on it, I will be happy with it – demonstrates the point that the bracketology gig is just not that complicated.  Wonder how I would do if I really put some effort into it – just don’t have that type of time……

Also, have started the handicapping page…..   Started off ahead on Tuesday’s games – sure that won’t last long….

Remember, just about 35 hours left to get your brackets in – oh wait, I guess that means I should get started as well……

Also started up the handicapping page.  This is where I make an embarrassing attempt to try to predict the games against the Vegas lines – simply because I likely have no chance of beating any of you – so I obviously will be able to pick the games against expert handicappers who make a living because they produce good amounts of money for the casinos.

But figure I might not get home from work before the 6:40 pm tip-off and so had to get the first picks out tonight.  Since I did it after midnight, I am sure it will have about the same amount of success as my ability so far to get the data to everyone.

 

Important Notes on the large Schedule dataset

• The final three missing Sunday games have been added to the Schedule
• On the standings page, there was an error – the offense and defense numbers are based off conference games instead of all games.  This then effected the Adjusted Scoring Margin numbers.   This error has also been fixed.

Important Note for those of you who want to leverage data but don’t have time to build a model or sift through 5,000+ NCAA Box Score Summaries…..

• I have loaded cheat sheets to help with your analysis.  It has summaries of the each team – listed side by side for their opponent in the first round.  So, you can see things like their avg. offense, avg. defense – or more granular info like what Top 50 teams have they beaten or Bottom 100+ teams have beaten them.

 

My sincerest apologies about the error on the Standings page.  Was rushing just to get something out – should know better than doing things after midnight…..   Hope it did not mess anyone up.