2008 March Madness EE Update

Sorry this update has taken me so long fellas but I've been off work the last two days and frankly I've been a little fried so I basically just have been relaxing for the first time in a long time. Enough about me though. After the Elite Elite (EE), we have come to a few conclusions. The first, as you know if you read Mike T's recent email, is that the bracket chase is over. Jim J. will be our winner. Yes, there are still points to be scored, but there's no way for Mike to catch Jim. A detailed version of the standings is here, but the bare bones is below.

Jim J. -- 206
Mike T. -- 203
Russ -- 188
John -- 167
Pat -- 159
Jim B. -- 156
Mike C. -- 147
Ed -- 141

As you probably know, history was made over the weekend when all four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. Amazing that it hadn't happened before. So be proud if you took the conservative approach this year. It finally paid off.

On to the points ...

Here are the standings heading into the Final Four with total points and points earned before the Elite Eight plus points earned in the Elite Eight in parenthesis.

Ed -- 325 points (301 + 24)

Pat -- 145 points (121 + 24)

Jim B. -- 140 points (140 + 0)

John -- 135 points (135 + 0)

Mike T. -- 56 points (32 + 24)

Russ -- 52 points (52 + 0)

Mike C. -- 41 points (41 + 0)

Jim J. -- 25 points (17 + 8)

To answer Ed's email question, no Ed, you have not officially clinched, but it's as good as done. God bless Davidson I guess in your case. Without those precious 120 Sweet 16 points, things might be different. But enough about what ifs. The only people still alive are Ed (UCLA), Pat (Memphis), Mike T. (North Carolina) and Jim J. (Kansas). The put it in simplest terms, Pat still has a mathematical chance but it's definitely a longshot. Pat will need Memphis to beat UCLA by more than 30 points in the first national semifinal and then Memphis will need to beat its opponent in the championship by more than 30 points. If the Tigers do both of those things, Pat will accumulate the necessary points to overtake Ed. If Memphis loses to UCLA or wins by fewer than 31 points, then Ed will clinch on Saturday. So let me be the first to congratulate Ed on winning the points. That brings us to an interesting dilemma since both of our winners this year are East Coasters. We'll have to talk later about getting the plaque to the other time zone.

In closing, here are the highlights from the regional final games over the weekend.

Memphis-Texas

Kansas-Davidson

North Carolina-Louisville

UCLA-Xavier

March Madness Day 6 Highlights

Here are the highlights after Day 6 of the tournament with the Elite Eight field now complete.

Memphis-Michigan State
Kansas-Villanova
Stanford-Texas
Wisconsin-Davidson

2008 March Madness Day 6

Hey fellas, don't have a lot of time for a really thorough update but figured I wanted to get something up so we would be complete through the Sweet 16. You can view a detailed version of the current bracket standings by clicking here or read below for the bare bones.

Jim J. -- 200

Mike T. -- 194

Russ -- 179

John -- 161

Jim B. -- 150

Pat -- 147

Mike C. -- 138

Ed -- 135

Don't have time for much, but it will say that no one picked Davidson to end up in the Elite Eight. Another thing we can conclude from the bracket standings is that it has become a two-horse race between Jim J. and Mike T. Everyone else has been eliminated since Jim and Mike already have point totals that exceed the highest possible point totals for those beneath them so we can now throw our focus to them. More on this in the next update.

On to the points...

Here are the standings through the Sweet 16 games. Total points is listed with the five-day total and what was earned Friday in parenthesis.

Ed -- 301 points (181 + 120)

Jim B. -- 140 points (116 +24)

John -- 135 points (135 + 0)

Pat -- 121 points (109 + 12)

Russ -- 52 points (52 +0)***

Mike C. -- 41 points (41 + 0)***

Mike T. -- 32 points (32 + 0)

Jim J. -- 17 points (9 + 8)

After seeing Ed go through a bit of a cold streak by losing Washington State and West Virginia on Thursday, he came back in a huge way on Friday with 120 ridiculously big points from 10th-seeded Davidson. The victory by the Southern Conference school was worth 40 points at the base level, but because Davidson won by 17 points it created a triple bonus and a huge lift for Ed, who had been feeling the pressure after dominating. Ed also lost Michigan State so he's down to two teams. The other big winner Friday was Jim B., who moved into second place when Texas beat Stanford by 20 points and gave Jim 24 points to pull five ahead of John who went scoreless Friday when Stanford and Villanova lost. Jim J. also remained alive with his lone team, though top-seeded Kansas only scored Jim a mere eight points after its 15-point victory over 'Nova. Had the Jayhawks won by one more point it would have doubled Jim's points. Pat was the only other to score Friday as Memphis looked impressive in dismantling Michigan State to give Pat 12 points. Pat also was the loser when Davidson knocked off Wisconsin. Ed's definitely still in control but there are plenty of points still to be had. And let's not forget that the *** next to Mike C. and Russ signify that they are eliminated since all their teams are done. So here's who's left heading into the Elite Eight:

Ed -- UCLA, Davidson

Jim J. -- Kansas

Pat -- Memphis

Mike T. -- North Carolina

Jim B. -- Texas, Louisville

John -- Xavier

I will not be posting an update after Saturday's games as it will be easier simply to wait until the Final Four is set and that way it's easier to paint a more clear picture on all fronts. Until then, later to everyone.

March Madness Day 5 Highlights

Here are the highlights from the fifth day of play with half of the Elite Eight field now set:

UCLA-Western Kentucky
Louisville-Tennessee
Xavier-West Virginia
North Carolina-Washington State

For some reason, the Carolina-Wazzou game is not working. I'll get it up there when I can.

**UPDATE: It's working now.

2008 March Madness Day 5

We are now halfway to the Elite Eight and thankfully, from a personal standpoint, UCLA is still alive looking to make its third consecutive appearance in the Final Four. The Bruins sure don't make it easy on their fans though, what with another near collapse in the second half as Western Kentucky. But I digress since we are, after all, here to talk about brackets and points. You can view a detailed version of the current bracket standings by clicking here or read below for the bare bones.

Jim J. -- 193
Mike T. -- 184
Russ -- 176
John -- 158
Jim B. -- 143
Pat -- 137
Mike C. -- 132
Ed -- 128

Jim J. and Mike T. each scored 11 bracket points Thursday, getting three victories correct and missing only on Louisville beating Tennessee. That kept the nine-point difference between the two the same. But creeping up after a perfect four for four day was Russ, who is now within 17 points of the top and could easily sneak in there with a few games going his way. Though the leaders faltered in predicting Louisville would be Tennessee, four others correctly went with the Cardinals. Aside from Russ, the others to get Louisville were John, Jim B. and Mike C. That allowed Mike C. to move ahead of Ed out of the basement in what remains a tight battle. Everyone, of course, had UCLA, though had it not been for a career performance by sophomore James Keefe, the Bruins would have been outta there. Where the leaders made up for not picking Louisville was selecting Xavier, though it took the Musketeers overtime and a missed free throw by West Virginia late in regulation to make it happen. The only other besides the leaders to pick Xavier was Russ.

On to the points...

Here are the standings after the first day of Sweet 16 games. Total points is listed with the two-round total and what was won Thursday in parenthesis:

Ed -- 181 points (173 + 8)
John -- 135 points (123 + 12)
Jim B. -- 116 points (80 +36)
Pat -- 109 points (109 + 0)
Russ -- 52 points (52 + 0)***
Mike C. -- 41 points (41 + 0)***
Mike T. -- 32 points (20 + 12)
Jim J. -- 9 points (9 + 0)

It could be the beginning of the end of the runaway for Ed after the Disney man dominated the first two rounds and moved on to the Sweet 16 with five teams. Ed did see his top pick, UCLA, advance, but the Bruins scored him only eight points and that was it for Ed on Thursday. He lost Washington State and West Virginia in the process, the latter being a huge momentum-changer as the Mountaineers would have scored a minimum of 28 points with a victory. The big mover on Thursday was Jim B., who had Louisville, his second pick, knock off Mike T's second pick, Tennessee. The 19-point victory gave Jim B. a triple bonus and total of 36 big points to move him into third place ahead of Pat, who went scoreless after Western Kentucky lost. Mike T. did pick up 12 points as North Carolina breezed its way past Washington State and looks as if it might never be challenged. Also going scoreless Thursday was Jim J., whose lone team, Kansas, did not play. As mentioned before, Russ and Mike C. have already been eliminated from the points race since they have no more teams alive. John was the only other player who scored when Xavier beat West Virginia in overtime. Xavier scored John 12 points. Well, that's it for now. Will have another update after Friday night's games.

Stackhouse-Ginobili BOW

This is one of the most obvious BOWs I've seen in quite some time and I can't believe I missed it over the weekend in the San Antonio-Dallas game. Jerry Stackhouse has to be one of the biggest punks around and this footage proves it. Tell me what justifies a guy not only grabbing someone from behind and throwing them to the floor, but then grabbing a hold of that guy's neck and choking him briefly while he's laying sideways? That's exactly what Stackhouse did, and again I pose the question that if it had been Bruce Bowen or Michael Finley or Tim Duncan blocking out Stackhouse on that play, would he have thrown them to the ground? My instinct says no. Also, I can't believe two of the three announcers basically dismissing or condoning Stackhouse's actions. Only Mark Jackson had the guts and decency to call it what it was -- a dirty play. And kudos to Jackson for not backing off his comments and standing up to his idiot colleagues. Also, Ginobili is interviewed afterward and handles it with class, though he did say, "You saw it."

Ana Ivanovic Wins Indian Wells

Lost in all the March Madness hoopla was the fact that our favorite tennis player, Ana Ivanovic, won the title at the prestigious Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells near Palm Springs over the weekend. Those in the know regard Indian Wells as a sort of "fifth major" since the field as always strong on the men's and women's sides. This year was no exception as Ana plowed through the field and beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final on Sunday. Here are some pictures, first from her semifinal victory and the leading up to the final:

Slow start but she turned it around in the semis:


Lunging for a one-handed return:


Could this have been a back-hand winner?


Graciously acknowledging the crowd after victory:


There's that championship form:


With victory secure, she knows she's good:


Posing with the winner's trophy, which incidentally is the Pacific Life logo -- a whale jumping out of the water in case you wondered or weren't sure.


Another photo with the trophy, which I'm guess was after she cleaned up in the locker room.

March Madness Day 4 Highlights

Here are the highlights from Day 4 of the tournament as the Sweet 16 field is set:

North Carolina-Arkansas
Memphis-Mississippi State
Louisville-Oklahoma
Davidson-Georgetown
Western Kentucky-San Diego
Tennessee-Butler
Texas-Miami
Villanova-Siena

2008 March Madness Day 4

The first weekend of the 2008 tournament is history and once again I marvel at how 64 teams can be reduced to 16 in a matter of about 80 hours. Our new brackets points system certainly seems to have livened up things as the lead has changed hands at least twice as far as I can remember with Jim J. moving in front again today. You can view a detailed version of the current bracket standings by clicking here or read below for the bare bones.

Jim J. -- 182

Mike T. -- 173

Russ -- 160

John -- 147

Jim B. -- 132

Pat -- 131

Ed -- 122

Mike C. 121

On day four, Jim J. stepped up to pick six of eight games correctly with the key pick being Davidson's stirring upset of Georgetown. Jim was one of only two who had that one and it scored him a big 11 points, which as you can see is the difference in his taking the lead. That was a pretty amazing game, incidentally, with Stephen Curry, son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell, scoring 25 second-half points in a 74-70 win. Curry finished with 30 points overall, and this comes one game after he scored 30 second-half points on his way to 40 in a first-round win over Gonzaga. He's definitely the player of the tourney so far. Mike T. didn't have a bad day, picking five correctly, including perfect Sweet 16 bracket picks in the East and South. Russ's decision to select Villanova to reach the Sweet 16 propelled him into third place, ahead of John, who had held the spot previously. Russ, who got 13 points from 'Nova, also had six winners Saturday. John slipped a bit by getting only four correct on Sunday. Jim B. maintained his narrow edge on Pat for fifth. The two of them each had five correct. The other news was that Ed finally got out of the basement as he was the other one who selected Davidson, thus leaving Mike C. alone in eighth, albeit by a mere point.

On to the points...

Here are the standings after the first two rounds with total points and the breakdown of first- and second-round totals in parenthesis:

Ed -- 173 points (93 + 80)

John -- 123 points (63 + 60)

Pat -- 109 points (41 + 68)

Jim B. -- 80 points (58 + 22)

Russ -- 52 points (52 + 0)***

Mike C. -- 41 points (41 + 0)***

Mike T. -- 20 points (8 +12)

Jim J. -- 9 points (3 + 6)

You might have noticed the asterisks next to the point totals for Russ and Mike C. This would indicate that this duo has been officially ELIMINATED from the points race because all eight of their teams were eliminated from the tournament in the first two rounds. I actually don't remember this happening at this stage to one person, let alone two. For Mike C., losing Duke and Pittsburgh on Saturday was a huge blow but then he lost Miami and San Diego on Sunday to complete his descent into the abyss. It was equally miserable for Russ as he saw Oklahoma, Arkansas and his top pick, Georgetown, go down in flames Sunday. As noted earlier, sending G'Town home was Davidson, which was Ed's latest pick to reach the Sweet 16 and scored him 20 points. In all, Ed has five teams and will be a tough nut to crack unless he has monumental collapse in the next round. John and Pat moved into second and third, respectively, through the strength of earning a whopping 48 points each when Western Kentucky (Pat) and Villanova (John) advanced. Still plenty of possibilities so I won't go over them just yet. Look for the Sweet 16 preview later this week. Jim B. saw his top two teams advance as Texas and Louisville moved on. Though Jim got 18 points from Louisville's win, it would have been 24 had the Cardinals won by 31 points instead of 30 against Oklahoma. Oh the little things. Mike T. and Jim J. may have low point totals, but they are still alive and could start creeping up if others falter. Here is a look at who everyone has remaining:

Ed (5): UCLA, Michigan State, Washington State, West Virginia, Davidson.

Jim J. (1): Kansas.

Pat (3): Memphis, Wisconsin, Western Kentucky.

Mike T. (2): North Carolina, Tennessee.

Mike C. (0): ------

Russ (0): ------

Jim B. (2): Texas, Louisville.

John (3): Stanford, Xavier, Villanova.

Well, that's all for now. Hope everyone enjoyed the updates so far. Keep checking back for more.

March Madness Day 3 Highlights

Here are the highlights from Day 3 of the tournament, the first eight second-round games:

UCLA-Texas A&M
Pittsburgh-Michigan State
Kansas-UNLV
Washington State-Notre Dame
Stanford-Marquette
Xavier-Purdue
Wisconsin-Kansas State
West Virginia-Duke

2008 March Madness Day 3

After an emotionally exhausting night, not only because I was at work on a Saturday, but because I almost had to watch UCLA piss way its national title hopes, it's good to be able to write something positive. The Bruins gave me a heart attack but eventually beat Texas A&M in one of the most excruciating games I can ever remember. It almost made me forget that my bracket is blowing up. Anyway, you can access the standings here but below are the totals:

Mike T. -- 159

Jim J. -- 157

John -- 135

Russ -- 133

Jim B. -- 118

Pat -- 117

Mike C. -- 107

Ed -- 101

Well, at least now everyone has reached triple digits though Mike T. and Jim J. are in a tight battle at the top. John and Russ also are battling for third and Jim B. and Pat are battling for fifth. But who cares about fifth, right? Mike and Jim had all the same winners Saturday except for West Virginia, which Jim had alone and allowed him to close the gap with eight big points. Though John is in third, he got only three right on Saturday so that could hurt in the next round. Russ, Jim B. and Mike C. each had four right and Pat closed the gap on Jim B. with six correct, including being one of only three who picked Wisconsin. Ed got only two right, top-seeded Kansas and UCLA. Then again, EVERYONE got those.

On to the points ...

Ah, but what the college basketball gods taketh away from Ed in the brackets, Ed taketh back in the points. It was another banner day for Crois-Sanch. Here are the standings (total first round points + first day of second round):

Ed -- 153 points (93 + 60)

John -- 75 points (63 + 12)

Pat -- 59 points (41 + 18)

Jim B. -- 58 points (58 + 0)

Russ -- 52 points (52 + 0)

Mike C. -- 41 points (41 + 0)

Jim J. -- 9 points (3 + 6)

Mike T. -- 8 points (8 + 0)

Getting back to Ed, all four of his top teams advanced on Saturday, quite an amazing feat if I do say so myself. Now, Ed even has the chance to see Siena and Davidson advance on Sunday, which, if it were to happen, probably would clinch the points title. Just speculation on my part though, but it's rare to have someone with four Sweet 16 teams, let alone six. Ed scored 24 points with Washington State and 20 with Michigan State, and also had UCLA and West Virginia advance. The next-best score Saturday belonged to Pat, who got 18 from Wisconsin's victory over Kansas State. Jim J. remained alive with his only team, Kansas, moving on, and John saw two advance and scored six points apiece with Stanford and Xavier. There were four bagels on Saturday with Mike T., Russ, Jim B. and Mike C. all going scoreless. The big losers were Mike C. dropping both of his top picks, Duke and Pittsburgh. John lost Notre Dame and Purdue, his Nos. 3 and 4 selections. That's all for now. Happy Easter to all!

March Madness Day 2 Highlights

Here are the highlights from Day 2 of the first round. Sorry so late.

Memphis-Texas Arlington
Villanova-Clemson
Indiana-Arkansas
Louisville-Boise State
Siena-Vanderbilt
North Carolina-Mt. St. Mary's
Oklahoma-St. Joseph's
Oregon-Mississippi State
San Diego-Connecticut
Georgetown-UMBC
Texas-Austin Peay
Butler-South Alabama
Western Kentucky-Drake
Tennessee-American
Davidson-Gonzaga
Miami-St. Mary's

2008 March Madness Day 2

Well the good news is the CBSSportsline got its act together so the standings you see on our site, which can be accessed at this link, are now correct and up to date. I will continue to monitor but it appears everything is fine and can be counted upon to be accurate. Day 2 saw plenty of upsets and we see a new leader emerge.

Mike T. -- 132
Jim J. -- 128
John -- 127
Russ -- 121
Jim B. -- 105
Ed -- 97
Pat -- 96
Mike C. -- 89

Ed won the day with 70 total points, which moved him up to sixth overall after his dismal performance on the first day. Ed was the only one of us who had No. 13 seeds Siena and San Diego winning. Mike T., however, took the overall lead from Jim J. by scoring 59 points Friday, the second-highest total of the day. Though Mike T. didn't have Siena or San Diego, he did have No. 12 seeds Villanova and Western Kentucky winning and that's what put him over the top. After an 82-point Day 1, Jim J. showed he was mortal with a 46-point Day 2. Jim's big pick was Davidson, which scored a nice 11 points. John maintained his spot in third with 55 points. John has a perfect East bracket and also had Western Kentucky winning, which actually saved him from dropping down a bit. Russ had another consistent day though he fell from 64 points to 57 on Day 2. Russ also had Villanova winning as well as Arkansas. Russ also was the only one to pick Mississippi State even though the Bulldogs were the higher-seeded team against Oregon. West Coast bias from the rest of us I guess. Jim B. was the only other player to crack 100 points over the first two days as he scored 44 on Day 2. Davidson was a key pick for Jim B. as were Butler and Miami. Only Mike T. had Butler and Miami as well. Pat, who began the day tied for third, dropped to sixth with a group-low 32 points. Pat's strongest bracket is the East, where he has seven of eight teams left. The one solace Pat can take though is that looking up at from eighth place is one Mike C., who recently has not known what this view is like. Mike C. scored 38 points but combined with his 51-point first day left him in last though he did pick Davidson.

On to the points...

Here are the points standings after Day 2 with totals from each day in parenthesis:

Ed -- 93 points (44 + 49)
John -- 63 points (51 + 12)
Jim B. -- 58 points (22 + 36)
Russ -- 52 points (16 + 36)
Pat -- 41 points (18 + 23)
Mike C. -- 41 points (14 + 27)
Mike T. -- 8 points (0 + 8)
Jim J. -- 3 points (3 + 0)

Hmm, where should we start? Maybe we'll go bottom up on this one. It's very rare for one person to be shut out in the first round. But to have two is quite amazing. On Day 1 it was Mike T. who bageled. Day 2 brought another low as Jim J. put up a huge zero and is down to only one team after the first round. I feel for you brotha, but it seems to me we've been in this position with Jim J. before. As he said in email this week about being out of it for the last 10 years or something to that effect. Self-fulfilling prophecy perhaps. Whatever the reason, Jim leaves Day 2 with Kansas as his only hope (not a bad horse to ride). Tullius, though not in quite as dire a position as Jim J., is down to two teams, North Carolina and Tennessee. The big loss Friday was Vanderbilt, his No. 3 pick, bowing out. On the flip side of things, John and Ed are kicking some arse as each has a whopping six teams left. John, who picked last in you remember, has only lost his bottom two teams, American and Winthrop. Ed, who picked first, has only lost Indiana and Mt. St. Mary's. Another with a bevy of teams is Pat, who has five left though he has yet to score the big points yet. Oh, which reminds me, Ed's pick of Siena scored him 39 huge points, high for the day. Three others have four teams left (Russ, Jim B. and Mike C.) Russ's big score was 18 from Arkansas, Jim B., who has his top four left, got 21 points from Butler, and Mike C. got 13 from San Diego and 14 from Miami.

Here are who everyone has left after the first round:

Ed: UCLA, Michigan State, Washington State, West Virginia, Davidson, Siena
Jim J.: Kansas
Pat: Memphis, Wisconsin, Marquette, Mississippi State, Western Kentucky
Mike T.: North Carolina, Tennessee
Mike C.: Duke, Pittsburgh, Miami, San Diego
Russ: Georgetown, UNLV, Oklahoma, Arkansas
Jim B.: Texas, Louisville, Butler, Kansas State
John: Stanford, Xavier, Notre Dame, Purdue, Villanova, Texas A&M

That's all for now. Later.

March Madness Day 2 Thoughts

OK, so here I am finally able to actually write something live off March Madness. Stream of consciousness. Here goes:

• 4:55 p.m. -- It doesn't get any better than seeing San Diego take out those pricks from Connecticut. My power came back on just in time to see the overtime winning shot and the final inbounds pass. Great stuff. I have to hand it to Ed, but he called it as far as UConn being frauds.
• 4:57 p.m. -- Still haven't seen the Western Kentucky buzzer beater but it sounded awesome on the radio.
• 4:59 p.m. -- Siena, another No. 13 seed, is giving Vanderbilt all it can handle. Siena's up 36-22 on with under five minutes left in the half.
• 5:05 p.m. -- Just saw the replay of the Western Kentucky shot on YouTube and that was from the freakin' parking lot. Clutch city baby!
• 5:10 p.m. -- Siena up 12 at the half on Vandy after dude hits a three-pointer near the buzzer. Carolina has put up 60 points on Mt. St. Mary's in the first half. Tar Heels can be really scary sometime, but they don't seem invincible.
• 5:12 p.m. -- Oregon goes into the half up 10 on Mississippi State after little Tajuan Porter nails a three late. Hopefully the Ducks come through to put four Pac-10 teams into the second round, especially after the USC debacle yesterday when the conference took some credibility hits because of the loss to Kansas State.
• 6:19 p.m. -- Sorry, went to eat dinner. In the meantime, Oregon has pissed away its lead, Siena continues to hang on impressively on Vandy and Carolina just put up 113 on Mt. St. Mary's. Yikes!
• 6:28 p.m. -- Siena just put away Vandy ... by 21! Holy shiat! Lemme just say right now, but this has been a HUGE day for Ed. I'll give you the details in the update later.
• 6:34 p.m. -- How did I just KNOW that Oregon would piss away its lead on Mississippi State? This has gotta be one of the most disappointing seasons, especially after the Ducks went to the Elite Eight last season and had most its team back.
• 6:42 p.m. -- Oregon sullies the Pac-10's good name by losing to Mississippi State, but the bigger story is that Pat (who has Miss. St.) lost a double bonus because of the stupidity of the MSU players. Actually, this was a matchup of arguably the two stupidest teams in the nation. So MSU is up 10 with 15 seconds left. UP 10!!! Oregon goes for a three, guy gets fouled, guy makes all three free throws and suddenly a 10-point lead is seven and thus one point short of a double bonus. Oh, the little things.
• 8:01 p.m. -- It's not that I've been slacking off here, it's just that the last four games tonight have been absolutely boring so far.
• 8:18 p.m. -- I must say I get a kick out of watching Arkansas, only to see their center Steven Hill. With his distinctive look, it makes perfect sense that he goes to Arkansas.
• 9:01 p.m. -- This Villanova-Clemson game is going down to the wire. Clemson was winning most of the night but now 'Nova looks to be taking control. I'd actually like to see both teams lose if that were possible.
• 9:02 p.m. -- Meanwhile, Mem-fraud ... err... Memphis is beating Texas Arlington rather unspectacularly but that's no shocker.
• 9:28 p.m. -- Well Round 1 is over. Villanova knocked off Clemson, meaning that of the four games played in Tampa, Fla., today, all were won by No. 12 or No. 13 seeds. That's pretty amazing and would have been worth the price of admission. My next post will detail the brackets and points races so please look for that.

March Madness Day 1 Highlights

Here are links to the highlights of Day 1:
West Virginia-Arizona
Mississippi Valley State-UCLA
Cal State Fullerton-Wisconsin
Notre Dame-George Mason
Texas A&M-Brigham Young
USC-Kansas State
Washington State-Winthrop
Duke-Belmont
Stanford-Cornell
Purdue-Baylor
Marquette-Kentucky
Pittsburgh-Oral Roberts
UNLV-Kent State
Kansas-Portland State
Xavier-Georgia
Michigan State-Temple

2008 March Madness Day 1

The first day of the tournament in the books and you can guess how it went for me from a personal standpoint since I'm not even starting this post until the NEXT day. Yeah, it was that kind of day. Woke up sick and couldn't even muster the energy to watch the early-morning games in their entirety. I had to work later so I needed to be as coherent as possible. Anyway, my whole plan to live-blog went down the drain and now here I am updating things when I really should be in bed. But enough of my troubles. As far as the first day goes, there were no HUGE upsets though Belmont did get extremely close to ousting Duke. Kansas State took out USC but the rest pretty much went to form. Let's take a look at the bracket standings, which you can also access at this link:

Jim J. -- 82
Mike T. -- 73
John -- 72
Pat -- 64
Russ -- 64
Jim B. -- 61
Mike C. -- 51
Ed -- 27

If you're looking at this and thinking, "Hey, that's different from what I see at CBS Sportsline.com," you are absolutely right. There seems to be a glitch in the system there. What's happening is that if you picked Texas A&M to beat BYU, it's giving you the correct amount of picks but the point total is off. It shorted anyone who picked A&M by nine points. Jim J. is still leading, but instead of a three-way tie for second between Mike T., Russ and Pat, Mike T. is alone in second. In fact, John, who CBS shows being in fifth place is actually alone in third. Pat and Russ are tied for fourth. The rest of the standings are the same though Jim B., in fifth, is closer to the leaders than before as is Mike C. Anyway, I've sent an email to CBSSportsline about the problem and we'll see if it gets fixed. In the meantime, please go by the totals on the blog as the official ones until further notice. Should I even mention Ed's six-pick performance? Too bad he wasn't at a horse track or he'd a made a bunch of money with that effort. Another way to look at it is that if we were doing "reverse brackets" then Ed would be in first, so there's that. Just joshin you Ed. We're glad you're back in the fold.

On to the points ...

Just to refresh your memory on how we score points with the teams we picked, here is the scoring system:

• You take the seed of your team if it wins and multiply it by the round. First round is times one, second round times two, third round times four, fourth round times eight, fifth round times 16 and sixth round times 32.
• You then take the total for each round and multiply it by the bonus if there is one. If a team wins by 1 to 7 points, there is no bonus; 8 to 15 points, the bonus is times two; 16 to 30 points, the bonus is times three; over 30 points, the bonus is times four.
• Example: So let's take Washington State. The Cougars are a No. 4 seed and they beat Winthrop in the first round by 31 points. So we first take the seed (4) times the round value (1), which gives us a total of 4. We then take 4 and multiply it by the bonus, which in this case was 4, so we end up with a total of 16.
• Make sense?

Here are the points standings after Day 1:

John -- 51 points
Ed -- 44 points
Jim B. -- 22 points
Pat -- 18 points
Russ -- 16 points
Mike C. -- 14 points
Jim J. -- 3 points
Mike T. -- 0 points

My how quickly things change. John and Ed had perfect days but John especially kicked some serious booty. All five of John's teams in action scored victories, led by Notre Dame, which gave John 15 points and Purdue, which gave him 12. Ed also redeemed his dismal showing in the brackets by going four for four with his teams, led by Washington State's 16 points, West Virginia's 14 and Michigan State's 10 (not to mention Ed still has UCLA, which won its first-round game by 41). The biggest individual scorer of the day belonged to Jim B., who had Kansas State and scored 22 big points when the Wildcats upset USC. In fact, aside from 8-9 seed matchups, Kansas State was the only upset Thursday. Jim B. did lose two of his bottom-feeder teams in Baylor and Fullerton though. Pat scored 18 points with Marquette and Wisconsin, but he lost USC, BYU and MVSU (must be the initials). Russ scored 16 points with UNLV but lost Oral Roberts. But Russ can score big Friday since he has six teams in action. Mike C. barely survived keeping Duke, which came within a eyelash of losing to 15th-seeded Belmont. Bracket leader Jim J. found the going tough in the points, scoring only three with Kansas and losing hunch picks George Mason, Temple and Georgia. And what can we say about Mike T? I guess he proves the notion that picking teams ain't rocket science (but perhaps an incredible simulation). Tules lost all of his teams in action Thursday as, in order, Kentucky, Cornell, Belmont and Arizona all went down. He does have his top three going today so there's still hope. Amazingly, Mike T. also started last season's tournament with zero points on the first day. Well, that's all for now. I feel in the groove now and know tomorrow (today) will be a better day. So at 2:16 a.m. Pacific time, I am signing off.

A Dribbling BOW?

I missed this in Sunday's Lakers-Rockets game when Houston's Rafer Alston made the Lakers' Sasha Vujacic look a bit foolish. But was this dribbling exhibition the equivalent of a BOW without the violence? I almost tend to think it was. Would Alston have done that to Derek Fisher or Kobe? Something tells me he wouldn't have. But put a Euro out there guarding him and suddenly there are no rules of sportsmanship, seemingly. It's OK to make fun of the foreigner, right? As always, if you don't know what a BOW is, search "BOW" on this blog and figure it out.

Today's Random Find On Fark

Nothing really to this photo above. Just a chance to make Duke look stupid. And don't we have to take every opportunity we can to make this happen? I thought so. It's Duke center Brian Zoubek trying to guard North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough but looking rather "uncoordinated" (shall we say) in his effort. Someone posted this photo in this Fark thread critical of how biased ESPN.com is toward the East.

Searching For Cinderella

In case you need help with your brackets, here's a little video about who the best teams are that do not play in major conferences (though who the hell really knows anything about anything when it comes to any of this crap). Just thought I could confuse you a little more.

Everyday Normal Guy Follow-Up

If you remember the Everyday Normal Guy video that was posted here a while back, then you will relate to this one. It's the same guy, Jon Lajoie, doing a follow-up to his rap of before. He posted this one back in January. It's basically the same song with new lyrics though I prefer the first one. Not that this one isn't funny or doesn't have its moments. You decide. By the way, he uses mother-effer way more in this one and also has a bevy or other bad words so be careful where you watch. We certainly had a good time Sunday trying to come up with new lyrics though, didn't we?

Tiger Woods Knows How To Putt

Now I'm not a huge Tiger Woods fan (I think the guy is really bland and always takes the easy way out on potentially controversial subjects when he is in such a position of power to influence the masses.) But that aside, the guy can sure play golf. He was won five tournaments in a row and his latest was clinched on an amazing finish at the Bay Hill Invitational on Sunday. Bay Hill holds a special place for me since I was able to attend one day of the 2002 tournament (which Woods also won) and spend the watching some amazing feats. On this day, Woods made a long putt when it seemed he was destined for a playoff hole or two. There are some really really good reaction shots from different angles on the replays.

2008 March Madness Preview

Hey everyone, here is the first post for March Madness 2008 and I just wanted to put down on paper (or cyberspace) who everyone picked in case you want to follow along. Here are everyone's picks:

Ed: UCLA, Michigan State, Washington State, West Virginia, Indiana, Davidson, Siena, Mount St. Mary's/Coppin State winner.

Jim J.: Kansas, Clemson, Connecticut, George Mason, Temple, Georgia, Boise State, Texas Arlington.

Pat: Memphis, Wisconsin, USC, Marquette, Mississippi State, Brigham Young, Western Kentucky, Mississippi Valley State.

Mike T.: North Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Arizona, Kentucky, St. Mary's, Cornell, Belmont.

Mike C.: Duke, Pittsburgh, Miami, Gonzaga, Oregon, Kent State, San Diego, Portland State.

Russ: Georgetown, Drake, UNLV, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Alabama, Oral Roberts, Austin Peay.

Jim B.: Texas, Louisville, Butler, Kansas State, St. Joseph's, Baylor, Cal State Fullerton, Maryland Baltimore County.

John: Stanford, Xavier, Notre Dame, Purdue, Villanova, Texas A&M, American, Winthrop.

Check back often as I will be providing updates as often as possible and even try to do some live blogging during the early rounds of the tournament in case you're interested.

Hockey Goalies Fight

This was posted on YouTube in December but I sure hadn't seen it before. It's a minor league hockey fight, but what's intriguing is that it's the goalies who square off. Even more intriguing is how excited the announcers become as they actually call for the goalies to go at it. You haven't had this much fun since Monday Night Raw.

Hoffarber Does It Again

You've probably never heard of Blake Hoffarber. He's a nondescript player on the Minnesota men's basketball team, but he will live forever in Golden Gophers lore after what he did Friday. But before we get to that, you might actually remember Hoffarber if you are a fan of amazing plays. That's because as a high schooler in Minnesota, Hoffarber won an ESPY award for the basketball play of the year. Take a look:

On Friday, he didn't exactly win the game from the seat of his pants, but it still was incredible. Very Christian Laettner-esque.

And in case you want to see Christian Laettner, here's his shot:

Clayton Kershaw Dealin'

In case you didn't see the Dodgers-Red Sox game last weekend, you missed quite a performance by pitcher Clayton Kershaw, the crown jewel in the Dodgers' minor league system. If he can pitch like this, it's going to be quite a future for the kid. It takes a lot to excite Vin Scully, but just listen to Vinny's voice after this nasty pitch.

Lessons In Journalism

There's nothing better than live TV. And to go a step further, there's nothing better than a news anchor and reporter doing a live story from the field get into a tiff ... live ... on the air... Stay with this one until the end as the last 30 seconds are the best. Apparently this was a few years ago though I'd never seen it.

Shipp's Amazing Shot For UCLA

OK, UCLA haters, I don't wanna hear it. I'd rather appreciate what was another amazing comeback, this time against Cal on a miracle shot by Josh Shipp. One call does not a game make and I'm certainly subscribing to that philosophy. Here is the highlight clip from ESPN if you want some commentary. I'm actually surprised these hacks didn't whine more about UCLA not deserving to win, etc., like that prick Doug Gottlieb.

So here's the highlights from the UCLA-Stanford game. Now, about that foul call that Collison drew: I will concede that there wasn't a ton of contact, but nonetheless there still was contact. Watch the replay without focusing on the blocked shot. Instead, focus on the mid-sections of each player. You clearly see contact. Remember, the fact that the blocked shot was clean is irrelevent because the foul call was made on the body contact, not the block.

Speaking of Gottlieb, listen how he gets it wrong. Where was the contact? The block was clean? Get a clue Gottlieb.

One-Punch Hockey Fight

This is just a good old-fashioned one-punch hockey fight that I just had to post because this one dude gets clocked pretty good.

BOW Committed On Bargnani

This is the kinda crap I'm so sick of in the NBA. This is an extremely obvious case of a BOW. It couldn't be more clear, yet these douchebag announcers have the audacity to suggest this wasn't intentional. Gimme an effing break. Oh, and by the way, the Miami thug who did this, Alexander Johnson, was suspended for a game.

Patrick Swayze Can Dance

News came out today that actor Patrick Swayze is being treated for pancreatic cancer. Reports vary as to how long Swayze has to live. The National Enquirer says doctors have told the publication that Swayze has only weeks left. Swayze's representatives dispute that report, so we don't know where the truth lies. Anyway, when I think of Swayze I always think of this clip below of him on SNL doing an audition for Chippendales with Chris Farley. Not sure how long this video will stay up considering how protective SNL and NBC are with their copyrighted material.

Benny The Bull On Jerry Springer

If you're not from Chicago or not an NBA fan, you might not know who Benny the Bull is. Well, as you might deduce, he is the mascot for the Chicago Bulls. Here is a clip when Benny went on the Jerry Springer Show (which coincidentally tapes in Chicago) to find out a secret his girlfriend wanted to reveal to him. For some reason, this video made me laugh fairly hard, especially after the secret is revealed and the girlfriend embraces her "secret" as it comes onstage. Watch closely how the "secret" greets her.

A Hit Is Still A Hit

Now when I saw the photo above I must admit I had a very different thought as to what had actually happened. This is from a cricket match and featured a streaker doing his thing only to be upended by a cricket player. At first, I thought the guy took his bat to side of the guy's face, ala Ian Faith to the hotel television set in Spinal Tap. You certainly could argue that based on the first photo. Assuming that to be true, it seemed a bit outrageous. I mean, can you imagine a guy running on the field at Dodger Stadium and Russell Martin giving him a wallop while standing in the batter's box? Me neither. Now Jeff Kent is a different story, but I digress. Anyway, as it turns out, this cricket guy actually gave the streaker a forearm shiver to the face and sent the guy flying. I'm much more OK with that, but it's a good lesson in what you see is not always what you think. This concludes today's lesson class.

UPDATE: And here's video of the incident:

And for those of you who don't get the "Ian Faith" reference above, there's this. "Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand, is quite often useful."

Harrowing Landing In Hamburg

This is a Lufthansa flight trying to land in Hamburg, Germany when wind wreaks havoc and causes a late change of plans. The plan eventually did land safely and no one was injured, but I can't imagine being a passenger. Better pop those Ativan pills, huh Marge?

Michigan Coach Not Happy

Whoever thought women's basketball could stir such passion. But here's the Michigan women's coach going off after a loss and apparently a poor display of rebounding by his team. The beginning is the best. "What else do you wanna know?!?!?!"