Round 1 Day 1 Update - We're Not A Cinderella
"We're Not A Cinderella" was quite the mic drop as Oakland's Jack Gohlke walked off the court from his post game interview, dropping an incredible 32 points, looking like he was 6'3" and light skinned going 10/20 from 3 point range. Maybe they don't consider themselves to be one, but they certainly would be called a Cinderella by the rest of the country if they can keep dancing into the second weekend as they take on NC State after their win over Texas Tech.
On Wednesday at 11 AM, ESPN released an article titled "How 11-seeds have become the new 12s in March Madness." Give Keith Lipscomb a raise for writing the article, because the 11 seeds went 3 for 3 yesterday as Duquesne, NC State, and Oregon all pulled off the upsets, with an amazing 40 point performance by Jermaine Couisnard that is being a bit overshadowed by Oakland's performance over Kentucky. Another way to phrase it - "sucks to be a six seed" - Jonathan Clouser, 3/21/24, 12:53 PM (timestamp to prove before any 6 seed lost, give credit where it is due).
University of Dayton pulled off an incredible 17 point comeback to go up against Arizona, and other top seeds took care of business as we head into day 2 of the first round today.
In our bracket here, Omont was trying to push St. Peter's through like an 11th hour certification request, but Tennessee was not having their names written in infamy as they dominated Jersey City's finest. Theo Frank is as cold as Rutgers scoring this season, so he'll need to heat up like next year's recruiting class in order to make some noise here. Kayla suffered the biggest loss, as she had Kentucky in her championship game... death, taxes, and don't bet on Kentucky in March Kayla! A hot start for Jonahan, Rob, and myself... wow, what a team, who would ever split the 3 of those guys up by leaving LGA... couldn't be me! Joe "I'm So Busy" Van Note should worry less about "how big the pot is" and more about getting some games right if he wants any piece of it. And a shout out to Carly for not losing her champion pick on the first day again this year!
To that point, the split is $250 1st, $50 2nd, $20 3rd (subject to change with ties). An interesting trend, the couples of this group have all the same winners (Rory/Caitie Marquette, Jim/Lelia UConn, Jonathan/Katherine Purdue). Speaking for ourselves, there was zero collusion in the picks so purly some coincidence and Big East Bias (more likely the later).
Lot of great games coming up to close out round 1 today, New Mexico trying to make it 4 for 4 on 11 seeds is a big one to watch (Shout out Katherine with her Lobos), along with Grand Canyon vs St. Mary's (huge Antelope supporter over here, one of the best student sections in the country!). I don't want to call it a game to watch necessarily, but historical trends say to keep an eye on Purdue, even though it should be a blow out at 27.5 point favorites... maybe just keep a halftime alert on to see?
Enjoy the madness this weekend everyone!
PS any errors let me know, all scoring is manual.
Rory F Beglane
Founder of the 85 Expansion Bracket Challenge
Villanova Enthusiast
0 Time Bracket Winner