First off, I would like to congratulate each of you for being apart of this record breaking experience. Last year, the ABC entered a new realm with 26 people having their shot at the one we refer to as Cro. This year, we’ve peaked at 28 official entries. While President Obama may have submitted his bracket, it is considered unofficial as his entry fee was waived. If Obama were to take the prize, he has personally assured all of us a visit to the White House. All of us except Cro that is. As a sports fan, Obama knows what it means to defeat someone like Cro.
I am writing this blog on the road for the first weekend of the NCAAs. And by road I mean the Super 8 in Newark, DE. It marks the first time the ABC has taken the journalistic approach away from home. Our team of statisticians and writers were supposed to embark on a journey to Miami for some games and South Beach, but unfortunately our request for a press pass was denied. Apparently you have to be associated to an actual news service to get one of those. The ABC will be recognized by the national media soon enough, of this I’m sure.
Today brought a few intriguing story lines to the presses. The first round of games saw Memphis struggle to take care of business against the Matadors of CS – Northridge. That was definitely not the performance I would be looking for if I were Cro or Uncle Kermit. Of the 28 entries, Cro and Uncle Kermit are the only 2 entries with Memphis winning it all. It also brought a Villanova comeback against the American Eagles (no lie, it’s their actual name). Nova was down 10 at the break, but took over in the 2nd half to win by 13. UCLA also hung on to knock off Colonial Athletic Association winner VCU by 1. I personally hate rooting against CAA teams as they provided us with the Final Four run by George Mason. University of Delaware is also a member of the CAA. Maybe one day UD will actually find 5 guys that can ball together. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I miss the days of Mike Brey.
I know it’s early to be calling people out, but I have a beef with a particular entrant this year. He is a first timer, and may have over-stepped his boundaries without realizing. For those of you who are unaware, I attend trivia at Matilda’s almost religiously every Thursday. One of my trivia teammates is Mike Y. The following question was posed:
“Matches were formed after the discovery that rubbing these two elements together will ignite a flame”.
Naturally, I said sulfur and oxygen. Most people know that a flame needs oxygen to continue burning. I learned this from Bear Grylls on Discovery’s Man vs. Wild. TV doesn’t lie. And he kills stuff with his bare hands. Made perfect sense to me at the time. Anyway, Mike disagreed in such a manner that embarrassed me. He began to wag his finger claiming that a match wouldn’t catch fire if he started flapping it in the air. Was he right? Of course he was. However, Mike has Duke winning the title. I can see a match igniting in thin air more than I can see Duke winning the championship. And the Earth’s atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen. So suck it Mike Y. By the way, the answer was Phosphorous and Sulfur.
Also, I would like to commend Jenna and Dosh for sharing the lead with Cro. Both Jenna and Dosh had a perfect bracket through 8 games, but Illinois and Clemson did them in respectively. Cro tried talking smack, but I’ve written it off as drunken ramblings as he is currently snoring. It took him all of two seconds to fall asleep after hitting the sheets an hour ago. Poor kid can’t hold his booze.
I do not have paper copies of all the brackets at this point, but there was only a couple notable nidges after Thursday. The following people lost Sweet 16 teams:
Brandon Gravett – Clemson
EEB and Boy Pierce – Miss State
Sports Illustrated – VCU and Clemson
The Dennis – Illinois, but did save Clemson. He had them beating OU, but crossed them out.
Nico – Illinois
Again, thanks to everyone for participating. I’m going to hit the sheets as I have a long day of NCAAs ahead of me tomorrow. Keep checking the blog for updates. Here are the standings through Thursday March 19th:
Dosh Whye 15
Jenna Lawall 15
CRO 15
Adam Tatz 14
Big Mike 14
Chris Fusco 14
Mike Lambros 14
Uncle Kermit 14
Matt Atallian 14
Michelle Folkerts 13
Nico T 13
Phil Imbesi 13
Shaun Askin 13
The Dennis 13
Tony K 13
Boy Pierce 13
Chris Woody 13
Justin Romano 13
Tom Moffa 13
Brandon Gravett 13
Jake Hoffman 13
Little Kermit 12
Mike Smith 12
Mike Y 12
Pat Shields 12
Sports Illustrated 12
EEB 12
Fritz Ablao 12
President Obama 11
Drew Smith 10
Catch you tomorrow,
Matt.
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