Hello and welcome back to another rousing rendition of the Anyone But Cro Invitational. Apologies for the delay in getting standings and a recap posted. Just when you think you have all your ducks in a row, one of your own wakes up with double pink eye and throws each of every one of those ducks right out of the pond!
The old saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, to the left, you'll see my weekend summed up about as close to perfection as one could get. What can we deduce from this picture?
Among the obvious are location, date, and time. You'll see that the Board of Directors again descended upon the lost city of Atlantic. Perhaps lured by a complimentary night's sleep, we were promised scores of corn syrup free beer giraffes, the region's finest selection of fried foods, and of course the riches of now legal sports betting. While we certainly enjoyed our fair share of swill and fried delicacies, we assumed that Borgata would be eager to take our sports betting money. That we'd arrive in town and there would be a betting window with nary a customer. The taker would greet us with a smile, we thought. Sure, we'd give her some money know, but after 2 hours of a wire-to-wire win, we'd return back to the window to reap our rewards. What actually happened was quite a bit different.
Upon arrival, we were greeted with long lines at both check-in and the sportsbook. The line was so bad, the thought of getting in a bet for the Louisville Minnesota game in 30 minutes seemed an impossible task. We all had $20 we wanted to place on Louisville to win. The line ended up being a good thing as Louisville never really had a chance. A quick glace at ESPN's Game Flow graph reveals an 18-17 Minnesota lead with 27 of 40 minutes still left to play would be too much for Louisville to overcome. Under normal circumstances, this should have been a warning sign. Alas, it was not.
A quick re-location to the Tropicana is what the cards would reveal next. The William Hill sportsbook there was infinitely better than the Borgata's converted racebook. Massive flat screen TVs on every wall. Couches and tables positioned to watch all the action without so much as moving on muscle. The betting line here flowed like a waterfall. This is where we needed to be. Having missed the first tip-off, there was still time to bet on the day's second game, LSU and Yale. All afternoon Cro had been chirping about Yale and how he had them winning in his bracket. He promptly tossed a crisp Ulysses on the counter. '$50 on Yale to win, please'. This was a bit of an eye-brow raiser! Yale was a seven point dog! No matter, he wanted to hit the first pitch he saw clean outta the park. Go ahead. Go look at the ESPN Game Flow graph for that one. You will not be surprised to learn that Yale led for exactly 0 minutes and 0 seconds of that contest. In fact, they were down 9-0 before we even got settled at our Chickie and Pete's reservation (to which we were 45 minutes late). You will also not be surprised to learn that Yale came close enough back to cover that 7 point spread.
The moral of the story here is this. That even though this betting ticket shows a substantial amount of money lost and decided by the slimmest of margins, it's not always about the outcome. It doesn't tell the whole story of how the result was achieved and the good times you had along the way. It also doesn't tell you that even though there were plenty of ups and downs throughout the day, you were richer for the experience, even if your wallet was a little thinner than when you arrived.
Anyway ... lets talk about the games! And some standings!
Day 1 didn't have too many surprises as far as upsets go. I don't really consider a 9 beating and 8 or a 10 beating a 7 an upset. Often times, those are just mid-tier, major conference teams who got in for going 9-7 in their conference play. One of those 9 wins happens to be against a really good time. And their overall record of 23-10 looks inflated because they played a weak non-conference schedule. Case in point - Syracuse.
The Cuse would finish the year 20-14, going 10-6 in ACC play. They beat Duke in the Carrier Dome by 4. They beat Duke! 20 wins! They must be a tournament worthy team! A closer look at the non-conference schedule shows the beat up on Morehead State, Colgate, Cornell, Eastern Washington and Arkansas State. Would you consider a prompt 9 point loss to 9 seed Baylor an upset? Not likely.
Day 2 brought a little bit more chaos. 4 teams seeded 11 or higher and 8 higher seeded teams overall would find wins that day.
The most surprising thing to me about the first round was probably the performance of the 12 seeds. 3 of the 4 won outright, with the 4th losing by a single point. 12 over 5 is always a popular pick. But it's been a very long time since we've seen that many win in a single tournament.
Days 3 and 4 things started to settle down. There's the well publicized escape for Duke against UCF. But for the most part, the Sweet 16 came down to all chalk.
East: 1-2-3-4
West: 1-2-3-4
South: 1-2-3-12
Midwest: 1-2-3-5
Only 2 teams seeded outside of the top 16 were able to crack they're way into the second weekend. For anyone that's been participating in this tournament for any number of years, this usually means two things. A chalk bracket plays right into the hands of Chris Fusco and leaves Cro to bury his head in his.
Without futher ado, your current standings through the opening weekend are as follows:
| Name |
First Round |
Second Round |
Total |
| Chris Fusco |
25 |
30 |
55 |
| Deege Larrimore |
24 |
30 |
54 |
| Chris Woody |
23 |
30 |
53 |
| David Weissman |
24 |
26 |
50 |
| Uncle Kenny |
22 |
28 |
50 |
| EEB |
22 |
28 |
50 |
| Nico |
23 |
26 |
49 |
| UJ |
23 |
26 |
49 |
| Cutter |
23 |
26 |
49 |
| Carter Fusco |
21 |
28 |
49 |
| Shelby |
21 |
28 |
49 |
| Rebecca |
22 |
26 |
48 |
| Meech |
25 |
22 |
47 |
| Vince Cortese |
24 |
22 |
46 |
| BG |
23 |
22 |
45 |
| Rachael |
23 |
22 |
45 |
| Cro |
22 |
22 |
44 |
| Jenna Fusco |
22 |
22 |
44 |
| Pat Shields |
20 |
24 |
44 |
| Boy Pierce |
22 |
20 |
42 |
| KC Bomber |
19 |
22 |
41 |
| Tom Moffa |
22 |
18 |
40 |
| D Weeze |
20 |
20 |
40 |
| Claire Brooking |
17 |
22 |
39 |
| Darryl |
20 |
18 |
38 |
| Lobitz |
21 |
14 |
35 |
| Cate Brooking |
21 |
10 |
31 |
I would be remiss without mentioning Fusco, Deege, and Woody had a tremendous second round, securing 15 of the possible 16 teams. Had they worked for Berkshire Hathaway, they would be in total shambles over missing the $1,000,000 a year payout by a single team.
Keep in mind the point increments bump up to 5 and 10 for this weekend's games. A Duke loss would really throw a wrench into things. Only 5 of our 27 brackets do not have them in the Final Four.
I should also mention that should any of a Purdue win over Tennessee, UNC win over Auburn, or a Gonzaga loss to anyone this weekend will see Cro eliminated for a 16th consecutive year.
Happy Bracket Busting,
Matt
