As we close out the first two rounds of March Madness and prepare for next week’s Sweet Sixteen, just one double digit seed, Arkansas, remains in contention. Other than a couple of 6 seeds and a 5 seed, the remaining teams are all 1 through 4 seeds. Dare we say……..boring??????

After the plethora of upsets and surprises that we experienced during the previous two years, we expected a little more…..errr, you know……madness. Shoot, if you had simply picked the higher seeded team to win each matchup, you’d be among those in the lead right now. Hopefully we’ll see some shakeups over the next two rounds to lend a little fun to our little tournament here.

As for current performances, three entries got though Round 2 having picked 14 of the 16 games correctly, one of those being yesterday’s leader, Mark McKeown Bracket, which leads in both the Current Points sort and the Possible Points sort. Four entries got 13 of the 16 games right, and then there’s everybody else.

And also with the conclusion of the first two rounds we see the emergence of the dreaded asterisk. For those unfamiliar with the dreaded asterisk, let us put it this way – your payment is pretty much overdue. Yes, those unfortunate souls who see an asterisk next to their entry have no hope of finishing in the money. Chief among those is current last place entry, Pope’s Picks, winner of last year’s Brandy Award and seemingly a pretty good bet to wrap up another free entry as seven of the bracket’s Elite Eight picks have been eliminated. We have a few other contenders, namely a number of picks that went sideways with just six correct picks in Round 2, but it’s going to be a challenge to move the Pontiff off of the perch.

The first day of Round 2 saw one huge upset (documented below) and a couple of mild ones. Most entries managed to bat .500 or better, but four somehow got it right on seven of the eight games played today. Two of them, Mark McKeown Bracket and Tucker4, now sit tied at the top of the current points standings. An impressive accomplishment, but let’s get through the rest of Round 2 before we start trying to predict any sort of success possibilities. After all, we haven’t even seen any of those pesky asterisks that identify gloom and doom for pool participants – though tomorrow could yield a different story.

Of course we can’t go without recognizing the futility at the other end of the standings. Prominent among those is the stunning accomplishment of RaleighGoodBracket today, the only bracket that somehow selected just one correct pick out of the eight games played. Makes you wonder what RaleighNotSoGoodBracket’s results might be if there was such an entry. Ordinarily such a lack of accuracy would vault a bracket result like this far into the lead for the Brandy Award. But Pope’s Picks, now with six of eight Elite Eight selections already gone, is overshadowing all other terrible entries, selfishly hogging the spotlight. That said, the Pope did manage to get three picks right today. Encouraging, but it’s only warding off the inevitable – the bracket pool version of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

We had to wait until the second round but we finally got our first big bracket buster as the tenth seeded Arkansas Razorbacks ended the tournament hopes of the number two seed, St. John’s. Bad news for our six entries that had St. Johns winning it all, the most notable being our new standard for inept bracket play, Pope’s Picks. Given the frail health of the pontiff these days, this blow has given rise to even more concern among his followers. We’ll hope for the best, but consider this the first major claim on the Brandy Award and possibly the first ever back-to-back finish at the bottom of the rankings.

As for those who were wise enough to stay away from the Big East, the St. Johns pick will likely have only a minimal effect relative to the rest of the competition as a mere nine entries had Arkansas advancing past the second round. Furthermore only two entries picked the first two games of the second round correctly, one of those being our new leader, Moochies. Contrast that with the 56 entries that missed on both of the first two games, which tells us that nothing is even close to being decided yet.

The hopes for a massive double digit upset over a top seed died with the completion of the round of 64. With the exception of number 11 Drake over number 6 Missouri, and a couple of the somewhat predictable 12 over 5 upsets, there were not that many surprises, resulting in a plethora of high scoring brackets grouped together at the top. Tyrone Shoelaces’ picks, with three losses on day two, were rather mundane in comparison to the perfect run of yesterday, but his bracket leads all entries at this point with all but three results having been picked correctly. Behind Tyrone is a six-way tie for second, just one game back, and behind that group is a seven-way tie just one game back of that group. Suffice it to say that there is really no true favorite at all at this point.

The battle for the Brandy Award is almost as closely contended as the battle being waged at the top, with picks being uncommonly accurate, the “worst” record being 18 of 32 winners. The two leaders, sorted by possible points remain unchanged from yesterday, but a new name……….well, let’s say familiar name to be more accurate, has joined the contest. That would be none other than our old friend, Pope’s Picks. If that entry sounds familiar, it was Pope’s Picks that snared last year’s Brandy award.

Pope and Basketball – Bad Pairing?

The Pope has a reputation for favoring the Catholic schools, a strategy that ranks right up there with relying on Charles Barkley for bracket advice. Sadly, the Pope’s hopes suffered a couple of tough blows as three of his Elite Eight picks, one of them also a Final Four pick, failed to make it past the first round, making some question his commitment to, or more importantly, his knowledge of basketball. While some claim that this is proof of God’s disdain for Catholic schools participating in hedonistic events such as the NCAA tournament others are encouraged that schools portraying sainthood have survived and seem poised to forge onward in the tournament. Meanwhile, the only entry that has BYU going all the way, subtley carrying the name of “Polygamy Picks” looks on in amusement.

The hopes for a perfect record, as well as Tyrone Shoelaces’ dreams of riches, have been dashed with two incorrect picks in the early games of Day 2. On the positive side, though, Tyrone still stands atop the “Possible Points” standings and is tied for first with “Show Me The Money” in the “Current Score” standings.

The Brandy Award all time official low score has already been exceeded – and we haven’t even gotten through three quarters of the first round yet.  The worst bracket has successfully picked 13 of 24 games played so far.  A quick check by our official statistician, Numlock Salmon, shows that never before have our participants failed to fail at such a rate.  Somehow that qualifies as a disappointment.

There still hasn’t been much in the way of big upsets other than the somewhat expected “twelve seed beats five seed” result that remains intact through two matchups to date. Let’s hope for a little more excitement in the second half of the Day 2 games.

It is well documented that it is nearly impossible to pick a perfect bracket. The actual odds are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 or 1 in 9.223 quintillion. Reports are that such a feat has never taken place. To be a little more realistic, if the bracket picker has any knowledge of basketball at all, meaning no crazy picks like all of the 16 seeds beating all of the one seeds or all of the Catholic schools winning their way into the Final Four (apologies to the Pope’s Picks entry), the odds are still 120.2 billion to one.

Well, believe it or not, that possibility of a perfect bracket is alive and well in our tournament. Yes, incredibly one entry, that labeled Tyrone Shoelaces, has picked all 16 games correctly at this point. So what are the odds of that taking place? Well, put it this way – if Tyrone had made those picks as a $100 parlay in Las Vegas, he’d each be walking away with a $1.4 million payout, certainly the greatest “Bass’ball Jones” ever. However, he is going to have to be satisfied with the remote possibility of winning something in the neighborhood of $300 at best – which is almost as good, right?

Noteworthy is two entries with records almost as impressive, BigLumber1 and Moochies, each of which has only one miss. OK, this is all fun speculation at this point. Keep in mind that rarely do the early leaders end up competing for the final big bucks, but, hey, with few upsets, there isn’t much material to work with.

Meanwhile, the race at the other end of the bracket is almost as impressive with the worst picks sporting a record of 9 and 7. Eight teams are tied for this “worst record so far,” but two of them have seen one of their Final Four teams fall by the wayside, giving both “Who is Homiak?” and “16 Sunrises” the current inside track on a claim to the Brandy Award. It might also be worth mentioning that the same person has title to both of these entries.

At the halfway point of Day 1…..well, what we consider to be the real Day 1 at least, only three of our 118 entries remain perfect with 8 and 0 records. One of those (Luv Me Some Bulldogs) appears to have implemented a strategy based solely on teams with a Bulldog as their mascot – of which there are six in this year’s tournament. Quite a brilliant approach we must admit, especially when there could be no wrong pick when the Gonzaga Bulldogs took on the Georgia Bulldogs. We’ll see how this plays out when Yale Bulldogs, Drake Bulldogs and and Mississippi State Bulldogs hit the hardwood later in the tournament.

Shockingly, the worst picks continue to maintain a record no less than .500 – and there are only ten teams sporting such a record. It could be an all-time high score for the Brandy Award winner!

*Day 1  being when token pity entries, e.g., North Carolina have worked their way in after “play-in” games.

With the first four games complete, 37 entries are sporting perfect brackets. With virtually no upsets (some would argue that number 9 Creighton beating number 8 Louisville was rather expected) such a success rate in not a huge surprise. What is a surprise is that even the worst records so far are batting .500. Yes, no team has any less than two incorrect picks. It may be early, but such a trend speaks well for the Brandy award’s total of 30 likely remaining safe. As we write this, though, Auburn has its hands full with Alabama State. Should the overall number one team go down in the opening game, not only would Charles Barkley likely commit suicide live on camera, but it would throw our brackets into disarray matched only by that of astronaut Suni Williams’ hair after 9 months in space.

Reminder: For up to the minute reports on bracket/tournament status simply click on the “Status Reports” link above and click on various reports to your heart’s content. Or just stick with the main page here where we’ll keep you updated with our legendary analysis and commentary.

Congratulations! All pool participants are currently in first place. Savor the feeling, and good luck!

And pool master Ron is away from his keyboard, breathing deeply as the Boilermakers are in the championship game.  Best of luck, Ron, on recovering from your post-final four celebrations.

For those of us focussed on more important issues, such as the standings in our pool, we dive deep (shallow) into the final four report to see that if UConn defeats Purdue, Ron will be sad, but “WheresNova” will not only have their answer (Ummmm – who cares?), but a victory in the pool.

On the other hand, if Purdue defeats UConn, both Ron and “MF2” will be ecstatic.  Which seemed unlikely when NC State defeated Duke in the great 8.

In an example of excellent hedging strategy, Shizcity is in position to finish in 2nd or 3rd place dependent on the outcome, favoring UConn to finish in 2nd instead of 3rd should Purdue win.

Congratulations, once again to Tom for his steadfast lock on the Brandy award as previously reported.

There are four teams remaining from the original field of 68 and in a bit of a coincidence there are four entries remaining from our original field of 125. Well, for first place, anyway. Incredibly, three entries correctly picked three of the four finalists, WeresNova, MF2 and Shooters Schrute. Each of them has a chance to grab the title for this year, along with that pesky RaleighGoodBracket, who refuses to go away despite seeing Duke fall earlier in the round.

A mere eight other entries remain alive, most with hopes of no better than 4th or 5th, but alive nonetheless. Congrats to those who had the foresight to pick some of those surprise winners and ride to the top of the standings.

With the Final Four upon us (and there will be some personal game representation among your administrators here) there are several reports available that lay out the chances and different scenarios that might occur next weekend. The Possibilities Report shows that RaleighGoodBracket has a 50% chance of taking the title and a 75% chance of finishing in the money. However that requires Alabama to get to the final game and also involves some variation of NC State getting to the final, so take that percentage with a grain of salt. All of the scenarios are laid out in the Final Four report, so for those in the running, check that out and say your prayers.

And We have a “Winner”

With the first two games of the Elite Eight having been decided two entries have leaped to the top of the standings. Dunkenstein Senior and MF2 are the only contending entries that picked both Connecticut and Alabama to advance to the Final Four. RaleighGoodBracket tumbled out of the lead for the first time since Charles Barkley made a correct pick, but remains in contention in third place in present points and fourth place in possible points. MF2 is in second place in both present and possible points, but current leader, Dunkenstein Senior tumbles to 11th place in possible points by virtue of having only two Final Four picks still alive. Yeah, it’s a head scratcher. The leader in possible points is WheresNova, who has much invested in tomorrow’s NC State-Duke game, because this is the lone entry that has NC State making the Final Four. Tomorrow will provide much more clarity – we hope.

One thing is clear presently though, and that is fact that the winner of the Brandy Award is a certainty. In a huge blow to Catholicism, the Pope’s Picks has wrapped up last place with a score of 59 points. It’s a particularly cruel blow given the holiday weekend, so if the Easter Bunny seems a bit more forlorn than usual, you know why. Evidently the Easter Bunny is a very big fan of the Pope.

But wait, it gets even more interesting, because the “winner” is once again, Tom Roche. Actually it’s more than once again – in fact it’s the fourth time that Tom has secured the title awarded for “horrendously bad guessing,” breaking his own record of three times, established just two years ago. With this kind of dominance it could be high time to bar Tom from the competition as that is $20 that he has now saved – or one whole hour’s worth of labor at Del Taco (starting on Monday, that is).

If you’re wondering if anyone picked NC State to get this far, the answer is Yes! In fact four entries had them making the Elite Eight, two of those have them in the Final Four and one even has them making the Championship game! Who would be crazy enough to predict that?!? Well, an entry that we are all familiar with now, XXGoodBrackets. OK, not all three of the GoodBracket entries are still alive, but two of them are still in the running and reclaiming the overall lead in both Points Scored and Possible Points is RaleighGoodBracket, one of only eight entries to correctly pick five of the eight games played in the Sweet Sixteen round.

With the Elite Eight yet to be played a mere 33 entries are still alive, and of those only 15 have a chance to take the overall number one spot. Of the college teams still alive, six of our entries have Connecticut winning it all, two have Tennessee, two have Duke, one has Illinois, and just one has Purdue taking it.

At the other end of the standings, Maluri2024 went a stunning zilch in the Sweet Sixteen, but somehow has several contenders that can do even worse in the race for the Brandy Award. Jumping headlong into the race is Pope’s Picks, which seems rather ironic with this being Good Friday and heading into the Easter Weekend. The Pope’s Jesuit choice to win it all, Marquette, went down like attendance at Benedict’s kiddie festival, falling to NC State, leaving the entry with only one hope, the elimination of Connecticut in their Saturday game. Should that happen, our old friend, Nathan Detroit, is looking like a favorite to wrap up a free entry next year.

Now that’s more like it! With the first half of the Sweet Sixteen complete we saw a one seed and a pair of two seeds go down. And with that a big shakeup in the standings. Making a huge move into consideration is The Real Gusto, the one and only entry to pick all four outcomes correctly. Also making a strong showing were two entries, the only two, in fact, that picked three winners, Pad Rat and Dunkenstein Senior. The loss by North Carolina threw a huge wrench into the works for everyone, namely the XXGoodBrackets picks that have been leading the way. Actually in the current standings, the XXGoodBrackets still lead overall, such was the strength of the early picks, but Carolina was prominent in all of the brackets, such that two of the entries tumbled to 72nd and 73rd place in the Possible Score sort and the best bracket sits in a tie for seventh place.

Every entry has seen at least one pick fall from the Elite Eight, so there’s no need to fret if you’ve seen a big X in one or more of your picks. On the other hand, if you’ve seen seven of your Elite Eight picks fall by the wayside, as maluri2024 has, then you definitely have cause for concern. Maluri was one of nine entries that got blanked on Thursday, seven of which saw their names sporting that pesky asterisk. But the greater concern is that Nathan Detroit now has some serious competition in the race for the Brandy Award.

Of the original 125 entries, 90 are still alive, the majority still with a chance to claim the overall title. Tomorrow should provide some clarity, and if we have the same number of upsets (and some of us are really hoping that’s not going to be the case in certain instances) then things are really going to get crazy.

With the Second Round complete it’s what we at headquarters consider severe disappointment. Why is that? Well, the tournament is at its most fun when upsets are prominent and brackets are completely blown up. However of the 16 teams moving on, all but two of them are 4 seeds or higher. Not that some of the games weren’t exciting – Houston made it more exciting than needed (for their sake – and that of 13 entries that have them winning it all). And Marquette made a few people uncomfortable before taking the W. The lone Sunday upset was Clemson toppling Baylor, but even that game had a minimal impact on our brackets. 95 entries had Baylor moving on, but nobody had them winning overall and only one entry had the Bears advancing to the Championship game.

The standings are virtually unchanged with the Research Triangle picks, i. e. the three XXGoodBracket picks, leading the day, as they did yesterday. Two of the entries missed on just one game for Round Two, missing on only the Clemson win.

Even the Brandy Award standings are virtually unchanged as Nathan Detroit still leads the way with both current and possible points, but at least Nathan went .500 for the Second Round. That’s two games better than Zoe and Natester, who both got only six of sixteen games right, but Nathan’s lead is so strong that Zoe and Natester’s horrible performance barely made a dent in the bid for the Brandy Award.

With the end of Round Two, sadly we are beginning to see the appearance of the dreaded asterisk. Nine entries finish the first weekend of play with that nasty little indication that the competition is over for them. Also making its appearance is the Best Finish column. Though most entries still have a chance of finishing in first place, several can do no better than second, some third, and even a few have entries so hopeless at this point that their best possible finish is 4th. On the bright side, with the large number of entries this year, even 4th place might pay enough to at least cover the cost of entering.

Regarding that cost of entering notion, we’ll be reaching out to you over the next few days with instructions and requests to pay up. For any questions, please note that you can contact us at our common email address, hoopsmaster@eqemarchmadness.com

The Research Triangle knows something that the rest of us do not. How else do you explain the dominance shown by the three entries ending in GoodBracket?? As if placing three entries at the top of the standings weren’t enough, our resident sage also had the only perfect day, going 8 for 8 on two entries, and 7 for 8 on the third entry. Firmly planted atop the standings, whether you go by present points or possible score, it’s XXGoodBracket leading the way. It appears that the rest of us are hoping to save some face with a 4th place finish at best.

At the other end of the standings, Nathan Detroit made a solid move to cement the worst showing of this season, batting .500 on a day when virtually all of the favorites won. Notable, however is a pair of new contenders jumping into the fray, each of whom hit on only two games today, Zoe and Patrick. The latter has only three Elite Eight picks still alive, but somehow still has a claim on the Finals with both teams still alive.