Day One certainly featured its share of surprises. However, the second half of the Thursday games did not quite live up to the shock and awe that the first games demonstrated. Although Houston and Tennessee had their fans – and those who picked them in the pool – a bit concerned, each came through in the end and except for Penn State’s not-all-that-shocking win over Texas A & M, all of the higher seeded second half teams won.
At present, as scored by Current Points, three entries, Big Lumber1, Sound Garden, and dfs, lead the way with 28 points, meaning these three missed on only two contests. Ah, but therein lies the fallacy of looking only at the Current Points sort, because when sorting by Possible Score, dfs tumbles down to a tie for 75th in the standings, and Sound Garden drops into a tie for 12th place, but significantly, ol’ Big Lumber1 still claims the number one spot. Before you start resigning yourself to Big Lumber1 taking it all, though, check out those Elite Eight picks, including Miami playing in the Championship and Creighton being part of the Final Four, and you might have a little more faith in your overall picks. Of course we’re not saying those are unlikely picks…….well, OK, yes we really are saying that.
Between the surprises and the not so surprising results, even the worst guesses hit at a 50% success rate, while other than the top eight spots, nobody is picking any better than a 75% win rate. All of which suggests that it is truly anyone’s pool to take at this point. Things will become a bit more clear tomorrow where we look forward to more upsets……
more Barkley………
and more Cheeto’s…..
