With half of the Sweet Sixteen having concluded, little has changed at the top of the standings. Extending the lead for the third consecutive summary, the Mark McKeown Bracket, one of many to nail four of four matchups, has widened the lead to four points over Provolone Cheese in the Current Points sort. In the Possible Points sort, the Mark McKeown Bracket has an even more formidable lead with 231 possible points (the next closest being 223 points) and all Elite Eight entries still alive. But the leader, and in fact all but two of the top 13, had to sweat out an overtime game that Texas Tech came close to giving away to Arkansas. Had Arkansas been able to pull off the upset, the standings would be looking very, very different going into the second half of the Sweet Sixteen. Maybe tomorrow will bring us some shakeups and get us out of this rut of favorites advancing. What fun is that?
Oh, wait, we do have some fun – at the other end of the standings, that is. Just when we thought that Pope’s Picks had the Brandy Award wrapped up for a second consecutive year, a new contender has leapt into contention. And in spectacular style, having whiffed on every single Sweet Sixteen game so far is MrMortgage, the only entry that ended up with a goose egg in column number 4 of the Standings page. With just two Elite Eight picks still alive, MrMortgage ranks just behind Pope’s Picks in the Possible Points sort and is making a strong case for hitting rock bottom.
Ah, but in the Current Points sort, we have yet another contender, current last place overall, the entry labeled “No SEC,” which predictably has not a single SEC team advancing to the Sweet Sixteen (this despite the fact that 14 teams and three of the top four ranked teams come from the SEC). A questionable strategy, to say the least, ranking right up there with betting on Seth Davis making an accurate game prediction.
At this point we can only conclude that the race for the Brandy Award is currently much more intriguing than the race among the leaders.