Holy cow, what a first round! 13 of the 32 lower seeded teams came out on top including a 13, a 14, and a 15, all on the same day – the first time that’s ever happened! And can you believe that our current first place entry, TKC2, picked 27 of the first 32 correctly? Don’t be surprised – that’s a former Hoops Madness champion. But now that we have those very high profile red/slashed marks in the Standings Reports, you’ll note that two of his Elite Eight picks have been knocked out, and that’s more than 23 other entries that still have seven entries alive. Perhaps most promising are the six entries whose Elite Eights are all still alive.

The DD3 entry has a very firm grasp on last place now that six of his final eight choices have been eliminated. The best possible score for DD3 is 79, despite having accurately selected 13 of the first round winners. Ominously DD3 is solidly in last in both the Current and Possible Points sorts.

On a positive note, the dreaded asterisks have yet to make an appearance on anyone’s entry, so it’s fair to say that it’s still anyone’s contest to win! Yes, even those who had Cal and Michigan State matching up in the Championship Game. Don’t break out your piccolos and tears just yet.

So you’re checking the standings and now you see teams marked in red in strike-through font. Yes, this is a new feature that provides a visual indication of just how many picks you screwed up. You may also take heart by realizing that many others also have many red marks among their selections, especially the entry labeled “Pac 12,” whose four total “red” teams demonstrates just how ill-advised it was to pick Pac 12 teams among the finalists. In general, more red marks to the left mean you’re probably not going to do too well. BUT!!!! With the huge number of upsets that seem to be occurring, that’s not in any way an absolute.

Another handy change is the fact that the Current Standings report and the Possible Points Standings report are now combined into one report. A handy little drop-down box allows you to toggle back and forth between the “sorted by score” option and the “sorted by possible score” option. Very revealing for entries like “Risky Business” who stands solidly on top in the “sorted by score” display yet is far down the list in the “sorted by possible points” display. Then again all of those red marks, primarily the one on the far left, might have foretold that discrepancy.

Finally don’t forget the Dynamic Report option that allows you to pretend that Stephen F Austin beats West Vir….ooops, bad example. With this report you can input any scenario and see how it might affect your entry and standings. Pretty cool, especially when you’re trying to justify to the family CFO how your entry might blossom into an untold fortune! You can access that report by clicking on the “Review or Print Entry” option on the banner menu then choosing View Reports.

The standings have shifted dramatically due to the plethora of upsets that have occurred today. And now the differences between the rankings by Current Points and Possible Points are significant. For instance under Current Points Risky Business stands alone in first place with 19 of 24 picks being correct. Unfortunately in the Possible Points sort, Risky Business stands alone in 87th place, ironically two places below Upset Central. Even the upset pickers can’t pick the upsets!

However, two DWG entries, DWG1 and DWG4, dominate the standings on both sorts! In fact by Current Points DWG entries constitute another three picks tied at ninth! It’s good to be a DWG…..right now.

In the race for the Brandy Award the competition is even fiercer. We have a new strong contender, yanncancook, whose two finalists, Michigan State and Baylor both got bounced in their first games. Former contender DD3 has jumped all the way to 95th place, but coming on strong is DD2 holding down position number 129. It’s not good to be a DD….right now.

With Michigan State going down to 15th seeded Middle Tennessee, every entry, yes EVERY entry in the Hoops Madness Tournament, got the pick wrong. With 119 entries predicting MSU going to at least the Elite 8, including 32 having Sparty going all the way to the title, bracket selectors throughout the Hoops Madness tournament resemble last year’s Villanova crying piccolo girl.

With lower seeded teams taking seven of the sixteen contests yesterday it should be no surprise that the entry labeled Risky Business is among the top entries. A look at the picks shows some bold choices indeed, but that’s what you have to do to stand out in the race for Hoops Madness glory. Along with TKC2 and Fensterrapin, only one incorrect pick exists among the leaders. Close on the heels are 16 more entries that got 14 of the 16 games right.

We are now able to provide you with the rankings by Possible Points in addition to the leaders by Current Points. This is unfortunate news for four of the bottom ranked entries that had Purdue either going all the way or in the finals. This also means that there is a temporary reprieve for leading Brandy Award contender, DD3, who staged a huge comeback in the late games, having now picked seven total games correctly. Also noteworthy is 130th ranked zona zoo, who predicted a now departed U of A win plus a tiebreaker final tally of 15 points. In the Dean Smith days of the four corners offense this might have been possible, but today it would make for a very unpopular Championship game.

The highlight of the day, at least to viewers who frequent Twitter and to courtside announcers, was the abuse sustained by Arizona coach Sean Miller’s shirt. The nattily attired coach quickly became quite unnatty by thoroughly soaking through his shirt, leading many to compare his endocrine system to that of Airplane pilot Ted Striker. Admittedly it is Spring Break for many right now, but Sean would do well to refrain from the wet t-shirt contest participation until after…..oh, that’s right, he is in fact free to participate in such frivolities.

3 teams are tied for first place having made only one incorrect pick, each making an incorrect pick on a different game (TKC2 having picked Baylor, Fensterrapin Arizona, and Risky Business picking USC). A pretty impressive start to the pool. But a long way to go – for some reason it’s rare to see one entry run the table end to end. At either end of the spectrum. But even DD3 has a potential score of 202, so the first day’s tally of 7/16 still isn’t enough to put the Brandy Award on the mantel. Yet.

Although we are accustomed to prattling on about the “Status by Possible score” at this point in the tournament, this report is no longer pre-packaged by our hoopness friends. It IS possible to pull it up using the Dynamic Status Report which offers many other fun opportunities for those of you home … “sick”. You can put in results that didn’t happen (say, for example, that you’ve had “Tribute” ricocheting between your ears but you missed the last few minutes of the game and wanted to live, at least for an instant, in a world where USC made a freethrow or two at the end of the game. Fear no longer – go ahead and Enter that victory (and make Risky Business’s day perfect, even if only for pretend). All results will be updated in your little fantasy world. You can also enter game outcomes before they’re official…

Using this tool to look at the status report isn’t too informative at this point – with relatively few entries having picked Purdue (78 – this one hurt the most entries), Baylor (42), or Seton Hall (19) to go beyond the second round the carnage caused by their losses is limited. However, in terms of potential scores there are the top three tied for first, and then only 6 more teams tied for 4th (as opposed to 15 teams having picked 14 or 15 game outcomes correctly so far). Don’t fail to check out the dynamic status report – it’s fascinating.

With one quarter of the first round’s games complete underdogs are at .500. And our leading teams number three who sport a perfect record at this point. The highly reliable 12 beats 5 struck again, dashing the hopes of three of our entrants who had the Boilermakers going all the way, and maintaining a perfect batting average for 12th seeded teams.

Meanwhile, perennial Brandy Award contender, Dave Ditlevsen, is strongly in contention to grab yet another free entry, having picked only two of the first eight games correctly. Adding credence to his first place standing is the fact that he has Purdue in the Final Four. Can anyone else step up and pick as badly as the DD3 entry?

The always reliable 12-beats-5 seed has struck and a mere 17 of our entries picked it – Yale over Baylor! Incredibly six of our entries remain undefeated. One of those should not surprise you, former Champion “ratherbeknitting.” Apparently knitting and basketball skills are closely related. Not to be outdone, another former Champion, Utter Kaos, sits among the elite six. With six games complete, lower seeded teams have won half of their contests. Are you lamenting your choosing to click the “Start with Higher Seeded Teams” button?”

After two games it’s an 80-way tie for first place! OK, it’s early, but that’s a promising start. Only two entries have all goose eggs so far. Competition for the Brandy Award looks to be a true free-for-all!

More importantly, we stumbled onto what may be today’s greatest find, the lyrics to the CBS Madness Song, so named because the frequency of its performance will induce madness to any devoted viewer. Regardless, we think you’ll enjoy finally figuring out (and identifying with) the meaningful words that accompany this horrific tune.

Sing it with us now! #MarchMadness #2PointLead pic.twitter.com/JlvxnmJgJU

— 2 Point Lead (@2PointLead) March 17, 2016

Enjoy the new Reports. For many of you, this may be the only time you’re in the Number 1 position! Enjoy it while it lasts!

(There are 133 entries.)

The pool closes at first tipoff.  Pool HQ has a difficult time reading clocks and managing time zones – it’s up to you to beat tip-off  with any last minute entries!!  Best of luck, and for those of you staying home to recover from a mid-March illness, get better soon (by Monday, perhaps).

As if you needed a reminder, real games begin tomorrow while many of us who chose NOT to feign illness earlier this week will be at work.  Expect slower internet performance while your back is to the millstone, but fear not we (may) be rapidly providing you with updates.  Assuming that our internet performance at work isn’t suffering.

Don’t forget that our recently dormant Twitter feed, @Hoops_Madness has been resurrected and is sure to provide you with all you need to enhance your March Madness experience. Entertaining and useful tweets will be passed along, one for instance that provides you with eight hacks that will enable you to follow March Madness while pretending to work!

The Eagles and the Shockers are now officially part of the 64 team bracket that WE care about. If you were rooting for Farleigh Dickinson or Vanderbilt you are now freed from the burden of having to pick them to win what would have been their first round match up. Tomorrow? Holy Cross vs. Southern and Michigan vs. Tulsa. That second match up sounds like it could have been a sweet sixteen match up sometime in the last decade. How the mighty have fallen. But lets leave Pitino out of this. And Sharapova. But I digress.

We are up to 53 entries and counting. I expect a huge surge of entries from Shocker Backers. Remember – the odds here are FAR better than Powerball. And we don’t waste any money supporting education!!

With significant action starting on March 17th, we’re already at 23 entries.

As an aside, if you were to be sick enough to miss work on Thursday you might just start exhibiting initial symptoms today / tomorrow. There are plenty of bad colds circulating. Take care of yourself, drink lots of fluids, rest up…

…A Recap of 2015: