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: