The Near-Perfect Three-Day Forecast

Well, we are three days into the NCAA Tournament and the second annual Six Degrees of MVNUSID bracket contest is pleased to have one of the nation's best amongst its ranks.

Josh Poland, a meteorologist from WBNS 10TV in Columbus, has just flat out rocked his picks so far. He went a blazing 29-for-32 in the first round with his only misses being Temple and UCLA (where he picked upsets to happen) and Virginia Commonwealth (which ended the perfect bracket chances for even the final two contestants in the overall ESPN contest as they went 31-for-32).

Then, on the third day of the tournament, Josh continued his hot streak by going 7-for-8 to improve to 26-for-40 overall. His one miss on day three may prove costly, though, as Butler's upset of No. 1 seed Pittsburgh cost him not only that game, but one of his Final Four teams. However, Josh has done so well that he entered the fourth day of action ranked 31st out of the more than five million people who entered brackets on ESPN.com.

However, as you can see by Josh's bracket (below), he's still got plenty of good picks left. His total of 430 points is 60 points higher than first-day leader Jake Wood and my running buddy Chad Sims, who both currently check in with 370 points. Four more people are right behind them with 360 points. I also need to give a belated shoutout to Columbus Dispatch sportswriter Rob Oller (27-for-32) and Davenport University sports information director Aaron Sagraves (26-for-32), who were second and third respectively after the end of the first two days of the contest.


Through three days of action and thanks to some upsets, two people (Kristin Adams with Georgetown and Patrick Neville with Pittsburgh) have already lost their predicted champion. I'm sure that several others will be joining that list soon as the journey to the Final Four continues on Sunday.

Well, it's time to sit back and enjoy some more games. What have been your favorite moments so far? And what are your thoughts of having all the games available on CBS, TNT, TBS, and TruTV?

As for Josh, who tweeted "The forecast calls for scattered tears from everyone whose butt I whoop!" prior to the contest, he did not want to take anything for granted when I asked him what his winning restaurant would be. Instead, he took the more Coach Thad Matta-like approach of "Don't want to think that far ahead...we just take each game one at a time."

That's exactly how I plan to enjoy the rest of the tournament.