March Madness....and then there were 12

Well, if you are like me, you did not get a lot of sleep last night because you were glued to the action as the first day of play in the Sweet Sixteen got under way. No. 5 Butler began the day by sending No. 1 Syracuse packing in a great game and the day concluded with No. 2 Kansas State surviving in double overtime against No. 6 Xavier in an instant classic. Throw in wins by No. 1 Kentucky and No. 2 West Virginia and half of the Elite Eight field is set.

One thing that the two great games had in common on Thursday night was the fact that Gus Johnson was the play-by-play announcer for CBS. Gus, who became a trending topic on Twitter last night during the games, has become my favorite March Madness play-by-play guy over the past few years and he always seems to get the upsets or games that go right down to the wire. I'm hoping at some point to interview Gus for this blog and find out more about the man that loves to watch a Cinderalla "rise and fire" and "climb the mountain." For some Gus Johnson fun, check out www.gusjohnsongetsbaskets.com.

A quick look at the Six Degrees of MVNUSID tournament bracket contest shows that Alex Connell (pictured above courtesy of a photo my wife found for me on the internet) has opened up the biggest lead of the contest so far as he now has 600 points to take a 30-point lead on Sara Williams (570 points). Alex correctly picked all four winners along with Matt Miller last night. Sara's one miss happened to be Syracuse, who she had going on to win the national title. Alex's bracket is listed below:


As we start Friday's Sweet Sixteen action, three people with the best shot to win the contest are John White (1,040 possible points remaining), Jennifer Hamerla (1,000 ppr), and Stacey Deal (1,000 ppr), who ironically all picked Ohio State to win it all. For that trio to have a shot, the Buckeyes are going to need a great performance against Tennessee to advance to the Elite Eight.

And, one final note to my wife: Carla, I'm hot on your tail just 30 points behind. I'm going to catch up today.

What a Day of Madness - Day 1 Recap

Well, the first day of the NCAA Tournament is now in the books and it was definitely a day of drama as the first 16 games featured buzzer beaters, three overtime games (one more than all of last year), seven of the 16 games being won by the higher seed, and eight of the 16 games being decided by five points or less. All in all, it definitely lived up to its name - March Madness.

One of the biggest shockers of the evening session came when my dad's alma mater No. 14 Ohio University shocked No. 3 Georgetown 97-83 to give the Big East a 1-3 record on the day. No. 9 Wake Forest also overcame an eight-point deficit in overtime to post an 81-80 victory over No. 8 Texas. The two No. 1 seeds that played flexed their muscles as Kansas and Kentucky both cruised to easy wins.

What will tomorrow's action hold as 16 more games will tip off just after noon ET again? Hopefully just as much excitement and drama as today. I enjoyed having a rare day off to just sit back and be a fan, and I'll have to try to keep updated tomorrow while working our baseball games during the afternoon before watching all the evening games.

With 16 games in the books and so many upsets, I am pleased to congratulate Troy Current (pictured above with his fiancee) as the leader in the clubhouse after the first day in my bracket contest. Troy is one of my former student workers and a current Mount Vernon Nazarene University admissions counselor. Maybe working courtside at all those Cougar games gave him all the experience he needed to become a bracketology expert. Obviously it's not helping me if you check out my personal bracket.

Troy successfully picked 13 of the 16 games and only missed on Georgetown, Vanderbilt, and Montana. When I asked Troy what his strategy was with his bracket, he told me that he did a lot of research on ESPN.com before filling it out. Obviously, all that research has paid off so far. An avid Buckeye fan, Troy only let his heart carry him so far as he has the Buckeyes falling to Kansas in the Elite Eight. (See his complete bracket below.)


In addition to Troy's success, I want to give a shoutout to the people currently breathing right down his neck in a tie for second place having correctly picked 12 of the first 16 games: Ryan Halley, Julie Burke, Michael MacEachern, Matt Miller, James Mummert, and Steve Miller. And while not leading the pack, two other sleepers to watch for our my wife, Carla Parsons, and Eric Smith, who both still have the potential to earn the most points if the rest of their picks are correct.

Speaking of my wife, I need to just admit that my brief two-year winning streak in our own personal bracket contest is well on its way to coming to a screeching halt as she correctly picked 11 of the 16 games right on Thursday, while I was a dismal 8-for-16. However, if she wins, am I really a loser since I still get to go out to dinner with her? She just gets the bragging rights once again, but what's new since it's been that way in 10 of the past 17 years anyway. Just proud to say that I have a great wife who knows her sports.

Well, time to get some sleep so that I can wake up and enjoy the madness again tomorrow. I can't wait to see which games Gus Johnson is calling.

Let the Madness Begin

At 12:20 p.m. ET today, March Madness tipped off with No. 7 BYU taking on No. 10 Florida to begin the exciting first round of action. The first three games featured great action and storylines. No. 11 Old Dominion knocked off No. 6 Notre Dame 51-50. Jimmer Fredette scored 37 points to lead BYU to a 99-92 double overtime win over Florida to snap Florida's 12-game NCAA Tournament winning streak and give BYU it's first NCAA Tournament win in 17 years. And, No. 2 Villanova survived a valiant effort by No. 15 Robert Morris to escape with a 73-70 overtime victory.

The two overtime games equaled the entire total number of overtime games from all of the 2009 NCAA Tournament and the margin of victory for the three games was only 11 points with seven of those coming in BYU's double overtime win.

Thanks to March Madness on Demand, you can watch every game in its entirety and I'm definitely taking advantage of that today as you can tell from the picture above. There have already been great games with one upset and nearly two others through three games and that's without Gus Johnson, who usually gets all the great games, calling a single one so far.

Thanks to the 50 people who joined my bracket contest. Through just the first three games, only five people have gotten all three picks correct. Congrats to Jason Pitman, Alex Connell, Matt Miller, Troy Current, and Jessica Lantz on leading the pack right now.

Speaking of the bracket contest, it was interesting to see who people picked as their choice to be the overall champion. 23 entries or nearly half of the 50 overall entries went with No. 1 overall seed Kansas to cut down the nets, while the No. 2 overall seed Kentucky got the nod from 16 other entrants. Duke (3), Ohio State (3), West Virginia (2), Syracuse (1), Kansas State (1), and Georgetown (1) were the rest of the picks to claim the title.

Enjoy the madness of the rest of the games today! I would love to hear some of your observations from today's action.