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.

"The Ball is Up...."

Well, the action got tipped off in a big way on Thursday as March Madness and the NCAA Tournament got under way. Upsets, buzzer-beaters, comebacks, and Cinderella shoe-fittings all began to take place as a national audience watched.

My second annual Six Degrees of MVNUSID bracket contest got under way as well with a record 68 entrants - the same size as the tournament field - all vying for a $25 gift card to the restaurant of their choice and bragging rights.

Well, it only took one game to wipe out the perfect bracket chances of 13 of those prognosticators and then by the time the second game was over we were down to just 30 perfect brackets left. By the time that Morehead State finished off their upset of Louisville in the third game of the tournament, only WBNS 10TV meteorologist Josh Poland and Central Methodist sports information director Kelcey Zutavern were left with perfect brackets.

After the dust had settled from the day's 16 games, Jacob Wood (also known as "Gator" due to his love of the Florida Gators) stood alone at the top of the heap as he correctly picked 15 of the 16 games. His only blemish came with the Morehead State upset, but less than 5% of the people nationally who filled out the brackets had seen that one coming. Gator (above), who is a former student worker of mine while he attended Mount Vernon Nazarene University, is hoping that his picks can continue to pan out so he can enjoy his winnings at Chick-fil-A. You can see a copy of Gator's bracket below:


Hot on Gator's tail are Josh Poland, Rob Oller, and Josh Wood, who each correctly picked 14 of 16 games on the first day. Rob is a sports writer for the Columbus Dispatch, while Josh is Gator's brother as the Wood family combined for a great showing on the first day.

Well, it's about time to get comfortable for another 12-hour journey of ups and downs, dunks and 3-pointers, old favorites and new heros to take the spotlight. Enjoy the ride!

Sweet Sixteen is in the Books

The NCAA Tournament continues to march on and the Sweet Sixteen is now in the books after the final four teams advanced to the Elite Eight. St. Mary's and Northern Iowa both saw their Cinderalla runs come to an end with losses to Baylor and Michigan State respectively. Duke downed Purdue in a low-scoring game, and Tennessee used a balanced team attack to sneak by Ohio State, which relied way too heavily on the Evan Turner show to try to get to the next round.

Speaking of the Buckeye game, I'm going to digress for a moment. Yes, I'm a Buckeye fan. It was hard to watch them get out-hustled and out-worked by Tennessee, but I'll give credit where credit is due and say that Tennessee deserved to win that game more than Ohio State did based on those two traits and more importantly better team play. While Evan Turner is a great player and one of the two top candidates for national Player of the Year honors, it takes a team to win a title and last night showed that.

One other comment I would like to make about last night's game is the fact that I really appreciate all the 'congratulatory' texts, tweets, and e-mails on Ohio State's loss. I always find it humorous that people love to rub in the loss of my team despite the fact that their team wasn't even playing in the game or in some cases didn't even qualify for the tournament. I'm not one to talk smack about other teams - I just try to be a fan of my own. I'm always quick to give credit where credit is due (see above for example), and I try not to pile on my friends' misery when one of their teams lose because we'll all be in those shoes more often than not. Oh well, I guess they have to find some way to get their frustration out since their team is no longer playing.

OK, now that I have that off my chest, let's take a quick look at the updated Six Degrees of MVNUSID bracket contest. Sara Williams (pictured above in full character) has regained her 10-point lead over Alex Connell after both of them along with six other people got five of the eight teams correct advancing to the Elite Eight. Sara, whose bracket is below, now has 650 points, while Alex is right behind with 640 points. Mark Colachico is also a close third with 630 points in what is shaping up to be a great race to the finish. Alex has the best chance to win with 880 possible points remaining, while Jay Stancil and Michael MacEachern who are both well back in the standings right now both have 800 possible points remaining and could make a late surge to the title.


We have also reached the point in the contest where we have our first three entrants to be eliminated from title contention based on possible points remaining and their current score. I wanted to give a special shoutout to Nate Okuley, an admissions counselor at Mount Vernon Nazarene University and one of my former student workers, Rodney Yoder, an assistant coach for the Mount Vernon Nazarene University women's basketball team, and Rob Oller. a sports writer for the Columbus Dispatch. I wish I had great parting gifts for you, but thank you for your part in making this contest a lot of fun to follow.

Oh, and I almost forgot....you need to check the leaderboard and compare my point total with that of my wife. That's all I'm saying. Enjoy today's Elite Eight games and see if Gus Johnson gets to call another buzzer beater.