Round 1: March Madness not that Mad: Jeremy Buckles grabs the early lead

by: The Cold Hard Truth (March 18, 2017)

The first round is in the books and Jeremy Buckles from Strawberry Plains, Tennessee has grabbed the lead with an impressive 1505 point tally. Jeremy successfully picked Middle Tennessee to advance to the next round. I don't know if that's because he's a basketball genius or because he lives in Tennessee and is a homer, but either way, he got it right. The Blue Raiders proved that their 15 seed victory last year against Michigan State was not a one and done deal. They took control early and proved that their 30-4 record was not a fluke. It once again shows that the selection committee's bias for assigning mid-majors to these lower seeds is not always accurate or fair. The Blue Raiders might be poised to win another game in Round 2. They looked very solid in their first game.

Earlier this week, I heard John Calipari mention in an interview that he tells his team to "not be afraid of losing or missing shots". That seemed to happen to SMU in their game against USC, as they squandered a 10 point lead in the second half. We can't be too surprised, as each year since the establishment of the play-in games, a team from that play-in has advanced to the second round. Wichita State was another example of a team who probably should be seeded higher than #10, and I think their Kentucky matchup looks very interesting in the second round. The same goes for Kansas. It is almost unfair for them to see Michigan State in the second round. I know the Spartans had a below average season, but they are young and those freshmen are not the same kids that got pushed around earlier this year. That could be a close matchup - a danger game for the Jayhawks in Round 2.

There wasn't much "madness" in Round 1, unless you count intentionally fouling when you're winning - thank you Vandy - and you can't push a guy and be surprised it's an intentional foul either - thanks Seton Hall. There really wasn't much to jump up and yell about in Round 1. There was an occasional dunk, but no buzzer beaters and the close games were lacking. In many cases the top seeds did win, which is a positive for the selection committee. It is also good in my opinion for our CBCC contest as it weeds out all you guys who always pick these ridiculous upsets and prevent me from winning this thing. With all you nut jobs out of my way, maybe this is my year! - probably not. There are a lot of people who had very nice first rounds, with 94 people scoring over 1400 points. In past years, I always felt that was a good enough first round score to give you a shot to win later. Speaking of winners, last year's champ Mike Coyne from Mansfield, Texas is in 78th place. It will take some work for Mike to repeat.

This year, I printed out all statistics from any team I felt could make the second round. I carefully assessed my picks and filled out brackets for 4 contests - finally going to bed at 3:30 am. The end result of my effort was that I spent an entire game cheering for the wrong team by accident. In the future I recommend getting more sleep and remember who you pick to win. I don’t know if this is a sign of old age, but it’s a really bad sign for my future.

Round 2 always has the most available points, so this is a big round to make your move. Will it be Duke or North Carolina? ...or maybe a potent offense like UCLA ...and is Gonzaga for real? There are lots of unanswered questions we will soon learn more about very soon. Best of luck to my fellow competitors in the Dirty-Dawg CBCC!