March Madness Day 2 Recap

Now THAT was March Madness. The end of Day 2 is always a bit of a letdown. Sure the games are getting better as the lesser teams get knocked off, and yes, there are still 31 more games to be played, but the essence of the tournament is these first two days. From noon till midnight, there are 4 blocks with essentially 4 games going on at once. When game A hits a commerical, flip over to Game B, all the while keeping an eye on Games C and D, in case they're close or a tremendous upset is brewing. For most tournaments, it's all about crowning a champion. That's not to say finding a champion isn't important (it's why everyone complains about college football, they don't get to settle their champion on the field).

But the essence of the NFL playoffs is the Super Bowl. The essence of the NHL playoffs is seeing that dead-tired, beat up team lift the Stanley Cup. Even the baseball playoffs are about seeing one team outlast everyone else to win that 4th game in the World Series. College basketball isn't like that. It's not March Madness because of the championship game. In fact, the championship game is a total dud as often as not. March Madness is about these first two days, when scores and highlights and games are flying all around your head and you're just trying to keep it all straight. That one of the beauties of playing (or running) a pool. It's easy to get overwhelmed, or lock in on your favorite team alone, and when they're bounced, just fade out. The pool keeps you scouring for updates, flipping the channel, and keeping track. And the payoff is seeing that ridiculous buzzer beater, or the historic upset. That, is what March Madness is all about. Shoutouts
To Melissa A. and Tony C. for correctly picking 12 of yesterday's 16 games correctly, the best showings of anyone in the pool.

To Mom and Dad K, for getting their picks in all the way from Florida for the second straight year.

To the sheer number of you in the pool, as thanks to you I learned that Gmail conversation chains max out at 100.

To our current leaderboard:
1T) Melissa A
1T) Corey H
3T) Katie A
3T) David K
3T) Josiah K
3T) Noah K
3T) Barack Obama
3T) Sam OC

To that guy who predicted yesterday would be exciting since Thursday was kind of dull. Who was that guy? Anyone remember? Anyone? Oh well.

To Lehigh and Norfolk State, whatever your bracket looked like afterwards, it's always pretty neat to see history. And something that now has only happened 6 times ever certainly qualifies.

To Kyle O'Quinn from Norfolk State, who received just one scholarship offer and was the best player on the court against Mizzou. His postgame interview was awesome, "I told my mother I wanted to speak to Craig Sager [interviewer], and I want to speak to Craig Sager again!"

To Charles Barkley, who still can (and does) say whatever the heck he wants. In the studio after Norfolk State's upset, he said, "I don't know why anyone would be excited to talk to Craig Sager."

To Greg Anthony, also a studio analyst between games with Kenny and Charles. Anthony made a couple of great points. One was that Missouri absolutely should NOT have changed their style of play against Norfolk State, as they were the 2 seed and in that situation you make the 15 seed adjust to you. One of which was after Kenny Smith had blasted Duke for not feeding their big men more in their loss to Lehigh. Anthony said that Duke hasn't played that way all year, and their big men traditionally got their points on putbacks or dishes off of penetration, and to expect them to convert to a traditional posting-up-based-game against Lehigh wasn't reasonable. I know what Kenny and Charles bring to the table, but Anthony has been a pleasant surprise.

Condemnations
To Kenny Smith, the third studio analyst with Greg Anthony and Charles. Not only did he get put in his place by Anthony twice, he also said that a team like Norfolk State will not have a letdown after knocking off Mizzou. What? Of course they will, they just won their championship. After all it took for them to knock off a team no one gave them a chance to beat there absolutely will be a letdown. It's human nature.

To CBS for once again shunting Seth Davis off to the secondary studio set. He belongs on the bigger stage with Kenny, Charles, and Greg. Bad decision again CBS.

To CBS/the NCAA for not finding some way to get Gus Johnson back calling the tournament. For those of you who don't know, Johnson is the overly excitable play by play guy who had been with CBS (and calling the tournament) for years, but last year his CBS contract ran out and he moved on to Fox. Everyone knew that meant he was off the tournament, but Gus Johnson IS March Madness. He makes a close game that much more fun with how overexcited he gets, it's a shame this year's tournament doesn't have him calling any games.

To the Plumlee (brothers on Duke's team) parents, courtesy of Celinda: You just can't give two sons the same first initial, if they have to play together their jerseys will look ridiculous. Ma Plumlee? Please. Note that this was all the more noticeable in our house because one of the Plumlee brothers is named Miles.

To Spicoli's a local restaurant a stone's throw away from our condo. We decided to go out to dinner during the Mizzou game. I knew it was close but figured Mizzou was going to pull away, there were still 10 minutes to play after all. I kept track on my phone, and when I saw it was still an upset-in-the-making with 30 seconds left (and we had finished our meal), I took Miles for a walk into the crowded bar area to watch the finish (we were eating in a separate section with no TVs). The game wasn't on. In fact, no game was on. One TV was on ESPN, and I have no idea what the other set was on, but none were on the game. TERRIBLE use of your TVs Spicolis. And all you bar patrons, nobody pointed this out? This would have been a whole post in and of itself, except our DVR had the last 5 minutes saved when we got home. Enjoy Day 3!