March Madness Day 4 Recap

It's always a slightly melancholy feeling when we get to this point on Sunday night of March Madness' opening weekend. Part of that is the forced partial-insomnia from the last 4 days, but really it's that 78% of the games in the tournament are done. And most of the madness is over. We'll still see some great basketball, but most of the underdog stories are gone (though we still have more than anyone expected by this point), and the times you could sit back and let wave after wave of basketball wash over you is over. The games come at a much more manageable pace. For me, in trying to write updates on all the games, that's probably a good thing. But for me the fan, who simply loves being immersed in this, it's a little disappointing that as quickly as it came, it leaves.

Game Commentary
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

The Leaderboard
1. Joe M - 47 pts
T2. Cindy F - 46 pts
T2. Craig M - 46 pts
T4. Jen K - 45 pts
T4. Colin M - 45 pts
T4. Alec P - 45 pts
T4. Joe P - 45 pts
T4. Melissa R - 45 pts
T4. Lindsey U - 45 pts
T-Last: Paula B - 32 pts
T-Last: Rachel G - 32 pts

Shoutouts
To Tony C, who not only picked Florida Gulf Coast to knock off Georgetown in the first round (he was the only one), but picked them to make the Sweet 16 as well! This deserves whatever the opposite of double-secret probation is...but since I have no idea what that is, a holy **** well done! will have to do.

To Tony C again, for pacing the field with 7/8 correct picks today. His only miss was La Salle.

To Cindy F, Craig M, Max T, and Lindsey U, for correctly nailing 12/16 Sweet 16 teams, best of anyone in the entire pool.

To Celinda, for putting up with me and my pool for the last 4 days. I am blessed to have a wife who loves sports, so convincing her to watch basketball isn't difficult. But I know it's not easy having me trying to keep tabs on 48 games over 4 days, but she not only doesn't complain, she encourages me to keep on. Thanks!

To Sam OC, for his comment that a complaining Cody Zeller looked like he belonged on Duke. Bonus shouout to his wife Rachel, for her comment that their son didn't recognize his daddy because Sam and I had been watching basketball for "so long" at an Easter party.

To Alec P, for leading the Brown women's ultimate frisbee team to a 2nd place finish at their spring break tournament. Bonus shoutout to friend-of-the-pool Talia SC.

To Jon J, for leading the Brown men's ultimate frisbee team to a very impressive season so far, including a strong showing at the rain-shortened Easterns tournament.

Condemnations
To US Soccer coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who, if the reports are true is planning on starting Kyle Beckerman as a central midfielder in the USA's next World Cup qualifier coming up on Wednesday. This is terrible news, because outside of having dreadlocks, he has done nothing in his career outside of MLS to justify starting a meaningful game. This is terrible horrible no-ggod very bad news, because said qualifier is against Mexico. In Mexico. At the Azteca stadium in Mexico City. Where the US has never won a non-friendly (and didn't win their first friendly until last year). But aside from all that it should be fine.

To little Miles. Miles is terrific, but he's developing one or two problematic habits. Chief among them is his proclivity to go through his bedtime routine, have us lay him down to sleep, wait 5-10 minutes, drop a Georgetown in his pants, then call for one of us to change him. This has happened 13 of the last 14 evenings.

To Chuck M, who threw a great Easter party with an egg hunt for the kids, and had basketball running on TV in his house. So why the condemnation? Well, when Sam and I ducked into the basketball viewing room, I'm pretty sure Chuck narc'ed on us to our wives when they wondered where we had gotten to.

To CBS/Turner, for continuing to stick Sports Illustrated analyst Seth Davis with the minor league studio show. He deserves better.

Pool Statistics
per @MatthewBerryTMR
ESPN had 8.15 million brackets entered to their bracket challenge.

0 ESPN brackets went were perfect in predicting all Sweet 16 teams

0.95% of ESPN brackets had Florida Gulf Coast in the Sweet 16 (1.3% of Kofron Pool brackets did)

Tweet of the day

Well congrats to Florida! You guys can't count votes but you can sure play basketball. #Gators #FGCU #Canes #MarchMadness
— Paul Lo Duca (@paulloduca16) March 25, 2013

See you on Thursday for Day 5