Day 1 Update

Good Morning, Hoopsters:

 

Welcome to the 2024 Jabin’s March Madness Charity Pool!. Thank you for the donations so far, and keep ‘em coming on the GoFundMe site as we want to maximize our donation to charity at the end of this here thing.

 

As usual, it’s pretty crowded atop the standings. This year we have a 12-way tie for the lead, as Dragons, Laughing Jay, The Reverend, Going west, Dumber Than a 5th Grader, Quinn, Jayhawk ’81, Oma Barbara, Miz Elizabeth, quinnminnich, Kiki White, and Lucy Lu all finished Thursday with 14 points. That’s 14 games out of 16 correctly picked, not too shabby. 17 players are tied at 13 points, and then it gets really crowded at 12. Full standings are available at the web site.

 

As I say every year (say it with me, folks), don’t put too much stock in the first day, as there is plenty of basketball to be played, and the first-round games are only worth 1 point each. Still lots of Madness ahead of us, but we’re off to a great start.

 

Kansas ended the late night by holding off a tough Samford team (with a little help from the refs on a clean Samford block that was called a foul in the final minute), but that’s March Madness for you. The announcers nearly lost it, but the Jayhawks survived and advanced.

 

It was a great day of hoops, as the first round always is:

 

We’re gonna need some more Wildcats

 

By far the biggest highlight of Day 1 was 14-seed Oakland knocking out 3-seed Kentucky in one of those upsets that puts the Madness in March. How many of you thought Oakland University was in California? (ok, put your hands down).  I did too. They are actually from Oakland, Michigan, founded by Matilda Dodge Wilson, widow of the co-founder of the Dodge Motor Company. The university was built on her estate, which is weird, because I have the same plan (albeit a much smaller campus, but a sick quad). Anyhoo, it was a barrage of 3’s, including an unbelievable 10 from Jack Gohlke, that sent the Cats to their exit.  But by far the best nugget from this game is that guard Trey Townsend’s father, Skip, also played at Oakland for Coach Greg Campe, who has been the coach there for 40 years! Another fun fact, unless you live in Lexington – the Wildcats are 1-4 in their last 5 NCAA Tournament games, which is pretty amazing considering it is basically an NBA factory.  Ouch!

 

 

Beware the 11 Seed

 

I wouldn’t want to be Clemson today. All three 11 seeds beat the No. 6 seeds in Thursday’s play, as Duquesne beat BYU, Oregon beat South Carolina, and NC State dispatched Texas Tech in the nightcap. No. 6 Clemson plays No 11 New Mexico today, so watch out Tigers!

 

 

The (almost) impossible bracket

 

As I always say, don’t feel so bad that your bracket looks like Sonny Corleone at the toll booth. You’ve got plenty of company. It is a fact that nobody has completed a perfect bracket since the tournament went to its current 64-team format (we don’t count play-ins). And I just don’t mean in this pool, I mean in THE WORLD. But veteran “Jabin’s March Madness Charity” pool player Scott B. shared a great story that will (hopefully) calm your nerves. It is about a guy who came the closest ever to completing a perfect bracket in 2019 (spoiler alert – he didn’t make it, but he nailed his first 49 picks!). It’s a great read, and I highly recommend it.  A few highlights:

  • The odds of getting every pick right has been calculated as 1 in 9.2 quintillion (I don’t know what a quintillion is either, but I’m pretty sure it’s like, a lot).

  • About 40 million people fill out 70 million brackets each year, with around $2 billion in prizes. I’m assuming they are not including our ~$2,500 charity donation.

  • #11 seeds have gone 19-17 overall in the tournament since 2014 (what????). That would certainly bust a few brackets.

 

Commercials

 

Nothing great from the Chuck/Spike/Samuel L Capitol One crew so far (just the one where Jim Nantz needs a hobby, which isn’t that funny), but there are some decent new ones. Invesco QQQ has gone full-on creepy with a Siri-like AI spot (pass), and Jake from State Farm is cheating on Mahomes and Andy Reid with Caitlin Clark, Jimmy Buckets, and “Old Pacer” Reggie Miller. And I’m pretty sure I should be embarrassed to admit this, but am I the only one who finds the “Buffalo Wild Wings” voice funny?  If that’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

 

OK, that’s it for Day 1. Congratulations to our leaders, but don’t start thinking about that charity just yet – there’s a whole lotta Madness ahead of us.

 

Talk to you after the end of Round 1 on Friday night,

 

Jabin

 

Jabin White