Day 1 Update
Greetings and Salutations, People of the Pool!
If you’re reading this, and I sure hope you are, you are officially registered in the 2026 Jabin’s March Madness Charity Pool. Look at you, you did a thing!
There’s really nothing like the first two days of March Madness (except maybe a mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, when the mutton is nice and lean). It’s been a long day of 16 games — we’ve had a scarcity of upsets (with one big exception), we’ve had chokes (rhymes with Car Deals), and some pretty terrific basketball.
In the pool, after the first day of play, Elisa Pansini leads with an amazing 15 out of 16 correct picks in the first round! Then it gets crowded. Ten players - Madness Mags, BonniesGuesses, 3 Away from an EGOT, Huevos Rancheros, Miz Elizabeth, I Picked With My Heart (Again), RavFam1, Luna’s Mama, Petal Picker, and DangDeacs! — are all tied for second place with 14 points. 25 players are two back at 13 points. Head to the site for complete standings after Day 1.
As I say every year, don’t get too high or too low based on your results so far. This thing doesn’t get serious until the later rounds, so lots of time to catch up (if you’re behind) or lose ground (if you’re ahead). Lots of Madness ahead of us over the next few weeks.
Panthers have a day…
The biggest Cinderella of the day was High Point, which sent Wisconsin packing in a 5-12 matchup. The winning points were scored by Chase Johnston with 11.7 seconds left, and it was not only his first two-pointer of the game, it was his first two-pointer of the season! You can’t make this stuff up.
Don’t sleep on the Panthers, winners of 31 games, including 15 straight. I know, that advice might have been more helpful YESTERDAY! And before I get too preachy, I picked Wisconsin. But I absolutely loved the conversation after the game between Sir Charles and Kenny Smith. The gist of it was around why teams like High Point don’t get a chance to play the “blue bloods” of the sport like North Carolina and Duke, since they are so close geographically. Kenny Smith responded that it didn’t make financial sense for us (Carolina) to play them, and Chuckles responded “because they’d beat you.” Sir Charles for the win, as usual. And as if to rub salt in the wound, the 2026 Tar Heels absolutely collapsed down the stretch against a determined VCU team.
Speaking of Chuckles, he seems to be getting some grief online for losing weight but not adapting his wardrobe. Lots of Ozempic jokes about my man, and I don’t like it. I say good for him, and as the guy on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” would say, leave him alone!
The Dookies got a bit of a scare, down 11 at one point , but advanced past Siena with a strong second half (be still my heart). Cameron Boozer, the all-everything freshman who will be in the NBA next year, scored 22 points to lead the way. His twin brother Cayden chipped in with 19 points. They are the sons of former Dookie star Carlos Boozer (oy, so many Boozers with the making of the baskets).
If you’re feeling down about your bracket, just think of poor Wes Enis of South Florida. He had himself what is clinically called a “bad day,” going 0-for-11 from 3-point range, the second most misses without a make in tournament history. And to rub salt in the wound, the Bulls only lost by 4 points to Louisville, so yea, that’s gotta sting.
Commercials
I’d love to be in the marketing meetings at the Invesco QQQ headquarters. How is it that for 11 months of the year I don’t even hear rumors about this company (not complaining), but in March I can’t away from them? And get over yourselves, you take money from people and make more money, so just calm down with the QQQ stuff (I might not make it through this tourney).
The GEICO “pothole” commercial is just weird. That is all.
I’ll be back with another update tomorrow when Round 1 is in the books. Enjoy the Madness!
Jabin