End Round 1 Update
Evening, Hoop Heads!
Another great day of hoops, and we have a new leader (uh, leaders) in Jabin’s March Madness Charity pool.
Miz Elizabeth, KFI, and Chomp & Circumstance share the top spot with 29 correct picks (out of 32) in the first round. That is some Grad A bracketology, folks. Six players — BonniesGuesses, 3 Away from an EGOT, RavFam1, Pazj, JohnMcClane, and Elisa Pansini are all tied in second place with 28, and 14 players are two back at 27 points. Repeat after me, lots of tournament left, so plenty of time to catch up to these mad geniuses. Head to the site for complete standings after the first round.
Great day of hoops
As Kramer says to Jerry in the “Seinfeld” Kenny Rogers Roaster episode, “I’m on no sleep!” It was an entertaining day of basketball, unless you are a fan of upsets. If this keeps up, we may need to workshop some new names to replace “March Madness.”
Of the 32 games played in the first round, there were a total of 8 upsets (defined as a higher seed beating a lower seed). The biggest, of course, was High Point over Wisconsin, a 12 seed beating a 5. Two 11 seeds (VCU and Texas) beat 6 seeds, one 10 seed (Texas A&M) beat a 7, and in a weird twist all four 9 seeds beat their 8th-seeded opponents (although it’s hard to call a 9-8 an upset in the tradition of “March Madness.” Not exactly Villanova over Georgetown or NC State over Houston, you know what I’m sayin’. (Kids, ask your parents).
A Panther and Gator walk into a bar...
In the wild, I’m not sure who would win a fight between a Panther and a Gator. I just know I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of it. But on the basketball court, it was no contest. The defending national champions, the Florida Gators, absolutely CHOMPED the Prairie View A&M Panthers on Friday night. It was 60-21 at the half, and made me think of one of my favorite Saturday Night Live sketches. The Panthers didn’t score their first points in the paint until the first minute of the second half. The final score was 114-55, which was both the most points scored by Florida in a tournament game, and the second-largest margin of victory in tournament history (Loyola-Chicago beat Tennessee Tech 111-42 in 1963 (when Sister Jean was 42 years old!)
Iowa is up next for the defending champs. Do reptiles like corn? Asking for a friend.
Rebound, Tarris, Rebound!
UConn center Tarris Reed had himself quite a night, leading the Huskies to an 82-71 win over Furman in the late game. Young Tarris scored 31 points and grabbed a tournament record 27 rebounds (I’m tired just typing that). He broke the record set by Phil Hubbard of Michigan, who had 26 in a game in 1973 (when Sister Jean was 52 years old). 😉
Hoo’s on First
Weird note from Virginia’s first-round afternoon victory over Wright State in the first round. It was the Cavs’ first tournament win since their title in 2019. Clearly, they partied like it was 2019 and couldn’t make it back until now. That’s just weird. I have a few UVa folks in my life (you know “Hoo” you are (sorry, that was lame), and I feel like I missed an opportunity to bust some chops. However, my blood lust is chastened by the fact that the current UVa coach is one Ryan Odom, the son of former Wake Forest coach Dave Odom. I actually covered young Ryan Odom when I was a sportswriter in Winston-Salem in the late 80s/early 90s, and he was a point guard at Reyolds High School. Fun fact, Odom was the coach at UMBC in 2018 when as a 16 seed they beat No 1. UVa in the first round of the tournament, the first and only time that has happened (UVa came back and won the whole shebang the next year). No wonder UVa wanted him as their coach.
"I know that voice!"
Apologies, but this one is a bit local to Philadelphia, my adopted hometown. Locals may have noticed a familiar voice on the TNT telecast from the South bracket in Tampa - it was none other than Tom McCarthy, the voice of the Phillies tv broadcasts. He is fantastic, and does college football, NFL, and NBA games in addition to college basketball and the Phils. But Phillies fans will be forgiven if they think it’s just weird to hear that voice calling things other than Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber home runs. That ball is … gone!
Commercials
Long-time pool players know how much I enjoy the commercials, and it’s part of the fun of March Madness. But I’m not feeling it this year. Some of the big players seem to be skipping it this year, and the ones that didn’t skip it are kind of lame. Even the Capitol One crew (Chuck, Samuel L, Magic, Spike, Jennifer Garner, etc.) are kind of just phoning it in, but nice to see Caitlin Clark get some commercial work. 😉 And I’m pretty sure the AT&T commercial has no script, just a note that says “What if we just showed a bunch of New York Knicks hiking?” “That’s gold, Johnson! Let’s shoot it!"
So we have one round in the books, and lots of drama in front of us. I’ll be back to you later Saturday night after the first day of Round 2.
Yours in hoops,
Jabin