2019 NCAA Survivor Pool Day 1 Recap

First things first...

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Day 1 of the 2019 NCAA Tournament is in the books and we have 636 entries into the Survivor Pool...SIX HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX! That means we have $12,720 in the prize pool this year. When we got to $5K a few years ago I really didn't know how much bigger this could get, last year we fell just short of the $10K mark, and I thought we would have a real shot at breaking it this year, and break it we did. Honestly, early in the day I thought we had a shot at getting to 700 entries after a certain team lost causing many entrants to lose with them...but, you nerds slowed down.

Anyway, the tournament itself started with a pretty uneventful game that I don't want to talk about where 82 people had their hopes and dreams crushed. I feel bad for Carson Jones who really put a ton of faith in my beloved Louisville Cardinals and lost 10 entries just like that. I feel your pain bro, I feel your pain.

As a quick aside, you know what is a lot of fun? Having your favorite team lose in the FIRST FREAKING GAME of the entire Tournament! That's just great, because it makes the next 12 hours of basketball so much fun to watch. It's not like it completely ruins one of my favorite days of the year. It's not like that at all. Because I'm a mature adult that can get over disappointment, I'm fine. It's not like I hate the six of you that picked Minnesota and laughed as the gilded rodents suddenly decided the 50 games they played this season where they couldn't hit a jump shot were all just kind of tom foolery, and today they decided the ruse was over and it was time to make everything. That was great. Congrats you six, the other 82 of us are FINE!

Anyway.

The other early games were more interesting and not as terrible. LSU's paid team of mercenaries with no coach knocked of some Ivy League nerds moving 18 entries on to Friday. Yale meanwhile knocked out six entrants as they shot 8/37 from 3 point range. Yale a team that was a very good 3 point shooting team on the year, just needed a few more to spring the upset....meanwhile, a terrible shooting team, MINNESOTA, was 40% today. I'm not bitter, just pointing that out, it's kind of weird though, right? That a great shooting team chokes and loses, and an awful shooting team suddenly makes a bunch of shots? It's kind of stupid even when you think about it. But, I'm not bitter, don't worry about me...totally not upset about this.

The unluckiest people today? The seven of you that picked New Mexico State. Auburn didn't exactly look great for the last four minutes or so, yet somehow held on for the 1 point victory moving on 21 entries that probably deserve to be packing. And, there wasn't a single Vermont pick, so FSU moving on 36 entries didn't knock out anyone.

Bradley hung with Michigan State for a while, but, ultimately a school named Bradley will never win a meaningful basketball game, maybe stick to sports that sound appropriate for Bradley...I'm thinking rowing and water polo maybe? There were 10 people that moved on with Sparty.

Maryland v Belmont was the premiere sexy upset pick of the opening day. A lot of the smart players smelled an opportunity for tie-breaker points and hopped on the Belmont train. But, Maryland showed how stupid they truly were and sent 41 people packing while moving just 9 warriors on to Friday.

Meanwhile 50 lovely contestants were left saying, "Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have used Kansas already" as they beat Northeastern by 70 or so, proving once again why I always say that Northeast is the worst of the ordinal directions.

The other sexy upset pick of the day was Murray State over Marquette. Despite the fact that Murray isn't a state, 32 geniuses believed the legend of Ja Morant and were justly rewarded. This is the type of pick that I always overthink, everyone liked Murray State, Marquette has looked like a dumpster fire for a month, Ja Morant is everyone's favorite guy not named Zion. It all just seemed too obvious...and, that's why I'm losing, because I overthink crap like this. Oh, what a huge surprise, the second best player in the NCAA Tournament posted a Triple Double and was able to beat 4 white guys from Milwaukee....who could have ever seen that coming? This sent 12 people packing, by the way.

I expected Florida v Nevada to be the most contentious pick of the day, and it was up there. 33 contestants believed in my man Mike White and they were right to do so. Meanwhile 20 losers picked Nevada and aren't picking anyone tomorrow. But, give it up for Nevada, it's really hard for a mid-major team to have the most disappointing season in college basketball, but they pulled off the feat! These guys returned basically everyone from last season's Cinderella run, they were Top 10 pre-season, and they end up going home on Day 1 after not even winning the Mountain West Tournament. I can't think of any other fanbase that could be this disappointed.

Gonzaga didn't give their 7 selectors any anxious moments in an easy win. There were 5 picks on Kentucky from people smart enough to burn them before they lose to Wofford this weekend. UK narrowly avoided the upset eeking out a 35 point win over Abilene Christian in a game that could have gone differently had Abilene been a completely different team that didn't suck at basketball. Turning to the most successful Wildcats over the past 10 years, Villanova also won, moving 40 brave souls on to Friday while knocking out 10 dorks who thought This Guy could beat Jay Wright.

The late games started with another fairly contentious 7 v 10 match-up with Seton Hall drawing 19 suckers and 46 survivor pool geniuses using Wofford a game too soon. It was the kind of great match-up you get in the NCAA Tournament with two teams featuring stars with two last names, Myles Powell vs Fletcher Magee. Seton Hall, a team that lost to Depaul twice this season, couldn't handle Wofford despite the Terriers (that's their mascot, seriously) shooting a pedestrian 13/28 from 3 point range, oh Wofford...what could have been?

Michigan over Montana was uneventful moving on 23 chalk eaters and defeating no one. Purdue knocked off Old Dominion moving on 61 people that either, A - felt like Purdue will definitely choke like they always do, but might get one win (me) or B - lost on a lot of these other games today and just wanted a little more action before bed (also me). Good job Purdue. And, nice try Wildturkeydaughter, the only ODU selector, you probably just expected the annual Purdue choke a game too early. Oh, and Purdue.

Finally, we had Baylor knocking off Syracuse in the last meaningful game of the night. There were 16 Baylor Bear Believers that live to pick tomorrow. Meanwhile, 24 dummies decided Syracuse losing one of the 4 guys that actually plays for them probably wouldn't matter and they could win anyway. Those 24 people were wrong, apparently it helps to have five actual scholarship players on a team after all.

Overall, it was a bloody Day 1 in the Survivor Pool. Out of the 636 entries that began the day full of hopes and dreams, only 413 will make it to Day 2. We've already eliminated 35% of our original entries, last year on Day 1 we lost just 27%, so today was tough for the Survivor Pool Hive Mind. If you're still alive, good luck tomorrow, after all...we've only just begun.