It's been two long, cold, bloody years. But we're officially back in business and day one of the NCAA Tournament is in the books! I'm so excited!
We ended up with 576 entries this year. Down a bit from 2019, but still leads to a prize pool just shy of $12,000. The Pool is nationwide these days, but still has a Louisville metro flavor. Not having Louisville, Kentucky, or Indiana in the Tournament definitely hurt the numbers. But, you aren't here for talk of teams not in The Tournament. You're here to have a fun recap of the Survivor Pool's first day! Or, more likely, you're my mom and you're just sort of reading for the same reason parents hang macaroni art on their fridge for a few months until they don't feel guilty throwing it away. So, let's get to it!
Upset of the Day...That meant nothing: ORAL ROBERTS BEAT OHIO STATE! And no one cared. Only 9 people played the chalk here and bit the dust. Meanwhile not a single person had the guts to pick The Oral Roberts Fightin Evangelical Preachers. Cowards, every one of you.
Today's Biggest Loser: I was going to make an Indiana joke here, something along the lines of, "The biggest loser today didn't even play a game..." You know, then maybe post that clip from The Office where David Wallace called Michael Scott a nice guy but said he was never really being considered from the promotion to Corporate drawing a parallel to Stevens basically telling IU, "You're a nice guy, but....". I had it all planned out. But, that would be a cheap shot, and I'm above that. It's not like I couldn't find the aforementioned clip quickly on YouTube so I just moved on. Nope, I Just have a little more integrity than that. Instead the biggest losers today were...PURDUE! That's right, the Boilermakers, in a sign of solidarity with their Indiana brothers, decided if some people in Indiana were going to have a bad day, EVERYONE in Indiana would have a bad day. Despite basically playing at home, Purdue lost and took down 36 entries with them. The star of the game? Not Javion Hamlet with his 24 points....it was Javion Hamlet's dad that won my heart. Move over Sister Jean, there's a new superfan in town!
Upsets of the Day That Did Matter: Tennessee got smoked by Oregon State and took down 44 entries with them. Oregon State, despite being terrible at basketball the entire season, has suddenly discovered the secret to basketball is simply outscoring their opponents, and 5 people believed in them and move on with 12 tie-breaker points. Another 35 combatants took an L in game one today trusting Virginia Tech, though this is a classic gamble game, shoot your shot on Game 1 and if you lose you can always re-buy later if you're not a total coward. Still, only 10 people took a shot with Florida in the opening day match-up, so it was a heavy VaTech lean, nice job James Surowiecki.
Gutsiest Loser: Always love when we have ONE pick on a team, today that happened with mmidland5 and Liberty. If you're gonna lose, you might as well lose on a 13 seed by yourself. Really though, I thought Liberty was a sleeper pick for people. Thought more people would fall on that sword.
People's Champion: Loyola of Chicago has gone from Cinderella a few years back to a veritable belle of the ball. There were 68 people that trusted The Fightin Sister Jean's to move them on to day two. And Sister Jean didn't let em down. Big day for religion in general as the nun will be joined in round to by some Evangelicals and Baptists that are also moving on. Of course, the Jesuits are lying in wait for tomorrow.
Other Popular Winners: Rutgers might not have made it to the Tournament since 1983, but 43 contestants weren't deterred by that 38 year absence, and like a fine wine Rutgers was aged, had a nice oaky finish, and got the W. This was another heavily skewed 7-10 match-up, with just 4 suckers going down with the Clemson ship. Texas Tech, and the new target of Indiana's affection, Chris Beard, moved 44 of our competitors to day two, again, just 4 suckers backed the loser, Utah State. The final popular winner was West Virginia. The Mountaineers were the final bastion of safety for people looking to get a late entry through, and the final winner of the night moved on a whopping 60 entries!
You can't spell Lose without WINthrop...wait: That's right, Winthrop was a popular play for people looking to grab some sweet tie breaker points. We had 26 entries thinking they could outsmart the best coach in college basketball because he was missing one player. Betting against Jay Wright in March isn't a good move y'all. The Villanova win advanced 27 entries, this was the most most evenly split game of the day, which is a kind of cool fact I guess.
With Day 1 in the books we've already lost 224 entries. That means 39% of the Survivor Pool entries have already gone up in smoke. This leaves 352 live entries to move on to Day 2 where more Madness awaits!
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