Day One results and standings

Freundles,

So, Day One is over and we're part way into Day Two. Where does the time go? Work, I guess, and sleep and toothbrushing and Guinness. Now that I type it out, that's a full day.

Anyhoo, it was an exciting opening day, no? 7 upsets out of 16 games, including 14 seed Ohio whupping up on Georgetown. If your bracket is now wrecked because GTown is out, don't fret, you're not alone. The Day One genius is Liz Rambeau (more on that in a moment), and for the first time in modern memory, picking all the favorites (the Favs pick below) would have landed you very near the bottom. Awesome.

As for scoring, remember that all the games where a 1-10 seed wins is worth 1 point. That's the 7 games won by the favored team, plus hte UNI, Wake Forest and St. mary's wins (9, 9 and 10 seeds, respectively. Feels like the St. Mary's pick should've counted for more than one point.) Three games were worth 2 points (Murray State, Washington and Old Dominion), and the Ohio game was worth 3 points. That makes 21 possible points.

Day One Genius Liz Rambeau picked 15 of the day's 16 games correctly, and finished with a gaudy 20 out of 21 points. Far behind her, with 15 points each are my brother Jonathan and Liz's hubby Matt. Now Matt and Liz co-habit, watch the same amount of hoop, read the same newspapers, and still, Liz has 33% more points than Matt. What accounts for that difference? Nothing I can see, with the possible exception that Matt really handicapped his own efforts by actually picking winners before the games had been played. You read that right, I'll wait if you want, Henry James style, to read that sentence again just to make sure you got it. Liz's picks came in this morning. Maybe I'm committing a serious post hoc, propter hoc fallacy here, but I suspect that picking winners after they've won gives you a leg up. Your witness, counselor.

Just kidding. We all know Liz is ramrod straight, unwilling to cut ethical corners, and utterly uninterested in basketball. In fact, I think Liz might be faintly embarrassed to win the pool, even though she'd be pleased as anything to beat her husband. I'm sure Liz will continue on her current 93.75% accuracy clip.

Slander aside, congrats to Liz and all the rest of you who picked well. I didn't do so hot, but it's just Day One. I'm not discouraged.

In a couple of days, Calvino and I will switch over to the blog exclusively, but until then, here are the Day One standings:

Name	Day 1
Liz	20
Jonathan	15
Matt	15
Maggi	13
Acy	13
Dana	13
Rosalie	13
Bill	12
Harry	12
Dykes	12
John	12
Alexander	11
Dayle	11
Mike	11
Cal	11
Kate	11
Sarah P.	11
Knott	10
Ruth	10
Scott	10
Dutch	10
Gena	10
Favs	9
Steve	9
Sarah B.	8
Tim	8
Willow	8
Henry	7