No Wake for Wake.

Bury them without a funeral, with no fanfare, in a shallow, unmarked grave in the Freddy B's parking lot across from the Joel Coliseum. Some Wake Forest fans/alumns may be dissapointed with the DD's performance last night. Some may be sad that their favorite team is out the tourney. Me, I'm just disgusted. What a horrific, "we're too good for this team," "we used to be #1," "we're looking ahead to Louisville," "defense? we don't need no stinkin' defense!," "hey! whoever gets the ball, ignore everyone else, and just try to score!" performance that was last night. I'm not dissapointed, this team has no right to advance in the tourney. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

On a side note, some of you probably caught CBS's note of trivia regarding Cleveland State. The last and only other time they were in the tourney they were also a #13 seed and they also beat the #4 seed, none other than the hated Indiana Hoosiers. Ugh! What a legacy to share. *retch*

To add insult to injury me and my fellow Wake alumn Will Davis decided to hitch our horses to the Wake wagon all the way to the final four. That's why we are the denizens of the bottom of the standings. Poor Ainsley Martin (last year's champ) had the Deacs as tourney champions. Well, hope you haven't spent all of last year's winnings yet Ms. Martin.

Two other notes about yesterday's games.

1. First, my buddies and I thoroughly enjoyed sitting in a bar in downtown Pittsburgh watching Pitt desperately try to stave off embarassment at the hands of ETSU. The other bar patrons were either thoroughly anxious or dumbfounded (huh? ya mean #1 doesn't automatically win). When Pitt finally escaped the debacle, there was a brief chorus of "Let's go Pitt!" which was quickly shushed down by the few in the bar who knew how utterly stupid that was. This is definitly a football town, and the lack of bball knowledge really makes it a shame that Pitt is actually successful. I'd much rather see an N.C. State or a Vermont succeed since they have some tradition and history behind their programs.
2. What a great way to end the evening with two great OT games featuring the Siena Saints and Badgers of UW. I think we missed a bit of those buzzer-beaters so far in the tourney.

All right, on to this year's annual OTP awards.

Best First Round Performance Award:
Goes to Trudy McPhail who nailed 27 out of 32 picks.

Best Second Round Performance Award:
Ben Kirvam, who still has ALL of his second rounders still alive! Nice work Ben.

Worst First Round Performance Award:
Is ALL MINE! For the second time in three years I have managed to take home the booby prize. Egads! And even worse, I bested my all time low mark of 2007, (of 13 missed picks) with 14. Well, you can't accuse me of cheating!

Worst Second Round Performance Award:
Doesn't leave the Reklaitis family, as it is grabbed by Christine Reklaitis with 7 missed. Ouch.

I'll be back with a look at the picks in general and an accounting of who picked who for 2009 Champion. Ciao!