Happy Friday All.
We began our 2013 OTP competition yesterday with a record
number of 57 participants. Thanks to you all for joining in on the fun!
While many of you have already done the PayPal thing, and
some others have already handed your cash to me in person, while others are
literally dropping the check in the mail, just want to remind everyone to get
your $5 entry fee to me ASAP, so you have a shot at the prize.
Let me start by welcoming back a slew of former OTPers back
to the competition including former champions Jen Boulton, Nick Batta, CT Wood,
Rae Poteat, Kim Kicielinski, Paul Schultz, and our defending champ, Amy
Hartzell.
Our OTP family is also expanding. My NU buddy George Dehner
has decided to subject his sons to the malarkey that is the OTP, welcome
Brendan and Patrick. Likewise Gud and Rae had already forced son Ian to
participate in recent years, glad to see brother Adam joining in as well.
Curtis got his better half, Christie, to help represent the Tronicks in the
OTP. 4/5 of the Kovich family is participating this year, welcome all, and
soon-to-be-newlyweds Steve Stites and Angela Verardo have, rightfully, decided
to usher in their life of wedded bliss by OTPing together. Other new names this
year include Mike Cline, Joel Barz, and Zach Bohler. Welcome guys. And, to the many of you who have formed the
backbone of the OTP for its last 16 years, it is great to have you back!
Our first day of competition is in the books. The updated
scores are up (I’ll try to have them ready the morning after each day’s games).
For those of you new to the OTP (or for those of you who may have forgotten
since last year) the OTP scoring system is based on points possible, NOT points
scored. This means that instead of rewarding you for each of the picks you got
correct, you are assigned points for every INCORRECT pick you make. For example,
if you picked New Mexico to go to the Final Four, their loss last night means
that I’ve docked you points for each round you had that team advancing. So, for
instance, my 3 year old Luke picked UNM to go to the Championship Game (give
him a break he’s 3 and he likes wolves). This unfortunate pick has already cost
him a boat load of points. Simply put, think of this scoring system like golf.
The lower your score the better you’re doing.
As for yesterday’s games, it was a typical first day of the
tourney. A bunch of blowouts, 12 seeds beating 5 seeds, a couple of truly awful
games, and some absolutely riveting last minute dramas. In the first category
we had MSU crushing the Crusaders of Valpo. Dan and Jen Boulton got to relax
early in that one. Top seed L’ville cruised to an easy victory, as did VCU
against an Akron team that was already missing its starting point guard
(suspended for drug-dealing) and then showed up for Thursday night’s game with
two guys suffering from the flu (apparently one guy had spent the night in the
hospital and walked into the area hooked up to an IV), and another who couldn’t
play because of back spasms. The result: One of the worst shellacking’s not
administered by a 1 or 2 seed: 88-42. Ouch, very ouch. Not to be outdone,
Syracuse dropped Montana 81-34, and Arizona handled Belmont 81-64. St. Louis
overcame 7 foot 5, 360 pound New Mexico St. center Sim Bhullar to win by 20,
and Colorado State and Michigan cruised to relatively comfortable victories. (This is Sim Bhullar in high school...)
Once again the five seeds were vulnerable, and this time it
was two Pac-10 (or is it 12?) teams that played that role of 12 seed spoiler.
Most agreed that Oregon was woefully under-seeded at 12, and their victory over
Ok. St. was not overly surprising. Considering UNLV had easily handled Cal
during the regular season, perhaps it was surprising that Cal was able to pull
off the win, but for those of you who tuned into this game, you could easily see
the problem: UNLV could not a) shoot the ball anywhere near the basket (they
ended up shooting 31%) b) could not get the ball in to superstar Anthony
Bennett courtesy of the Cal zone (although he did end up with a 15 point, 11
rebound double-double) but considering the video of AB’s performance against
Cal earlier in the year (see below) this was a major factor in the Rebel’s loss
c) you knew all was lost for the Rebs when, in the closing seconds, Cal player
Allen Crabbe missed a free throw and got his own rebound IN SPITE OF THE FACT
THAT ALL OF THE OTHER CAL PLAYERS WERE PLAYING BACK BEHIND THE HALF COURT LINE.
Which meant that Crabbe single-handedly outrebounded 5 other UNLV players.
Stick a fork in them. This was got me excited about Bennett initially...
The other ugly game was the Wichita State-Pitt game. Wow, no
one could make a shot in that one. But, as always, there were a number of absolutely
stellar games to keep you on the edge of your seat. Marquette disrupted a
potentially super-scintillating upset by Davidson by bombing away from the
three point line at the end of the game, while poor Davidson fell apart,
missing free throws and losing the ball out of bounds at a critical juncture at
the very end. Speaking of falling apart, Memphis almost handed away the victory
to St. Mary’s, and the fun-to-pronounce Matt Dellavedova managed to blow an
open look at the winning three as time expired. Note both the dejected Dellavedova and the reaction of Coach Randy Bennett in the background.
And let’s not forget Southern University almost … almost pulling off the unthinkable and
dropping #1 seed Gonzaga. Though a Zags fan, I was pulling for the Jaguars if
only because it would get people to stop referencing, as TNT commentator Ernie
Johnson did yesterday, “the closest a #16 seed has come to beating a #1.” Since
the record owner for this distinction remains Western Carolina which was a
shot-off-the-rim away from defeating my #1 seeded Boilermakers in 1996. Nonetheless,
Cinderella did emerge out of the chaos yesterday in the form of the Harvard
Crimson who sent the three seeded New Mexico Lobos home, and thereby shredded a
number of the brackets of our OTPers.
But hey, that’s the joy of the madness eh!? Check out the photo of the Harvard pep band celebrating the win. Classic...
Enjoy another spectacular day of hoops my friends, and I’ll
update you again tomorrow.
Best,
-gr
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