D’oh. :(

Congrats, Indiana… Beat the Bruins.

I always Knew that he somehow Arranged for these things.

Now I have the Smoking Gun.

:)

BEAT THE HOOSIERS!!!

And the first major upset victim of the tournament is… THE EVIL EMPIRE!!!

WOOHOO!!!

And I picked it. :)

Pool update in a few minutes.

UPDATE: Through 11 games, there were ten contestants tied for the lead with perfect records: Ginny Zak, Rick Boeckler, Brian Dupuis, Scott Pollock, Luke Zanger, Sean Sullivan, Mark Nabong, Earl Baker, Emily Merkler and Jason McMahon. But they all picked Duke over VCU, so now nobody’s perfect, and there’s a 21-point tie for the lead. Complete standings here and after the jump.

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Call it Letdown Thursday: no upsets, no dramatic finishes, no “one shining moments” so far in the NCAA Tournament… and no separation in the Living Room Times pool standings. Through seven games, 44 contestants are tied for the lead.

The much-ballyhooed Oral Roberts-over-Washington State upset didn’t materialize, my predicted #12 vs. #13 second-round game in the Midwest doubly flopped as both Old Dominion and Davidson lost, and Texas A&M pulled away late after a mild scare from the Penn Quakers. (Phew!)

One “early” game is still underway: Vanderbilt vs. George Washington. Then there will be eight more games tonight, starting shortly after 7:00 PM. Hopefully they’ll be a bit more exciting than the afternoon slate. And hopefully the first upset of the tournament will be the biggest ever: #16 Central Connecticut State over #1 Ohio State. :) GOOOO JAVIER MOJICA, BEEEEAT GREG ODEN!!!

Full scoreboard here. Full pool standings here and after the jump.

P.S. On a side note, I agree with this.

UPDATE: With Vanderbilt’s win over GW, the favorites are 8-for-8 — and it’s a 27-way tie for first.

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The body of missing 6-year-old Georgia boy Christopher Michael Barrios has been found, law enforcement officials say.

Visit CNN for the latest.

Heh:

A cable news program was temporarily replaced with hard-core pornography, shocking viewers who had been watching a health show featuring former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

The incident Monday night on KPPX-TV was “an act of human sabotage” at the Phoenix-area station, said ION Television, which operates the station.

(Hat tip: my dad.)

A record-shattering 264 contestants entered the 12th annual Living Room Times men’s basketball pool.

That number may fall slightly due to possible disqualifications, but it easily beats last year’s record of 218 contestants.

The first set of standings will be available after the conclusion of the opening trio of games, in which #4 Maryland vs. #13 Davidson and #7 Boston College vs. #10 Texas Tech are both close at halftime, while #6 Louisville is crushing #11 Stanford.

UPDATE: You can view everyone’s brackets here.

The most popular picks to win the championship are Florida (46 out of 264), Ohio State (45), Georgetown (37), Kansas (33), North Carolina (25), UCLA (17), Wisconsin (14) and Texas A&M (10).

UPDATE 2: Boston College is the first winner of the NCAA Tournament round of 64, beating Texas Tech 84-75. And it’s a matter of time until Louisville’s win over Stanford becomes official. The one game still in doubt is Maryland-Davidson. Go Wildcats!

UPDATE 3: Maryland wins. D’oh!

I’ve updated the pool standings on the assumption Louisville wins. They’re up 77-50 with 4:16 left. As B. Minich said, the University of Alcoholic Trees appears to be hungover.

86 people are tied for the lead through three games. Complete standings after the jump.

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It’s America’s tournament, writes Dan Wetzel in a nice Tournament’s Eve column:

They’ll be watching on TVs big and small, high def and rabbit-eared, on tiny ones in fancy cars and those giant numbers in Times Square.

And if a team with a big number next to its name gets up on a team with a little number – and it doesn’t completely ruin their brackets – they’ll be cheering at sports bars in San Diego, high-fiving at house parties in Maine and passing secret updates of each trey courtesy of their Treo in business meetings in Chicago.

It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t matter who.

For three weeks you can forget about your big-market, big-city, big-revenue pro sports. The beauty of the NCAA tournament is that even someone like the little Jackson State Tigers have a chance – albeit the chance of a 16th seed about to play defending national champion Florida, which means, what, a one-in-a-million chance?

According to some oddsmakes, try one in a sextillion.

So you’re saying there’s a chance.

Heh. Read the whole thing.