Notre Dame and George Mason are underway. Go Irish! I want my alma maters to at least go 1-for-2 today…

P.S. Also: Go Fullerton!! The #14-seed Titans are about to tip off against #3 Wisconsin. After all this carnage in my bracket, is it too much to ask that I get my one totally absurd upset pick right? :)

UPDATE: Good news: Notre Dame has jumped out to a 23-7 lead over George Mason. Bad news: CBS has deemed the game a blowout, and sent us out to a different game. Good news: The game they sent us out to is Wisconsin-Fullerton; the Titans lead by 3!

UPDATE 2: 33-21 Irish at the half.

UPDATE 3: And 30-28 Wisconsin. Go Fullerton!!

UPDATE 4: Damn. The Badgers are on a 15-3 run, and just like that, it’s 45-34 Wisconsin with 12:19 left.

Through 11 games, it’s a nine-way tie for first place. Meanwhile, BYU and Texas A&M are going down to the wire. Go Mormons!

UPDATE: Make it a three-way tie, after Texas A&M’s win. Carolyn Blessing, Chuck Wessell and Matt Kagan are 12-for-12. Thirty-five contestants are tied for fourth at 11-for-12.

P.S. In tonight’s last four games, the three co-leaders all picked UCLA, Wisconsin and Notre Dame to win, but they differ on the West Virginia-Arizona game. Blessing and Kagan picked West Virginia; Wessell picked Arizona.

Complete standings of the 13th annual Living Room Times men’s basketball pool presented by the UCLA Bruins here and after the jump.

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Okay, forget what I said below. I totally want Belmont to win. Seriously, how awesome would it be if DUKE lost to a #15 seed? Go Bruins!!! (There’s something you don’t hear from me too often…)

Meanwhile, USC is hanging in there with Kansas State, but with Taj Gibson now having four fouls this early in the second half, I’m not too optimistic. Nevertheless: Fight on!! Beat the Wildcats!!

UPDATE: Okay, so USC is totally going to lose. Arrrrgh.

But Belmont leads Duke by 1 with 1:40 left, and they have the ball! GO BELMONT!!!

UPDATE, 9:15 PM: AAAAHH!!! Duke by 1, Belmont ball, 4 seconds left!!!

UPDATE 9:17 PM: ARRRRRRGH.

UPDATE, 9:19 PM: Missed free throw! Timeout! Another chance! Two-point-something seconds left, Duke by 1, Belmont ball on the opposite end of the floor… one shining moment, anyone?? Either Duke is about to win, or we’re about to witness an all-time NCAA Tournament highlight.

UPDATE, 9:21 PM: It was the former. :( Duke wins, 71-70. Damn.

Oh, and Kansas State beat USC, 80-67. :(

The one time I want Duke to win easily, they’re getting a tough fight so far from #15-seed Belmont.

Belmont had better either: a) fade soon, or b) win. If I miss the whole USC-Kansas State game just to watch Duke pull out a narrow victory, I’m going to be super-annoyed.

Now, to try MMOD…

UPDATE: MMOD is working well, but the USC Trojans are not. They’re down 8 with four minutes left in the first half, and — far more devastatingly — Taj Gibson just picked up his third foul. When the foul was announced, I said: “That’s it, they’re going to lose.” Argh.

…no surprises, a bunch of blowouts, and a 48-way tie atop the 13th annual Living Room Times men’s basketball pool presented by the UCLA Bruins.

The leader in our household? Loyette, whose modified coin flip method bracket has her at 6-for-7. Becky is 5-for-7, as are the cats; Robbie’s 4-for-7; and I’m bringing up the rear at 3-for-7. LOL! D’oh!

Complete standings here and after the jump.

Meanwhile, there’s one afternoon game still underway: the Brainiac Bowl, a.k.a. the Shades of Red Showdown, between the Stanford Cardinal and the Cornell Big Red, which just got started out in Anaheim. Possible X-factor: Cornell, to my knowledge, does not have a drunken dancing Tree.

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I don’t root for Duke very often. But with the Blue Devils tipping off against #15-seed Belmont at the same time — 7:10 PM EDT — that my Trojans are tipping off against #11-seed Kansas State, and with local TV headlining the Duke-Belmont game because the Bruins are a Tennessee team, I’d really like to see Duke open up a big lead early and never look back. Then we might actually get to watch the second half of Mayo-Beasley on TV, rather than on a small MMOD screen, which may or may not stutter and buffer, and which will always be 30 seconds or whatever behind the real action. (This matters because CBS’s little score ticker thingy updates in real time, so if you’re trying to watch TV and MMOD at the same time, you risk being exposed to "spoilers.")

So anyway, yeah, GO DUKE!! :)

…it’s a 179-way tie for first place. :)

Meanwhile, my brother-in-law Casey is alone in last place, with an 0-for-3 record. Though, um, I’m not sure if his was really a serious bracket…

P.S. It’s early, but the second set of games is looking pretty disastrous for me right now. Pitt and UNLV have opened up big leads over Oral Roberts and Kent State, respectively; and Purdue leads Baylor by 5. The only bright spot is Marquette’s 4-point lead over Kentucky at halftime. But going 1-for-4 in the second wave of games — for a 3-for-7 Thursday-afternoon record, pending the result of the Brainiac Bowl between Stanford and Cornell — would not exactly be an auspicious start. Let’s go, Baylor! C’mon, Kent!! GO ORAL!!!

P.P.S. The score of the UNLV-Kent State game at halftime is 31-10 Rebels. 31-10?!? Really?? Good lord, Golden Flashes, you guys are not helping the mid-major cause here!! Argh!!

I’m watching the game live on TV, plus two separate computers with MMOD running. Sweet.

But, as I recall in the past, I have been able to take the MMOD screen to fullscreen. Now, I am not able to find it, using both my Mac and my Windoze lapper.

Is it gone, or am I just not seeing it? Little help, please…

The NCAA Tournament is underway (woooo!!!), and so is my 13th annual men’s basketball pool, presented by the UCLA Bruins. I’ll get the links to everyone’s brackets online ASAP.

[UPDATE: Here’s the bracket index. Each contestant’s name is a link to his/her bracket. Also, here’s the pool standings page, currently sorted in alphabetical order, as everyone is obviously tied at zero.]

The most popular champion picks are the four #1 seeds: North Carolina (33%), UCLA (18%), Kansas (14%) and Memphis (8%). The most commonly predicted first-round upset winners: #10 St. Mary’s (62%), #9 Texas A&M (57%), #9 Kent State (54%), #11 St. Joseph’s (47%) and #10 Davidson (45%).

We have a total of 244 contestants — a number that may fluctuate slightly if I end up having to disqualify anyone, or if I get any slightly late entries with, um, sufficient indicia of reliability, as we might say for evidence purposes. :) Regardless, this is the second-largest Living Room Times pool ever, behind last year’s 263 but ahead of the previous year’s 218.

The total of 244 includes five entries that you might call quasi-contestants: two dog brackets (one for Robbie Loy, my dog, and one for Willie Wheaten, Ken Inadomi’s dog), two cat brackets (one for Kristin’s kitten, Zoe West, and one for our cats, Toby, Sasha & Butter, who collaborated on a single bracket this year), and one baby bracket (for Loyette Loy — yeah, I made an exception to the "no nicknames" rule for my own daughter, so sue me). In order to maintain the "one entry per person" rule, these contestants are ineligible for the championship t-shirt, and if one of them were to win the pool, I would probably treat the top, uh, adult human contestant as at least a co-champion for historical purposes. :)

P.S. Jenna Auriemma, daughter of Geno, isn’t the only kinda sorta famous person in the pool. We’ve also got the "West F***in’ Virginia" guy, Eddie Regan. Who did he pick to win the national championship? West F***in’ Virginia, of course!

We’ve also got a Notre Dame law professor, Rick Garnett, and two judges on the Tennessee Court of Appeals in the pool: my boss, Charles Susano, and his colleague, Sharon Lee. Judge Lee is pretty excited right now because she picked #14-seed Georgia, which leads #3 Xavier 35-26 at halftime. Personally, I’m just really, really glad I changed my mind about Xavier going all the way to the national championship game. Otherwise I’d be a complete wreck right now.

Is anybody else a little bit excited? :) If not, this video might help…

source file

One last time: the deadline to enter my men’s NCAA Pool (presented by the UCLA Bruins… sigh) is 12:20 PM EDT today. In case you’re wondering, we’re at 215 entries and counting. It doesn’t look like we’ll beat last year’s record of 263 entries, but I expect we’ll easily surpass the second-highest total, 218 in 2006. There’s always a steady stream of entries in the last few hours before the tournament tips off.

Here’s hoping for a whole bunch of buzzer-beaters, upsets, and assorted shining moments… and of course, wins by USC, Notre Dame and Gonzaga. :) GOOOO MY BRACKET, BEEEEAT OTHER BRACKETS!!

UPDATE, 10:45 AM: We’re now officially at 223 entries. Incidentally, one of those entries is from college-basketball royalty: Jenna Auriemma, daughter of UConn women’s coach Geno Auriemma (and fiancee of my high-school classmate and two-time pool champion Todd Stigliano), is in the pool! Heh.

With 15 first-round NIT games finished and one still in progress — Cal leads New Mexico 56-54 with 7:19 left — Mark Gardner remains in sole possession of first place in the Irish Trojan NIT Pool with a 15-0 prediction record. Randy Styles, Sean Sullivan and Ginny Zak are in a three-way tie for second at 14-1.

Gardner picked Cal over New Mexico, as did Styles and Zak. But Sullivan picked the Lobos, and thus he would tie Gardner for first if they win. If the Bears win, Gardner will finish the first round with a perfect 16-0 record.

UPDATE: Cal won, so Garner is officially 16-for-16! Well done! Full standings here and after the jump.

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Heh. I just filled out Loyette’s bracket using the modified coin flip method described earlier, and I kid you not — I swear I didn’t rig this — she’s got USC going to the Elite Eight and Notre Dame going to the Final Four. :) That’s as far as they possibly could possibly gave gone, given her pre-determined national champion pick of Kansas.

Her other Final Four teams: Kansas, of course; Pitt; and BYU. Her only truly absurd first-round upset pick: UT-Arlington over Memphis. Yeah, that one came up tails three times in a row. Oops.

Now to do the cat and dog brackets…

UPDATE: Robbie predicts an all-Bulldog Final Four of Butler, Gonzaga, Mississippi State and Georgia, with Butler winning it all. Toby, Sasha and Butter, who are collaborating on a single "cat bracket" this year, have two sets of Tigers (Clemson and Memphis), a set of Cougars (Washington State) and a set of Wildcats (Arizona) in this Final Four, with Memphis cutting down the nets.

UPDATE 2: As for my bracket… here it is. I think I’m done messing with it now. :) It’s relatively non-ridiculous, by my standards. I have one #12, one #13 and one #14 pulling first-round upsets; one double-digit seed in the Sweet Sixteen (#13 Oral Roberts); #6 USC and #7 Butler in the Elite Eight; and a Final Four featuring two #1s, a #2 and a #4. Hey — I said relatively. :) It’s still pretty wacky, I admit, but I’ve definitely done wackier.

Incidentally, in regard to those questions about Drake and Xavier, I ultimately answered them in the negative, simply because I don’t know enough about those teams to take such huge leaps of faith in them. So I picked UConn to make a surprise run to the Final Four instead, beating both the Bulldogs and the Musketeers along the way. That’ll get me back to my Connecticut roots, cheering whole-heartedly for the Huskies! (Now watch them lose to San Diego…)

I’m sticking with Fullerton, though. Oh, and I decided to pick Gonzaga over Davidson (and Georgetown). I know, I know. I can’t help myself. GO ZAGS!!!

UPDATE, 11:15 AM SUNDAY: Let the record show that Robbie made a couple of last-minute changes to his picks this morning. He now predicts that the UConn Huskies will beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the West Regional Final, and he is also picking the Huskies to beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the Final Four before losing to the Butler Bulldogs in the title game. Apparently Robbie is upset with Georgia for trying to invade his home state, and he likes Connecticut because I’m from there. So the all-Bulldog Final Four is kaput.

In addition, he decided to pick the Georgetown Hoyas, whose mascot is a Bulldog, over the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who generally call themselves the "Zags," in the second round. Thus, he has substituted the Hoyas for the Zags/Bulldogs on his bracket all the way to the Final Four. So his new Final Four is Butler, Georgetown, Mississippi State and UConn.

John McCain isn’t the only presidential candidate filling out his bracket.

Meanwhile, TPM’s David Kurtz makes an analogy between March Madness and Hillary Clinton’s campaign:

[Hillary’s] goal is to put superdelegates in the position that the NCAA tourney selection committee faces each March: Who deserves to be in the big dance more — the team with the better overall record on a late season losing streak or the one who started the season slow and is finishing on a roll.

The trouble with living in a state that has five NCAA Tournament teams is that you’re locked into watching a lot of first-round games involving those teams, whether or not they’re the most exciting game in progress. I mentioned this before with relation to Duke-Belmont pre-empting USC-Kansas State tomorrow night, but it’s an even bigger issue on Friday, when all four time slots will occupied by games involving Tennessee teams, only one of which (Vanderbilt-Siena at 7:20, a 4-13 game) figures to be potentially competitive. The other games are: #2 Tennessee vs. #15 American at 12:15, #2 Texas vs. #15 Austin Peay at 2:50, and #1 Memphis vs. #16 Texas-Arlington at 9:40.

According to the local CBS affiliate, "At the network’s discretion, all
games BUT the Kentucky vs Marquette game [Thursday at 2:30] and the Tennessee vs American
Game can be switched from/to during play to a better game of the
network’s choosing." (The Kentucky game gets higher "regional" priority than any of the non-UT teams from Tennessee? Weird.) So, once Texas and Memphis open up big leads, they’ll take us out to other games at some point (like maybe Butler-South Alabama in the 2:50 slot). That’s a relief. But I’m doomed — unless I go to a sports bar, which is a chancy proposition when you’ve got a baby — to have virtually zero chance of watching any of Gonzaga-Davidson, Miami-St. Mary’s or Drake-Western Kentucky, all of which I really want to see, but all of which are scheduled opposite Tennessee-American. Arrrgh.

(I tried MMOD at home the other day. It works okay — better than it did with our ridiculously slow connection in South Bend — but I still don’t think it’ll be acceptably smooth for live, fast-moving basketball action. It’s a wee bit jerky, to an extent that might not be bothersome in some contexts, but will, I think, be problematic for watching live sports.)

As we enter the final hours of my annual ritual of bracket agonizing, I find myself fretting about the top right-hand corner of the bracket, the upper half of the South Region. I’ve got Pittsburgh penciled in as an Elite Eight team because — with apologies to Jay — I’ve felt ever since the Tennessee game that Memphis’s inability to shoot free throws is going to knock them out of the tourney early, and Pitt seems like the logical team to do it.

Only one problem: I really don’t feel comfortable picking Pitt to go that far. In fact, I’m not even convinced they’ll make it out of the first round. Oral Roberts is good; indeed, after several years of unjustifiably low seedings, they’re the classic "quality small-conference team with something to prove." They’ll be ready to play. Pitt, meanwhile, is the Big East Tournament champion, which means they’re a trendy pick that’s probably overvalued. (Chatting with ESPN’s Andy Glockner the other day, I said that the Big East tourney champ is "sometimes overvalued." He shot back, "I think you misspelled ‘always.’" Heh.) More importantly, it’s entirely possible they’re overvalued in their own heads, in which case this could be a classic trap situation where ORU rises up and nips ‘em.

The thing is, if I knock Pitt out in the first round, I have a #12 vs. #13 second-round game between Temple (which is going to beat Michigan State) and Oral Roberts, which in turn leaves me with nobody plausible to knock off Memphis before the regional final… unless I want to really double down on the South Region Chaos Theory, picking either Mississippi State or Oregon to knock off the Tigers in the second round, thus producing a Sweet Sixteen game between a #8 or #9 and a #12 or #13. Dare I predict that the bracket will blow up to such an extreme degree? Seems a little wacky, even for me.

I dunno. I think maybe I’ll do the Oral Roberts/Temple thing, grudgingly advance Memphis to the Elite Eight without actually having to play anybody (cough cough, Bradley), and then have Texas knock ‘em out in the regional final. (Argh, I can’t believe I’m putting myself in the situation of having to root for Texas in order to preserve my bracket…)

Other things I’m fretting about: Gonzaga or Davidson? And can I really justify putting Drake into the Elite Eight? And can I really justify putting Xavier in the title game? And am I out of my mind with the Fullerton thing? And, Gonzaga or Davidson???