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Mr. Beastly, Benny Take Day One

Three others tied with 16 points

Senor Wences nearly strokes out

Through eight games Thursday, a third of the field still had perfect scores. After Gonzaga and VCU won, the number dropped to six. After Iowa State beat Connecticut, only the mighty Mr. Beastly (10-year-old Nathan Corwin-Shah of Bloomington, Ill.) and Benny (Debbie Janisch of Jo-burg, Mich.) were still picking at 100% accuracy. Colorado's victory over UNLV in the last game of the evening prevented both players from finishing the day unscathed, however, and it brought them into a five-way tie with jeffrey t, vanadium, and Doc Love at 16 points apiece. Beastly and Benny prevailed on the first tie-breaker, pick percentage.

Mr. Beastly is in his fifth year of Chippens competition, but I believe this is his first experience at the top of the leader board. The only upset he has for Friday is St. Louis over Memphis, so if he wants to stay in his current position he should hope for another rather uneventful day. Benny, on the other hand, has picked two major upsets: Belmont over Georgetown and Detroit over Kansas. She is one of only three people who picked the Titans. Since many have Kansas going deep into the tourney, a win for Detroit would not only give Benny points on the rest of the field tomorrow, it would also stop them from racking up points on her in later rounds. The other two players with Detroit are Lucas Weavo (weavo) and Mike Penney (mpatpen). 

Nine players are lurking right behind the leaders with 15 points. There are a lot of familiar names in that group, but I would pay special attention to Michael Yang (The YANG-Over), if for no other reason than his clever handle.

Finally, for a bit of comic relief Thursday afternoon, I called Senor Wences. "Did you mean to pick Western Kentucky instead of Kentucky?" I said.

"No," he said, his voice quivering.

"Well that's what it says here," I said. I could hear him reach for the Beta-blockers and Clonazepam. "Well, I can't change it now," I said. "It's official."

A couple seconds of gurgling and wheezing ensued before he called my bluff. 

Friday's games bring a couple of key matchups. The field is pretty much split on St. Marys/Purdue and Notre Dame/Xavier, which means those games will produce a lot of movement in the standings. How do I know this? From the Tournament Results report. Click the pencil icon next to any game to see who picked which team.

NOTE:

Starting on Day Two you’ll see a Mover/Loser column to the left of your name in the Current Standings. That reflects how many places you’ve moved up or down since the day before, not since the last game.