Hoop-la-la!

Travis Gets A Taste of #1

45 Players Lose Their Champ

Howe Wants Title Now As Act of Mercy

God Help KLoco

BadgerHoopla (Blake Roter) ended Friday night on the righteous ends of a buzzer-beater that was and one that wasn’t. The three points he earned from the Northern Iowa and St. Joseph wins put him in first place by virtue of the first tie-breaker, wresting the top spot from PoliticalGrrl, who would have remained in first had Cincinnati won in the last game of the night.

Roter, in his fifth year, has been in this spot before. In 2013, he led through the first day of the competition, and ended up finishing 10th overall. He’s currently 22nd in the projected standings, which means he has a relatively healthy bracket remaining.

Hoopla and PoliticalGrrl weren’t the only players to occupy the #1 spot Friday, however. None other than idoawfuleveryyear (Travis Rogers), who I wrote about yesterday, was #1 for a very brief, precious, “shining” moment after Notre Dame stormed back to beat Michigan. Then Northern Iowa hit a half-court shot to win, and Cincinnati had a game-tying dunk taken off the board, and things went back to normal.

Of course, there was nothing really “normal” about a day that saw Michigan State suffer a shocking loss to Middle Tennessee. Congrats to PAWWWL and I give smoochies to my friends! for being the only two players to pick Middle Tennessee.

Forty-five players had picked the Spartans to win it all. But those 45 should not succumb to total despair just yet. The 2006, 2o13, and 2014 Champions all won without needing to pick the winner. In fact, in 2014, the infamous Longing for Gus Johnson’s Orgasms won the crown despite picking the eventual tournament winner, Connecticut, to lose in the first round.

Still, misfortune for 45 was a potential windfall for the rest of the field, especially those who had MSU exiting the tournament early. In fact, one of those players, Ian Howe (Wait . . . what’s happening?), emailed me arguing that since he is currently the projected champion, he should just be handed the Grand Prize now to “save everyone a bunch of heartache.”

Ian does indeed have a very healthy bracket ahead of him, having only picked Michigan State to the Sweet 16. But, he’ll need many more games to go his way, starting with Saturday’s big matchup between Kentucky and Indiana. He’s one of 31 players with the Hoosiers upsetting Kentucky, but he’s the only player with Indiana advancing all the way to the finals.

Another game to watch Saturday is North Carolina v. Providence. 104 players have North Carolina and one, KLoco, has placed her hopes in the Providence Friars. Vaya con Dios, KLoco.