Fun Is The One

Oral Roberts Wins Jaw Dropper

Tairy Hesticles Has Flash Of Success

Betty Rumble Takes A Tumble

It’s fun to be #1, an honor Fungibility gets to enjoy for at least the next few hours. Nothing can replace the feeling of being atop the leaderboard of the Chippens Tournament Challenge.

McCall finished Day One with a dominating 19-point performance, three ahead of her closest competitors. She started the day strong and never let up, sweeping the late afternoon and evening games as her upset picks of Oregon State, Wisconsin, North Texas, Rutgers, and Syracuse all came through. Her only misses on the day were Utah State/Texas Tech and Ohio State/Oral Roberts.

Now in her 8th year, it wouldn’t be quite accurate to call McCall a perennial powerhouse, though she does have a top-20 finish from 2015. She ranks 104th out of 106 on the All-Time Average Place list. Last year, she finished 130th . . . out of 130.

BUT, going from worst to first is not without precedent. KLoco finished 105/105 in 2016, only to come back to finish 1/117 in 2017.

So, yes, I’m telling you there is a chance. To avoid a “fun and done” tourney, however, Fungibility will need some more big upsets on Saturday. She is one of 14 players with Abilene Christian, and one of 16 players with UNC Greensboro.

Normally one to pick big upsets, Fungibility was NOT one of the two players who picked Oral Roberts over Ohio State. That distinction belongs to MonsterTruck and Toebigfrog.

MonsterTruck is now in her fourth year. Sources tell me she “subscribes to the Ricky Bobby view of March Madness—if you’re not first, you’re last.” Last year she did beat one person—Fungibility.

Toebigfrog is a rookie from Chicago. Frog has Oral Roberts leaping all the way to the Elite 8, and MonsterTruck has them winning one more. If you take a look at these players’ picks, you’ll see they are quite daring. But, as it is said, fortune favors the bold.

Bold is one way to describe the player who nobly christened himself Tairy Hesticles. To the amusement of some and to the chagrin of others, Herr Hesticles (in the German) stood out near the top of the standings all day, before descending to his current spot of 13th. Although he was no doubt bulging with pride early—at one point reaching a three-way tie for first place—things swung the wrong way for Herr Hesticles when North Carolina and Purdue were neutered.

Hesticles got kicked where it hurts in the evening games, for sure, but he’s no sad sack yet. His Sweet 16 is still fully intact (he’s one of only six players with Florida over Ohio State), and none of his Saturday picks are totally nuts, so it looks like he could be hanging around for a while.

Finally, we take a look at the bottom of the standings, where the mother daughter duo of Betty Rumble and Marlimazy are tied for last place with five points each.

We talked about going from worst to first, but if these results hold it would be a first to worst event for Rumble, the 2006 Champion.

Ms. Mazy still has a clear path to victory. She just needs another miracle out of Loyola Chicago. She’s the only player to pick them all the way. Not even Sister Jean’s Dream Team has that much faith.

Rumble has another ambitious slate of upset picks for Saturday. She needs a good day to avoid a total crumble.