Candle Guy Lights Up Day One

Tepid Support For Big Ten?

Alexander Eats Fried Calipari

PAWWWfuL

Adam Dickens, The Lumière of the Chippens Tournament, gets the honor of Day One Leader. He correctly picked 14 of the 16 matchups for 18 points and sole possession of the lead.

Dickens is in his 19^th Chippens campaign, having competed every year in the Modern Era. [Cue raucous applause].

A 6^th place finish in 2015 was followed by a few years of hard times, but he’s been trending better lately, featuring in the mix late in the tourney the last couple years. In 2022, he finished 10^th, and last year a respectable 28^th.

But when one takes a look at Lumière’s bracket and sees it is one of just six with Illinois as the champion, one does wonder what all goes into the candle making process. Are there fumes involved? What does one do with all that hot wax?

Perhaps a topic readers would like explored further should the Fighting Illini make a deep run.

The Illini did look good in their game, as did Michigan State. Maybe this year is the Big Ten’s year.

The Wisconsin game will be a good test. This Tournament always features a healthy contingent of loyal Badger fans, but, despite that built-in support, the Badgers only pulled 67% of the picks in their first round matchup—not great for a 5 seed.

Nebraska, Northwestern, and Purdue all play Friday as well—and there are dedicated fans for each. Allie Bracket likes Northwestern to win it all, and 11-year veteran Huskerobb picking from Lincoln has the Big Red advancing all the way … to the second round. It appears even some loyal Big Ten fans are hedging this year.

Meanwhile, hardcore Kentucky fans are mourning another early round exit for the Wildcats and their blue chip recruits. The fact the loss was at the virtuoso hands of a 6th-year grad transfer who looked like he just got out of a meeting with the Two Bobs could not have made the loss any easier. (It did make it exponentially more entertaining for the rest of us, however).

Two players picked Kentucky all the way—Sheppard of the Bluegrass and Alexander the Great.

Sheppard is a hardcore fan and can’t be blamed for his pick. So it goes.

Unfortunately for Alexander, however, her Kentucky pick was a result of second-guessing herself. Her original bracket had Kentucky nowhere near the championship, but then doubts crept in.

An appeal “was made” (passive voice) to replace the Kentucky bracket with the original bracket. There was suggestion that the new bracket was the involuntary result of devious psychological warfare perpetrated by someone in the same household designed to cause confusion and uncertainty, all motivated by deep-seated jealousies and feelings of inadequacies of their own brackets going back years and years. I even received the puppy dog eyes emoji.

But once “the ball is tipped,” fate and destiny take over. There is no deus ex machina to rescue you now. I am only here to gently poke fun after the fact.

The lesson is to never change your picks! Unless you picked BYU all the way like PAWWWL. Probably would have been a good idea to look over that one again. It’s always tough when your champ loses in the very first game of the tournament. Condolences PAWWWL! I would say crack a beer to commiserate, but, you know, BYU.

Good luck to everyone today. We will try to keep the standings updated frequently.