Day One Notes

Quick notes from yesterday’s happenings before I take off for Madison to take in the Wisconsin game at a bar, prior to attending a slew of high school tournament games:

1) As promised, despite some ignorance of the national scene, I had a nice day in my brackets yesterday, picking 14 of the 16 games correctly. Actually, my master bracket that I was working off of had 15 of 16, but when it came the time to pull the trigger on laying down actual cash, I abandoned my theory that Montana would upset Nevada because Larry Krystkowiak, one of a long line of hilarious Milwaukee Bucks from the 1980s, coaches the Grizzlies. Just goes to show you that you need to follow your stupid theories when picking tourney games. What really burns me, though, is I emailed a friend of mine who knows nothing about basketball my master bracket, and she’s likely sitting atop her pool with 15 out of 16 picks correct today. Right now there’s a lot of people confused at my friend’s basketball picking prowess.

2) That remaining team that let me down? That would be Marquette, who I homer-picked to the Sweet Sixteen. But well the Golden Eagles let me down by not advancing, their season was anything but a let-down, since at the beginning of the year I expected them to be done with their season due to an NIT loss by now. And things only look like they’re going to get better from here.

3) Game of the day yesterday was probably Tennessee-Winthrop (though B.C. and Pacific going double-OT would get some consideration). The excitement in my office was overwhelming as we all gathered around a small television that one of my co-workers had brought in and saw Chris Lofton hit the winning shot. Of course, we all also thought that Lofton traveled before hitting that shot, but that doesn’t bug me too much. I’m just happy that Tennessee won.

4) Rob Jeter has officially earned every dollar of his contract at UWM. While he was left with lots of talent when he took over the reigns from Bruce Pearl, completely shifting the team’s style of play with seven seniors was a tough move. Looks like everyone is coming together at the right time, as UWM has looked like a different team since the Horizon League tournament began. Here’s hoping that there’s another rush for merchandise at the UWM bookstore. It’s kind of fun having another school in town that people actually have pride in.

5) No shocks yesterday at the high school tournament, but I’ll be interested to see what goes down today. Milwaukee King-Madison Memorial should be the marquee game of the day. I’m sticking with King to win it all, but you never know what will happen in march.

Time to take off for Madison. More to follow this weekend...