Quote of the day
"We could have folded and we didn't. I think we'll take a big step forward from here." -- Louisville coach Rick Pitino, after rallying from a deficit with 2:35 remaining to overcome Manhattan in the Round of 64 Daily blurb
What is it about this tournament that gets me staying up late to watch Oklahoma vs. North Dakota State? Or San Diego State vs. New Mexico State, a game that didn’t end (in overtime) until about 1:30am? Madness!
We enjoyed quite an exciting opening day of the tournament, with four overtime games, four seed-based upsets, and a close call for Louisville. Had they lost to Manhattan, you’d have probably heard a sonic boom emanating from all of those busted brackets.
I had a little excitement for awhile yesterday. I entered the Billion Dollar bracket this year, and was perfect after the first 8 games, and also was on the right side of all four of the early evening games at one point. Then UConn and St. Louis snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with overtime wins, and Warren Buffet was safe - from me, at least. There are still plenty of entries that went 16/16 yesterday.
Market Madness standings are updated for day 1, but there really isn’t much to evaluate yet, as the early standings are dominated by entries with significant starting cash, a consequence of having shorts worth much more than the longs. So don’t pay much attention to your relative ranking just yet.
There are 314 entrants this year (up about 8% from last year.) I've posted a sortable summary of 2014 unit selections. Click on any linked column heading to sort by that column. A few quick observations:
- Favorite shorts are Wichita State, Virginia, #5 seed basket, and Atlantic 10 basket
- Favorite longs are Louisville, Michigan State, #4 seed basket, and Florida
- Wichita State was the most active unit, with 203 shorts and 33 longs.
- Every unit had some action. NC Central had the lightest activity, with one long and one short