True/Slantament of Champions: We survived day one of March Madness
Hail to the Baracket Chief
It’s the most distracting time of the year.
53 True/Slant contributors entered our March Madness competition, what we like to call the True/Slantament of Champions. Three of them will get to take home varying degrees of glory; everyone else will have to nurse their NCAA Men’s Basketball-inflicted wounds until next year.
There have been some highlights so far:
* – Our new intern Chloe Angyal pondered via Twitter “Nearly five years in America and I still haven’t figured out this March Madness baseball business. A cultural mystery.” She has now been banished from the True/Slant Mountain Lair to our nearby salt mines.
* – Graham Kates gave us this handy 4-part guide to how to get through March Madness with your dignity intact. One of the tips was don’t pick any teams from Utah. BYU proceeded to upset Florida in their first round. Sorry Graham.
* – Jody DiPerna’s wrap-up captured the zeitgeist yesterday, with a lot of people going WTF as Villanova almost fell to Robert Morris University, which I thought was the small Chicago college but actually turns out to be in Philadelphia Pittsburgh (argh, props to Jody DiPerna for the catch). Apparently anyone can have a basketball team this year.
* – For a moment at the start of the Kansas-Lehigh game last night, when the Jayhawks trailed by 8, it almost appeared that Jonathan Coulton’s prediction to John Sellers that a Mountain Hawk was a tougher mascot and would thus win the opening game was true. Given that Sellers is now tied for first in our bracket with a bunch of others, it is a good thing he did not follow on with Coulton’s prediction of the Richmond Spiders winning the tournament.
* – Our other new intern Logan Whiteside walked in this morning worried that her bracket was blown. But, I reassured her – she’s still got 183 total possible points, more than some of the people in first place right now! It’s a fluid game and a lot of you are still in the race!
* – Hats off to Courtney Boyd Myers, tied for first in spite of being down in South America, where the brackets move counter-clockwise because of the South Pole.
* – I am also tied for first place, and currently have the most possible points (188). What is my secret? Well, you can see it in the name of my picks – Baracket Hussain Obama II. My bracket mostly tracked the predictions of America’s first baller president, with some tweaks. Of course, our Andrea Spiegel is already threatening me with fraud allegations, fixing the True/Slantament of Champions, as is customary. Bring it on Andrea. It’ll be just like last year when I end up tied for 15th with 6 other people, and you’ll have egg on your face then.
Please leave your taunts, leers, and charges of malfeasance below.
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I have the torches and pitchforks and will lead a band of rioters down to Georgetown. Who is with me?
Even though I’m happy that the Hoyas lost, I’m totally willing to join any cause involving torches and pitchforks.
In response to another comment. See in context »@Coates and @John, I’ll prep the music for the march to G-town if I may borrow a pitchfork to poke Mr. Roston who, you’ll note, is already playing defense.
Exhibit A: I submit last year’s report from the currently distraught Graham Kates. We had not yet launched T/S so these allegations were not publicly available at the time. Or, as I like to say, it was an opportunity for Mr. Roston to quietly test-drive his Bracket Racket.
Keeping an eye on the proceedings, MR. Have whistle, will blow.
Does anyone remember the Georgetown Park garage? A suitable place for the Hoyas to sweat out the long D.C. summer.
Robert Morris, affectionately known as Bobby Mo around these parts, is just outside the city of Pittsburgh. Coach Mike Rice is like a rock star around here today.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia can go get their own dragon slayer, thanks very much. Damn cheesesteak eaters. Ah, nothing against Philadelphia, except the Flyers (of course). And that the accursed Temple Owls are in the process of blowing up my brackets. Again. (Note to self, never pick Temple again. Like never. They always do this to me. Bashing face off coffee table now.)
Thank you for the catch Jody – I goofed.
In response to another comment. See in context »No worries. Much fodder for next year’s Bracket of Spite, though. Damned Owls. I should know not to trust a University that gave the world Hall & Oates.
In response to another comment. See in context »But they also gave us Cosby!
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] Though things might have changed by the time you read this, right now I am ranked among the Top 10 in True/Slant’s March Madness competition. Indeed, my team, Suburban Smackdown, is in 9th place among 53 fierce competitors. [...]
In sticking with my True/Slantedness (“Travel Vivant: Aisle or Window”), and since I haven’t seen a college basketball game live since 1969, my picks were based on (a) if I’d been to the city/town/airport where the college is located; (b) if I have a desire to travel to the city/town where the college is located or (c) it’s a school that somebody I know attended. No surprise that I’m not in the top ten, but I’m not at the bottom, either. My goal is to beat my hubby and son who playing on some other team. Go Seahawks!