Hola my marshmellow peeps!

So we're down to just 3 games left before the Madsanity is over. That's it. They are:

- Butler vs. VCU, Saturday April 2nd @ 3:00pm PST (the first ever "All-Mid-Major" Final Four game!)

- UConn vs. Kentucky, Saturday April 2nd @ 5:30pm PST

= NCAA Championship Game, Monday April 4th @ 6:00pm PST

All on CBS in HD, all played in Houston, Texas. Which makes BYU head coach Dave Rose sad, as he once played in the Final Four for Houston- the "Phi Slamma Jamma" team, starring Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Slama_Jama ). BYU was SOO close this year, losing to Florida in overtime, who lost to Butler in overtime. Oh well, there's always another 30 years from now.

Which brings us to our brackets. We are down to just 2 contenders. It was 3, but Valerie got bumped when Kentucky scored the last 5 points in an Elite Eight win over North Carolina, her clever pick as champion. I mean, it beats the crud out of my "Ohio State over Pitt" pick. Ugh. Oh, and quick shout out... Besides the two geniuses still standing (more below), only Matt Christensen and Aaron Roundy got a single Final Four pick correct: Kentucky and UConn (that means Barack and I have a lot of company -70%- with zero). They both have those teams losing their next game. And yet they sit now in 2nd and 3rd place overall. Well done gentlemen!

http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/group?groupID=75639

Anyways, Steve E. still has a comfortable lead (780 points, 99.8th percentile), but wait! There is a challenger! While Stevo's got Kentucky losing in the championship game, my good Idahoan friend and Michigonian mission buddy Derek Mecham has Kentucky picked to win it all! Which perfectly matches the latest Las Vegas odds; At this point, Kentucky is also the gambler's pick to win it all. Judging by this year, that means they won't. After all, this has been the Maddest March in recorded history. Oh, you hadn't heard? Let me explain...

The Bird is The Word! I mean, this has been the Maddest of all Marches. Ever. Foreal. Statistically. You always read that it's unlikely that not all four #1 seeds will make the Final Four (Obama and I didn't listen). But it is EXTREMELY unlikely that NONE of them will. This season is just the 3rd time that has happened. And it's the first time ever that no 1 OR 2 seed has made it. Basically, the top 8 most-likely teams all whiffed. Ohio State, Kansas, Duke, Pitt, Notre Dame, SDSU, UNC, Florida. All done-zo. Gone. As are 11 of the top 12 seeds. Actually, make that 26 of the top 28. One of the Final Four match-ups (8-Butler vs. 11-VCU) has a Seed-total of 19! That's a new record. The Final Four seed-total is 25- The highest ever. Only one person has a perfect Final Four (on two different brackets), out of 6.5 million brackets worldwide on ESPN (a 1-in-300million Final Four according to basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy); He, like 0.02% of the universe, has VCU winning it all. According to Las Vegas, the least likely team out of these last four to walk away with the National Championship is... VCU. Can you say, CAA-RAY-ZAYYY!!

More about SErickson's greatness: After the Sweet Sixteen, there wasn't a single bracket left in the nation with a perfect Elite Eight. About a dozen people in the world had 7. I had 1. Obama had 2. Almost 84% of the nation had 3 or less. Steve had 5. Good enough to remain in the top 100%. Good enough to be 822nd out of 6.5MM. That's more than twice as good as Matt Hasselbeck's son, Henry, who had the best celebrity bracket on that day (M.Hass is ahead of Steve now by 10 points, but he already lost his Finals match-up). If only Florida had beaten Butler in OT and 1-Seed Kansas had taken out VCU, our boy would still be going STRONG!! The guy that was #1 out of 6.5MM that day? He, like Valerie, picked North Carolina to win it all. Ouch.

Now, for too much info...

Don't say I didn't warn you.....

* Only 4% of the country picked Arizona to make it to the Elite Eight (and probably none of them expected the Wildcats to blast 1-Seed, Defending National Champ Duke by 16 points... Duke was the 3rd most popular pick to win the tourny). Neither Stevee nor Kier were among them. Arizona had two shots to beat UConn and make the Final Four with under 10 seconds left, but sadly missed both of them before losing by 2. Of course, I had Arizona losing their very first game to Memphis; down 2 and driving for the tying shot at the end of regulation, Memphis got blocked into the 4 row. Phenomenal play. That's what March is all about! Memphis' head coach still got a raise... $1.7MM a year. Arizona won their second game, an upset over 4-Texas (and the #2 defense in the nation), by 1 point.

* 3.3% of people picked a Kentucky over North Carolina Elite Eight. Stever nailed it! As for the Kentucky-UConn game this Saturday, it's actually a rematch from the early part of the regular season. A game that UK was stunned to lose the first time around. I had Kentucky losing their 2nd game of the tournament, to West Virginia. Umm... WVU did have the lead at halftime. Kentucky's odds to win it all this year before the NCAA Tournament started, according to Vegas, was 1-in-30.

* UConn is the most popular team left, with 4.7% picking them as their eventual champ (Butler-UConn is the most popular championship pairing left, though the bookies see Kentucky-Butler as more likely in their updated odds... only 63 people nationally envisioned a Kentucky-VCU Title game). The longer they last, the worse for Jimmer Fredette, as Connecticut point guard Kemba Walker has been his stiffest Player of the Year competition all season. The first of the four major college basketball awards, the Oscar Robertson, went to The Jimmer yesterday. One more Kentucky win would help him in his quest for the Wooden, the AP, and the Naismith POY Awards. I had UConn losing to San Diego State in Anaheim, CA. They had 1-in-101 odds to win it all.

* 0.6% of brackets had Butler in the Final Four (odds were set at 1 in 100), even after the Bulldogs lost the Final Game last year by 2. In fact, 1.6% of the bracket had Butler in the Final Four last year (it helps that they were a 5-Seed). Me, I had Butler losing their very first game this season. Tied at 58, Butler missed a shot against Old Dominion with about 4 seconds left. They rebounded the ball and layed it back in for the win. I was shocked. It was crazy-fun to watch. The game was played about 30 miles from ODU's campus. Keep in mind, this is the year after Butler lost their star player, Gordie Hayward, who was drafted by the Utah Jazz early in the 1st round. Does this mean that BYU has hope post-Jimmer? Butler won their 2nd game, over 1-Pitt, by 1 point. The worst seed to ever win the Tourny was 8th-seeded Villanova, in 1985. 4th-seeded Arizona, 1997, is actually the fourth-lowest -and the most recent team outside the top 3 seeds- to ever win a ring (and to think, that matches UConn this year!). Butler's 8-seed ties them for the 5th "worst" team to ever make the Final Four. Their current odds to win the Tournament are about 1-in-4; At the start of the Tourny, they were 1-in-2500.

* Ah, Virginia Commonwealth University, "this year's" Cinderella (sorry Butler, you're old hat now). VCU, VCU, VCU. 0.03% of prognosticators picked VCU to beat Big XII champ Kansas... That's not a lot. Before that game tipped, one of Kansas' hulking centers walked up to VCU's diminutive point guard and told him "Your run is over". VCU got out to a 20-4 lead and won the game by 10 points. 1-Seed Kansas was the 2nd-most popular pick to win the tournament. VCU's head coach is named "Shaka". Shaka Smart started a new trend by conducting his post-Elite Eight interview wearing the basketball hoop his team cut down after the victory around his neck the entire time. VCU was one of the last 4 teams in, along with USC, Clemson, and UAB. Surprisingly, I actually picked them to win two games, including an upset of Big East bad-boy Georgetown. And boy did they (18-point victory). Except that they've won 5 games now, 1 more than any other team still standing, and 4 more than any other Play-In team in the history of the tournament. They killed USC (of the PAC-10). They beat Purdue of the Big Ten by 18. And they beat ACC team Florida State by 1 (the #1 defense in the nation). The only "power" conference they haven't faced, and beaten, yet in this tournament? The SEC. As in, SEC Tourny champ Kentucky. That would be crazy. No 11-Seed has ever won the Title before. Nothing worse than an 8 has. In fact, no 11 seed has ever made the championship game before at all. Only twice has an 11 made the Final Four before now, and both of them won their Elite Eight games by buzzer-beaters... not like how VCU demolished Kansas. And both of them were winning games by about 5 points a pop. VCU? 12. One of those, George Mason (2006), shares a conference with VCU, and actually finished above them in conference play this year. VCU lost their last 4 conference games of the regular season, and finished 4th in their conference, the CAA, or Colonial Athletic Association. They came into the tournament with the #143 ranked defense in the country. Sheer, complete, utter crazy-ness. VCU's odds to win the Tourny were 1-in-200,000 (as NO TEAM has ever won 7 games in the Big Dance), 1-in-820 to make the Final Four. "So you're telling me there's a chance!" I wish I had bet $1 on VCU.

And now finally, in more-related news...

~ Wendy Chapman, last year's champ, rose from a tough start to finish the year in 4th or 5th place (depending on Kentucky and Derek), tied with Adam Erickson, Bryant Casteel, and Joel Roller. Again, A-Bomb and Joeller were noobs this year.

~ Ericksons: Steve beat Adam who beat Karen who beat Lauren who beat Garrett.

~ Andrews: Star beat Kier who beat Londa who beat Steve who beat Russ who beat Lauren who beat me.

~ Rollers: Joel beat Rachel who beat Nathan.

~ Wifedom! Valerie beat Dan, Star beat Russ, my Mom beat my Dad (just like during my childhood), Maranda beat Ryan, and Lauren made a come-back from the last year or two to beat me again. Reppin' the boys, SteveE beat KarenE, Bryant beat Kelly, and Phil beat Charlotte.

~ VP 17: (Roundy beat Bryant who beat Ryan Lillywhite who beat Stephen Joel Jensen who beat Rob Shaw who beat Jared Armstrong who beat) Russ who beat Dan who beat (Jason Davies who beat) me who beat Ryan. I beat someone!! Yes, Ryan counts. All four of the original VP 17 finished in the bottom 30% nationally and lost to our significant others.

~ At the bottom: Carly came in WORST PLACE! Garrett was close. Kelly just above that.

WHEW! I can't wait until next year guys!!!

~Mars

Mars' March Madness update, 03/23/2011

Hey Y'all!

Sorry this is a little late, as my good laptop has recently died a sudden and unexpected death. We plan to add another one to our family soon... before my next research paper is due! I am sending this from my school library, just so you know.

Hopefully everyone is enjoying their Mad March so far, the best weeks-long holiday of the year! We're done with the first week of the NCAA Tournament, meaning 2 rounds of games down, 4 left still to go (Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and the National Championship Game). Which of your favorite teams have survived so far? Which of your picks have dropped like flies? Let's recap together some of what we've learned so far...

BYU- Still dancing baby! Jimmer Fredette may have sealed his Player of the Year awards nationwide, scoring a combined 66 points as the Brandon Davies-less three-seeded Cougars beat Wofford and then Gonzaga (this was the 13th year in a row the Bulldogs made the tourny... they are from the West Coast Conference, which BYU will be joining next year). The Cougars now advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1981, 30 years ago! During that magical run led by Danny Ainge, Russ and I were comfortably inside a pregnant Londa's belly. How time flies. Next up for BYU is the Florida Gators, a 2-seed, who BYU beat in the 1st round of last year's NCAA Tourny. The game is being played in New Orleans, Louisiana, not far from UF's familar "swamping" grounds. The game will tip-off Thursday evening (March 24th) at 4:27pm PST, on TBS (For a complete listing of game days, times, and channels, go here: http://mattsarzsports.com/basketball2010/NCAATournament.aspx ). Florida is favored to win by 3 points and is seeking revenge. The winner will face the Wisconsin (4) - Butler (8) [Thu. @ 6:57pm PST] victor Saturday on CBS in the Elite Eight. Two weeks ago, Jimmer alone scored 52 points against New Mexico on the same night that Top 10 Wisconsin scored only 33 points against Penn State all game. And we all remember that Butler made it to the NCAA Tourny Finals last year, losing to Duke when their last-second shot bounced off of the rim. Note worth noting: BYU has never made it to the Final Four.

Arizona- Kiernan's alma mater, the 5-seeded Wildcats, beat Memphis and then upset 4-seed Texas to gain a match-up against 1-seeded Duke, last year's grand champion. It's Arizona's first Sweet Sixteen in, like, 2 years. Jerks. This game will start at 6:45pm PST Thursday night, and the winner will play the SDSU (2) - UConn (3) champ [Thu. @ 4:15pm PST]. Of course, BYU beat Arizona by 22 points this season and beat SDSU twice, both times by 13 points, before losing to the Aztecs in their 3rd match-up in the Mountain West Conference Tournament Finals in Las Vegas. Connecticut features Kemba Walker, the likely runner-up behind The Jimmer for National POY. Both SDSU and UConn are undefeated in tournament play this year, including the regular season, their respective conference tournaments, and NCAA play thus far. Live scoreboards can be found at: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/scoreboard?d=2011-03-24&c=nit&refresh=60

Friday night, Florida State (10) will face VCU (11) [who saw that coming?], Kansas (1) plays Richmond (12), North Carolina (2) faces Marquette (11), and in the big game of the night Ohio State (1) squares off against Kentucky (4). Both Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University are small schools from Richmond, Virginia, not far away from one of the last four teams left OUT of the tournament, Virginia Tech, which has a much larger and now very jealous fanbase. VCU was one of the last four teams that got IN, and they played an opening game against USC for the rights to play 6-seed Georgetown. VCU beat the Trojans, beat GU by 18 points, and then won their 3rd game against 3-seed Purdue by another 18 points. Thus, they are the only team in the Tourny today with 3 wins. None of the other 3 play-in winners, such as Clemson, won their second game. Marquette is one of 11 teams from the Big East conference that got into this year's Big Dance, a new record. Surprisingly, they are one of only TWO Big east teams remaining, alongside UConn. Other B.E. teams that were upset early and may have wrecked your bracket with their losses (like they did mine), besides Georgetown (6), include Pitt (1), Notre Dame (2), Syracuse (3), Louisville (4), and St. John's (6)- who lost by 15 to Gonzaga. Both Marquette and UConn beat teams from their own conference in the 2nd round to advance. The MWC also has two teams left, same as the Big east... out of just three schools that made the tournament. UNLV, of course, lost badly in a minor upset to Illinois. I called that one wrong too. Kansas, to win four games, only has to beat a 16-seed (Boston), a 9 (Illinois), a 12 (Richmond), and then either a 10 (FSU) or an 11 (VCU). Ohio State, meanwhile, has beaten 8-George Mason, faces 4-Kentucky next, and could have 2-North Carolina after that. And 1-Duke remains on OSU's side, while the 1 on Kansas' half (Pitt) is gone. Luck?


In First Place in our group currently is my Father-In-Law, Steve Erickson! Steve has 500 points, which puts him in the 100th percentile of the millions of fans playing across the world. That means that his bracket is literally one of the top brackets in the country right now, not just in our group. Steve has a whopping additional 1200 possible points remaining. The most amazing part of his success is that he spent more time figuring out how to log-in to ESPN.com than he did actually filling out his bracket. Mostly asleep and partially senile, Steve got on the computer around midnight the night before the game locked; With Lauren's help coaching him over the phone, a half an hour and a dozen "Oh Geez!"es later he was in and haphazardly choosing teams, with admittedly little knowledge of the field. He has Kansas picked to beat Kentucky in the national championship game. GO STEVE! http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/entry?entryID=5741093.

Ryan Lillywhite is #2, with 470 points, 30 behind Steve E. He also has 1200 PPR, with SDSU picked to beat BYU in the Finals. Which would be crazy. Ryan L. is also in the top 1 percent of the nation with his great picks thus far. He is also the first person of many in our group behind the POTUS, Barack Obama, who is pretty phenomenal at this type of thing apparently (490 points!). http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/entry?entryID=4267886 Bobama had an official entry into our group last year, where he finished decently high.

Tied in 3rd place with 450 points apiece are my sis Kier, my bro-in-law Adam Erickson, Bryant, and my cousin Joel Roller. They've all picked Ohio State to win this thing, and all but Joel picked them beating Kansas... he picked Notre Dame. Ohio State over Kansas was also the strong national consensus coming into the tournament. All four are in the top 4% of the nation. This is also Adam and Joel's first time filling out a bracket.


As for me: After the first day of games, I was tied for first place. After the second day of games, my bracket was shot. My only hope left was Ohio State beating Pitt in the championship game. On the third day of games, Pitt became the first #1 seed to lose. So... I'm out. Out of 34 brackets (and not all of them serious), I am left down in 24th place, in the bottom half of the country. I would like to thank you all for competing against me, and most of you for beating me. I appreciate the humbling process. This would be the 3rd year in a row Bryant has beaten me, after never filling out a bracket before in his life. Others beating me include: Karen E., my Mom, my Dad, my lil' bro Russ, his fiancee Star, his roommate Rob, my dirty wife Lauren (haha), my cousin Nathan, my buddy PhilRad, and finally, sadly, Maranda Anderson. Congrats Yos! To those I am beating: Ryan Anderson- You are really bad. For reals. Actually, Russ, Star, and Nathan, I have a tiny hope of passing again someday. My points possible remaining is a poor 920, but it still beats Russ' 840, Star's 560, and Nathan's 440. Bryant's wife, Kelly, has just 320! Sorry Kelly. She picked by the alphabet, I've been told. http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/group?groupID=75639&entryID=626583

I guess this brings us naturally to those dwelling at the very bottom of the heap. To those unique souls, we salute your adventuresome spirit and thank you for entertaining the rest of us by playing! Kelly has just 280 points total. Garrett Erickson, my smartest BIL, who we continually nagged and nagged for days, finally picked according to a pretty, decorative pattern scheme, and thus has 250 points, only HALF of his dad's total. And my dear sweet Carly picked according to which names she liked the best- She has 240 points (less than half of our top contestant, her grandpa on Mommy's side). She really liked Xavier, who I guess may be some cartoon character (on Caillou?). She liked Temple, because she likes the Temple. She liked Princeton, because she's a princess who likes princes. She liked LIU, because it sounds kinda like BYU. And she also really liked Bucknell... we still have no idea why. And oddly enough, she picked BOTH South-east region Sweet Sixteen match-ups 100% correctly: Butler-Wisconsin and Florida-BYU. Not even our Steve Erickson did that!! She has Wisconsin and BYU advancing. Carly picked BYU to win it all, unsurprisingly. Good girl! Jason Davies (who is also beating me) picked BYU as well. Good man! Carly and Garrett are both in the bottom 1% nationally. Garrett had all four 15 seeds in his Elite Eight, and two (Northern Colorado and Akron) in his Final Four. And, like me, he lost a bunch of points by picking Ohio State to beat Pitt in the last game of them all. I hate you Pittsburgh!! Both Garrett and Carly have 680 PPR. Which is 240 more than Ryan Anderson. For reals.

A tribute, in memorium, to those who have lost their Winner:
Star- Pitt (she still loves them)
Nathan- UCLA
Rachel Roller- George Mason
Ryan Anderson- Pitt (call me, we can talk trash)
Kelly- "A" is for Akron


You know, March may be over in a week, but Fear Not, the Madness does extend into April! Lauren will be happy to hear that "Mustache March" ends for me tomorrow though (yes, I've been growing out a creepy 'stache since last Monday). I should take a picture. Although, who knows what will happen in May..... Peace out!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_105125936236197

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=134084319995045

~Mars

Fact of the Day: There are 8 basketball players left in the NCAA Tournament named Justin. There's Only One Jimmer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqX_b_Bu4hI

Mars' March Madness Bracket Challenge- JOIN NOW!

Dear Andrews family and friends, and friends of friends!

Alas, that glorious time of year has finally once again arrived, where talks of 5-12 match-ups abound, and painful worrying over who will win each 8-9 seed contest fill our minds! March Madness is finally HERE, the Big Dance! Will Cinderella's foot fit the glass slipper in 2011? Is Duke a lock to win it all, again? Can SDSU really make the Final Four? Will The Jimmer of BYU somehow find his way through the bracket to a rematch against Florida?

Please, JOIN in my favorite holiday this time around! 30 people joined the group last year, and this year there's no reason not to become even bigger and better than ever! With Duke edging out surprising Butler on a last-second miss, Wendy Chapman won it all last year, finishing in the 99th percentile nationally and just ahead of Star. The prior two winners were Doug Abenroth and Lauren.

As before, emails and bloggings shall keep you informed of just how smart you are. Or at least how bold your picks prove you to be. We love our friends and family that take 20 minutes to at least fill out a bracket and give it the ol' college try (pun intended). It can be fun! Just ask Tyler, who finished 4th last year (darn Kansas), or Bryant, who has only played twice in his lifetime but has beat me both times. WINNING! http://4throckfromthesun.blogspot.com/2010/04/we-have-winner.html

Join for free online through ESPN.com. The link is http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/group?groupID=75639 . The group is once-more named "Andrews and Friends".

Good luck, and may all your wildest picks come true!~Marshall


P.S. Pay this group link forward, Invite all of your friends. The more the merrier!