Breakdown of the rest of the morning games - Day 1

 Games are going off every hour.  For a little while there we had all 4 TVs going at the same time.  I’ll be back with rankings after the second game is done, but I want to write up the next set of 4 games while I have some time:

Vegas Line: Baylor -20.5

Picks for Baylor: 211

Picks for Norfolk State: 1

Hey look, it’s everyone’s least favorite #1 seed!!  Seriously, nobody likes Baylor.  Only 41 people have them making the Final 4, despite being the #1 seed.  I get that they are the lowest #1 seed, but that’s really low.  For comparison, Kansas has 91.  Arizona has 122 and Gonzaga has 145 picks to the Final 4.  If you wanted to be contrarian, I think Baylor is looking pretty good.  They were the unanimously voted #1 team in the country earlier this season, and they are the defending National Champions.  You’d think that would count for something.  I don’t anticipate them struggling with Norfolk State, but that’s why they play the game.

Vegas Line: Tennessee -17.5

Picks for Tennessee: 207

Picks for Longwood: 5

I think there were only 2 teams that are playing in their first NCAA tournament.  The first was Bryant, who already lost as a play-in team.  The second is the Longwood Lancers.  Where is Longwood University?  No one really knows.  I’m guessing Eastern Time Zone, but that’s about as far as I can narrow it down.  I’m not sure if the #3 seeds are particularly tough this year, or the committee did a bad job of seeding, but virtually nobody has any of them winning a game.  I think Colgate has the most people picking it over Wisconsin (16 people).  No other #14 is single digits.  Tennessee is a sneaky dark horse for a lot of people (31 Final 4 picks).  We’ll see.  Rick Barnes has a horrible track record of underperforming in the tournament.  Then again, so did Baylor until last year.

Vegas Line: Iowa -9.5

Picks for Iowa: 185

Picks for Richmond: 27

Both of these teams are on somewhat similar trajectories.  Both won their conference tournaments in order to qualify.  The main difference is that Iowa was going to get in anyway and Richmond absolutely had to win the A-10 tournament to get in.  So, both teams are pretty hot right now, but I think consensus opinion is that Iowa was severely underseeded as a #5.  29 people have them in the Final 4.  That’s more than the other 3 #5 seeds combined (Houston, St,. Mary’s, Connecticut).  As for Richmond, they have a cool mascot  (the Spiders).  If they win this, it may be the upset of the day – at least the morning.

Vegas Line: Gonzaga -22.5

Picks for Gonazaga: 209

Picks for Georgia State: 3

I want to personally thank the selection committee for making my life at least slightly more miserable than it has to be.  For those that don’t know, I key in anyone’s entry that didn’t use the template.  In order to make that go faster, Excel has an autofill function, so I typically only have to enter the first letter of the team and it populates.  Compliments of both teams starting with G, I had to take more time to make sure it filled in correctly (or at all).  I had the same problem with Duke/Davidson in the second round.  These are first world problems that exactly one person cares about.  However, I am that one person and I am writing this blog, so tough break for everyone else.  Honestly, there’s not much to say about this game.  I would lay the points and watch Gonzaga pound Georgia State into dust.

Vegas Line: North Carolina -3.5

Picks for North Carolina: 148

Picks for Marquette: 64

Marquette is another one of those teams I wouldn’t have had in the tournament.  They are OK.  They beat some teams, but I didn’t think they had a strong enough resume for inclusion.  They could still win this game though, which would make about 64 people plus the Jumpin’ Jesuits happy.  This isa classic field separation game.  For those that aren’t familiar with the scoring, there are 32 points in each round.  Since there’s only one game in the finals, that game counts for as much as all these 1^st round games.  That also means that people are largely  playing against other people that picked the same winner as them.  That makes games like this one more or less a tie-breaker.  It’s important to win, but if your champion loses early, it kind of doesn’t matter.  The trick here is that everyone’s champion is still alive, so you don’t know whether it will matter or not until later.  So, you may as well root for whoever you picked here.

I’ll be back in second with my first standings update.