Catholic Boyz Serve Up Rousing Opening Round Sermon

The Catholic Boyz shot out of the gate like a cannon, tying a 10-year old opening round record set by the Bunch in 2002 with 7 (count 'em) opening round victories! The Boyz blitzkrieged the field with five opening day wins before winning two of three on Friday. Belmont was the only team between the Boyz and opening round perfection, a feat never accomplished in the storied history of the Calcutta. The record books (see right sidebar) have been updated and they now go after their own second round record of 5 wins set in 1999 and 2009.

Spurred by upset wins by 12-VCU and 10-Xavier (in true Catholic Boyz form) the Boyz sprinted out to fast early fractions dominating day one of the competition. Every close matchup the Boyz faced the past two days they came out on top (see 8-Creighton and the aforementioned upsets). But as they say, it's a marathon not a sprint.

Lingering behind, however, are the co-record holders of opening round glory, The Bunch of Chieftans. Sans an upset win by the game Bonnies, the Bunch was looking at 6 opening round wins. They sit two off the hot pace set by the Boyz, but in striking distance and buoyed by top seed 1-Michigan State. The Bunch also was riding Friday's upset train with high seeded victories from 13-Ohio and 12-South Florida in the evening sessions. Don't count out this Bunch.

Sitting tied for fourth with 4 wins each are the Tax Men and the Counselors. Between these two, the Counselors look like they have more fire power left to launch a late close against the top two. The barristers have a well balanced group of four teams going into the second round between 2-Kansas, 3-Marquette, 6- Cincinnati and 7-Florida.

The Tax Men rode the Cinderella slippers of 15-Norfolk State (say that five times fast) who served a crushing blow to the Amigos' 2-Mizzou anchor squad. They are still mathematically alive and anything can happen in this wacky tournament, they'll be looking to catch a slice of the pie with a few second round victories from  3-Florida State or 4-Louisville.


A four-way logjam for the basement with 3 wins each are the remaining teams. A quick synopsis of each team's opening round and weekend outlook follows:

- Tres Amigos. The call isn't too far away as the aforementioned Tiger disaster set the Amigos reeling and looking for answers. An late Friday night upset win by 10-Purdue was the only thing keeping this squad out of the cellar.

- Win-Docs. Recieved a "chirp, chirp, chirp" text around 10pm last night, but 15-Lehigh's big upset win and 1-Kentucky holding serve was about all he had to cheer about. The Docs do have a strong 6-Vandy squad, that has been known to fold come tourney time, maybe they can hang around awhile? As Vandy goes, the Win-Docs go.

- The Commish. Stepped off the ledge around 5pm on Thursday evening and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Thanks to Missouri and 2-Duke to turn the nation's attention off the top seeded 1-Cuse. A big upset win by 11-NC State and dominant performance by 1-North Carolina is keeping the Commish in the hunt. A sweep of the weekend puts them right in the fray.

- Elder Statesmen. Can you say Morning Line Favorite Whammy? Sorry, boys. Looks like 7-Notre Dame was looking forward to that Sunday matchup with Lehigh a little too quickly and that one was a pure stomach punch to the Elders. The good news is all three remaining teams (3-Georgetown, 4-Indiana and 9-St. Louis) are all balling right now, so they just need to shift it into Al Davis mode.

So a particularly ho-hum Thursday turned into Holy Shit Friday and that can only mean that the weekend's games should be even better. Good luck and Happy St. Patty's Day and congrats again to the C-Boyz.

P.S. My sleeper selections went 5/8 with upset wins from 11-Colorado, 11-NC State and 9-St. Louis. *pats self on back*

The Commish