Counselors sprint out to early Calcutta lead

The Counselors having the traditional first round Red Auerbach stogie

Amherst, N.Y. -- The Counselors waltzed through the first round capturing six big wins to sit atop the leaderboard heading into the tournament's first weekend. As expected, with the low Average Seed Rating, the morning line favorites jumped right out on Thursday, running the table in all four games.

Led by 3-seeds Florida State and Baylor, 4-seeds West Virginia and Butler, the barristers held serve with all six of their higher seeded squads. Helping themselves to some home cooking, by winning two games in the Buffalo region (WVU and Wisconsin), the Counselors sit pretty with hopes of hitting double digits after the first two rounds.

Freddie's Gang

The Catholic Boyz put together a 3-win streak and are right in the thick of things once again after a crafty draft. Riding upsets by 11-Southern Cal and 10-Xavier, the Boyz of the cloth are once again a threat to win the Calcutta for the first time since 2009. With big dog 1-North Carolina taking care of business, the Catholic Boyz on St. Patrick's weekend is the hunch play in Vegas.

The Elders laughed all the way up the leaderboard

After openly questioning the morning line, the Elders shrugged off the odds snub and reeled off five wins over the first round to tie the Catholics one game back of the Counselors. 2-Louisville led the charge for the Elders and after a couple scary moments in the 5-Notre Dame game, the old guys sit right in the thick of things once again.

It was a streaky two days for the Amigos

The Amigos started on a 4-0 tear heading into the Seton Hall-Arkansas game, and after some unfortunate Pirate turnovers, the skid started. After the Hall went down, SMU and Marquette gagged both of their games and Northern Kentucky was overmatched against 2-Kentucky. They're not out of it by any stretch of the imagination with mighty 2-Arizona and red-hot 7-Michigan playing solid ball, but what could have been a 7-1 start, turned into a .500 record.

Well, well, look who's hanging around

For the first time in years, the Commish can sniff the leaders and sends four teams into the first weekend, including two big seeds. Two late night Friday wins over the Amigos (Kentucky, South Carolina) thrust him right into the hunt. How will the perennial bottom-dweller deal with the pressure of being in a Calcutta race? A big 12-Middle Tennessee State win over Minnesota set the stage for potential bigger things to come. Is this the year?

Breathe, Chief, Breathe

The Bunch are still hanging in there with their two kingpins 1-Villanova and 1-Kansas. An upset win by 11-Rhode Island helped the cause, but they will have no time to catch their breath, as a run of the table will be required to keep up with the deep teams on the top of the leaderboard.

UCLA held off a game Kent State for the Slayers

The Tax Slayers toughed it out through the first two days with three wins coming from 3-UCLA, 3-Oregon and 4-Purdue. The road will start getting rougher for the Slayers, but if they send three teams into the Sweet Sixteen, you can't count them out.

She's warming up for the Win-Docs

It was an abysmal performance by the Win-Docs over the first two days of the tourney. Nothing went right for the defending champs and it looks like a Duke run will be the only thing keeping the fat lady quiet. St. Mary's as your wing man, just isn't going to get 'er done. Thanks for coming.

Next report on Sunday night/Monday morning. Enjoy the games over the weekend.