Madness Lifts Catholic Boyz to Record-Tying First Round

AMHERST, NY -- It's apropos that it took a prayer from half-court to lift the Catholic Boyz back into the Record Books. The heave helped tie their 2012 feat and that of the Bunch in 2002, with seven first round wins. Only a loss by hometown UB kept them from perfection.  Ironically, if the bank wasn't open, the Win-Docs would have added their name on the right margin with their seventh win in the round. Easy come, easy go in the NCAA Tournament.

We're off to a fast start and the contenders have already started to separate themselves from the pretenders as the Boyz and the Docs vault to the top of the Calcutta leaderboard.  The Boyz won impressively with five teams that were seeded No. 8 or higher. Solid wins by 2-Xavier and 5-Indiana have the altar boys in fine fettle going into the Round of 32 (aka the Second Round).

The reaction from Freddie on the UNI
bucket was gold, Jerry, gold.

The Win-Doctors have returned to the forefront and advanced two teams in the Midwest with seeds of 12 and 15.  Are you kidding me? Add 13-Hawaii who caught some big breaks from Cal injuries and whatnot, and they are sniffing the Chalise for yet another year. With two big time seeds in 1-Oregon and 2-Villanova, they look to be the likely favorite the rest of the way. And to think that Artie wanted to take back the reigns this year....

The Win-Docs strategy paid off in healthy dividends

The Counselors made a big move on day one, but slowly advanced through the ranks and their Moneyball approach has them sitting squarely in third-place behind the two top teams and within striking range. The problem is what lies ahead for the good attorneys.  With only 3-Miami and 4-Iowa State likely to be favored in their Round of 32 contests, it could be an uphill climb for our friends from the bar. Tough losses by 6-Seton Hall and 8-Colorado kept them from piercing the first round record books.

Baki after Thursday's contest could not contain himself.
Unfortunately, Friday didn't prove as lucrative

The Elder Statesmen, with their "slow and steady wins the race" philosophy broke even on the opening round, losing a heartbreaker late last evening when a Cincinnati dunk was split-seconds too late and the difference between sitting one game back instead of three. The old guys have nothing higher than 3-Texas A&M who will have a tough outing against Cinderella 11-Northern Iowa in the next round. 5-Maryland looked good, but rough sledding after this round is in the forecast (Kansas, Villanova).

Elders - pfft. We are wild and crazy guys.

The Amigos have only their big dogs left in 1-Virginia, 4-Duke and 4-Kentucky. Good name recognition there, but the way this tourney has unfolded so far, that shouldn't matter much. Virginia did get a big break with the Sparty loss, a couple Virginia alums actually made some donations to Middle Tennessee State's annual fund after Friday afternoon's shocker.  The annual battle cry is not ready to be broken out yet....but when it is ready....the Chief Amigo says...

The Chief Amigo 

The defending champs had nothing to cheer about in the opening round and like the Amigos have a top seed remaining in 1-North Carolina, but tough losses by 4-Cal and 7-Dayton sent this team to the bottom half of the Calcutta. The Tax Men are still within spitting distance with a run by UNC and a decent 3-Utah could keep them relevant through Sunday.

It's just a flesh wound.

The Commish's Morning Line jinx appears to have held up, as the Bunch of Chieftans came away from Round 1 with two measly wins. They may have the chalk of the tourney in 1-Kansas, but with 10-VCU on the same side of the bracket, I'm calling this one early on election evening with only 10% of the precincts reporting. Sorry that I have to break this one out so early...but you know this is open game at Calcutta central....

There was no General Custer in Round 1

That brings us to the Commish & Associate and the futility continues for your fearless (and horribly picking) leader. Sparty done effed up. Kelly and I are just going to take the wives for dinner next year instead of making the annual donation. The lone bright spot is Orange.  That's right the $4 purchase faces a 15 seed and could be headed to the Sweet Sixteen. Only shot here is 2-Oklahoma running the table and picking up the National Championship check.

Enjoy the Round of 32.  Report Sunday night or Monday morning.

Amigos take lead after wacky day one results

The Kid looks good in Yeller

The Amigos maybe had to give up the jacket for a year, but they're back with a vengeance with three big wins on the opening day of the Round of 64.

Full Day One results can be found here and will be updated tonight in the upper right hand margin under the 2015 Results to Date Link.

#HornsUp!! RT @Bills4theThrils: Mess with the #bulls get the horns. #ub #OneBuffalo pic.twitter.com/KIAjwZCySK
— One Buffalo (@One_Buffalo) March 20, 2015

Good luck in Day two.

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

Defending Champs Storm Back, Kids From Harvard Are Smaht

West Amherst (AP) - The defending co-champions, the Win-Doctors, stormed back after taking the goose egg on Thursday to four out of five on Friday. Buoyed by blowout wins by all four teams (Duke, Michigan, Kansas and Illinois) the Win-Docs showed their mettle in Calcutta play.


I mentioned to a few of you the other day that some Harvard kid came up with an algorithmic pattern to predict upsets. He hit on his top 3 upsets based on his model with Marquette, VCU and Richmond. Quite amazing. He also had Morehead State with a 11%+ chance to upset Louisville (only 5% of the country went with Morehead in the 5.9 million ESPN brackets). Moral of the story: Kids from Hahvad are wicked smaht.


The Catholic Boyz fell one win short of the first round record, amassing six victories, only the upset loss by Georgetown (Virginia Commonwealth is a fine university) kept them from etching themselves into Calcutta lore. Round 2 is where the rubber hits the road and five teams are stalking the hot early pace set by the Boyz and are within striking distance.


The Counselors looked a little hung over from celebrating their St. Patty's Day victories and posted a goose egg on Friday, hurt badly by the upset loss by Xavier in Cleveland and a tough 2-point loss by Memphis against Arizona. Big games loom today for all four remaining teams for the attorneys at large.


The Bunch of Chieftans were propelled by the upset win by Marquette (who looks scary good going into the Syracuse game) bolstered the Bunch's chances to have a chance at the repeat. Notre Dame held serve against the MAC's representative, Akron to help the Bunch achieve the four win mark and stay in the hunt.


They always seem to hang around, and this year is no different. The Elder Statesman grabbed a nice upset win from VCU, disparaged by pundits for making the field, and obviously channeling it as locker room wall fodder incentive. Texas looked a little shaky holding off a pesky Oakland squad but got it done for the Elders.


The Amigos, trying to reverse Calcutta fortune and avoid the early dismissal (the fat lady isn't even humming yet) posted two solid wins on Friday with #2 seed UNC and #5 seed Arizona taking care of business. Their two lower seeds take the court today and will need an upset of one of the two to continue down the road.


Perennial doormats, the Commish took a couple tough ones on the chin early with Tennessee getting pummeled and Oakland losing a tough contest with Texas, but the ole' Commish stormed back with a #7 seed Washington late-night victory and a surprising #10 seed win by Florida State to barely remain alive. Top seed Pitt goes today and is the Commish's best shot at sticking around to get a little blog print.


The Tax Men, projected longshot along with the Commish, find themselves sitting right where we thought they'd be. But #12 seed Richmond takes on #13 Morehead State in a completely winnable game and the Tax Men could come out of the weekend with six wins. As they say in Monty Python's Holy Grail: "we're not dead yet."


Round 2 recap on Sunday night....enjoy!

Boom Goes the Dynamite!

Amherst NY (Reuters) - You couldn't ask for a better first round of games, four straight games with buzzer beaters, a couple major upsets and the Calcutta off to a rousing and potential record-breaking start. The standings have been updated and can be found in the upper right side-bar.

CATHOLIC BOYZ, COUNSELORS ROAR OUT TO 4 WINS ON OPENING THURSDAY

The Catholic Boyz with three winnable games today (Syracuse, Georgetown and George Mason) could tie the record set by the Bunch in 2002 of seven (7) first round victories. Propelled by Morehead State's improbable upset of Louisville - he went all Jimmy Chitwood on them. Cries of "We Want Morehead" verberated all through Kentucky as the cross-state rival did in the Big East Cardinals (Sorry Amigos). To top it off, the Zags put a beat down on the Johnnies and the Boyz are sitting in the catbird seat.

The morning line favorites did nothing but support the Commish's early thoughts of how it would go down. The Counselors enjoyed solid victories by Big East teams West Virginia and Cincinnati and impressive wins by Florida and K-State locked up a tie for the top spot going into day two. If the barristers can sneak two wins out today, it may be enough to separate from the pack.

The Bunch, Statesmen and Amigos all batted .500 on the day going 2-2 in their four matchups. The Three Amigos took the biggest blow of the day with the Louisville loss and survived a Temple buzzer beater to keep their hopes alive. The Bunch of Chieftans used strong victories by UConn and Wisconsin to maintain its stalking pace with a couple good teams going for them today (Notre Dame, Marquette & UNLV). Should they pick up a couple of wins today, they'll be squarely in the hunt. The Statesmen survived a Kentucky scare and the Jimmer put on a show proving they earned their #3 seed.

The Commish only could muster a win by top seeded Pitt going 1-2 on the day and it didn't look good for the captain as the Johnnies proved that they struggle on the road. Clemson was game early but the Counselors' Mounties took control with a 9-0 run before the half to tie it up and break away in the second half. The longshot Tax Men went 1-3 on the day, picking up an upset win by Richmond. It looks worse than it really is for the Tax Men as they get their big dogs rolling today.

The only goose egg of the day was served up by the Win-Docs who went 0 for 3 (Thursday), but return its two top seeds in action today.

Enjoy the Friday games!

Longshots Reign on Opening Day and the Big Least

West Amherst, NY (AP)

It was a big day for longshots The Tax Men and the Elder Statesmen, both hammering out 3 wins on day one. In a day where three Big East teams bit the dust (Georgetown, Notre Dame and Marquette) and another survived a major scare (Villanova) from a #15 seed from the Northeast Conference (Robt Morris), there were lots of story on the Calcutta front.

The Tax Men showed their mettle winning with their #2 seeds and picking up a major upset with the MAC champion Ohio Bobcats treating Georgetown with a little Hoya Suxa. With Maryland and Florida State representing tomorrow, the Tax Men could move into the second round with a solid four teams. Their only loss of the day was #14 seed Montana late into the evening.

The Elders shook off the longshot designation and picked up two major upsets with Murray State beating Vandy at the buzzer and St. Mary's (Cal) easily handling the itsy bitsy Spiders of Richmond. Kansas held court and all of a sudden the Elders are in the thick of things again. Here's another look at the buzzer beater by the Speed Racers:




While the Elders and Tax Men were reveling in their day one fortunes, yours truly is looking at sharing the bottom of the barrel record for first round wins and threatening to own it. The Commish dialed up goose eggs (see inset) with shots at the end of two games that went clank. Losing Georgetown pretty much was the kiss of death and it was nice knowing you all.



The morning line favorites, the Counselors, couldn't seem to handle the pressure being the chalk going into the tourney as defending co-champs. Major losses by Vandy, Marquette and Notre Dame have this team with a lot of catching up to do.


The Win-Doctors had a decent showing with wins from Tennessee, BYU and Washington offset by a loss from #16 seed E. Tennessee State. So they are on the board with the two longshot teams, all with three victories on Day 1.


The Bunch of Chieftans grabbed a Butler win and Sam Houston was game in defeat, but couldn't put it together in the final two minutes. Big day for the Chieftans tomorrow.


The Amigos had an up and down .500 day, pulling off a pair of upsets with Old Dominion taking out the Irish and Northern Iowa 3-balling the Rebels out of the tourney, and New Mexico surviving a scare from the Grizz. The other half of their Virginia contingent, Richmond didn't hold up their end of the bargain, and SDSU played valiantly before losing to the Vols (with some help from the refs) before some late night hearbreak.

It was a quiet day for the defending co-champion Catholic Boyz until about 12:30am when the bell tolled for Wake Forest and another OT buzzer beater plunging a dagger into the Amigos. The Boyz will get things really revved up tomorrow with five squads in action.

As the Commish will be at the regionals downtown all day tomorrow, the big board will be updated on Saturday morning.

No matter what happens, just remember, chicks dig the long ball.....