No Extinguishing
Girls On Fire
Porter Absolved By Providence
Duderino Plays Favorites
Se–or ÒWincesÓ Takes More Hits
The Girls on Fire!!! (Valerie/Daphne/Izzy
Corwin) smoked the field on Friday, winning 15 of 16 games. The Girls were
perfect until Dayton upset Providence in the last game of the night. The impressive
performance—truly worthy of not one, not two, but three exclamation points—also gave The Girls a 28/32 record
for the first two days, just one win behind the all-time record of 29 set by Jon Charak in 2007
and tied by State
St. Propheteer last year.
The Girls on Fire!!! now have
a great shot at fulfilling their pre-tourney vow to Òeliminate each and every
one of you from the tournament one handle at a time.Ó Their only Sweet 16 team
eliminated is Baylor, and they have all their Elite 8 teams remaining.
But that doesnÕt mean
their task is going to be easy. The same game that spoiled their perfect
day—Dayton over Providence—launched perennial Chippens powerhouse
hv porter (Liz
Reinhart) into second place, leapfrogging her past NerdJordan and Alexander the Great.
Porter finished 114th last year—no doubt a penance for missing the
Challenge in 2013—but from 2008 to 2012 she finished out of the top 25
only once. Penance paid, Porter looks to be back in her old form.
After the tournament
started out Thursday with two 14 seeds knocking off two 3 seeds, you might have
thought you should have picked more upsets. But if you didnÕt pick any upsets at all, well, then youÕd be
tied for 8th place with El Duderino (John Koster).
Koster picked the higher seed in every first round game, the only player this
year to do so.
Will KosterÕs conservative
strategy keep paying off? Only time will tell. In the next round, the points
triple and the standings can really change. At least thatÕs what Felton Howard
(James Wylder,
103rd place) and Se–or Wences (basically dead last)
keep telling themselves.
Poor Se–or Wences. Poor,
poor Se–or Wences. His fortunes did not change on Friday, and he now finds
himself tied for last with (1) a suspected drooler (see Tournament Preview) and
known diaper dirtier, BabyJay (a/k/a
MiniMouse), and (2) Chez. We absolutely love Chez here at
Chippens, but she does rank 60 out of 61 on the All-Time Average Place list.
And she did submit her picks with the comment, ÒI pretty much guessed on all of
themÉ.Ó Wences, on the other hand—and this cannot be said
enough—submitted his picks with the comment, ÒDifficult for you but easy
for me.Ó Wences said he woke up Friday morning feeling like heÕd Òeaten a plate
of bad burritos the night before.Ó He apparently went back to the same buffet
Friday night and loaded up.
But itÕs true his fortunes
could still change—and so could yours. Butler/Notre Dame, Arkansas/North
Carolina, and Utah/Georgetown will all be pivotal games as the majority of
players either picked one or the other.
UCLA/UAB will also be an
important game because three of the current top five players in the standings
have UCLA. BabyJ and Poor Stache are the only two with UAB.
Standings Updates: Standings will be updated as close to real time as
possible throughout the day Saturday.