Round one is in the books and nobody saw that coming. MTSU over Michigan State, Yale over Baylor, and OH YEAH LITTLE ROCK OVER PURDUE WHICH 44% OF MY POOL PREDICTED . I can say with confidence that outside of Arkansas, I have the highest penetration of Little Rock Trojans fans in the world (at least fans prior to Thursday’s game). Meanwhile, there were some other genius picks:

Slavo accurately predicted Hawaii over Cal, and Yale over Baylor.

Nadine and Euge both predicted Wichita State over Arizona, but both thought Vandy would be in the game. They also both (along with Paul) predicted Northern Iowa over Texas. Paul also predicted Yale and Little Rock.

Speaking of Paul, he predicted Little Rock in the final. He has more teams eligible in his Championship game (and Final Four) than I. Thanks, Michigan State.

By teams remaining in the Final Four:

4: Karolina (KU, VCU, Xavier, Utah), Nadine (Maryland, Duke, Xavier, Butler), Paul (KU, Oregon, UNC, Little Rock [I’m still seething]), Euge (KU, OU, IU, UVA [The Rage Bracket™])

3: Me (KU, Duke, UNC, MSU ), Ela (KU, Oregon, Kentucky, MSU ), Benjamin (KU, Duke, Stephen F Austin (!!), MSU ),

2: Igor ( Carolina/California, OU, Michigan, Little Rock)

And here are your post Round 1 standings. As of right now, I only owe lunch to Euge and her horrible IU-picking bracket, but a tie with Paul and an easily surmountable lead over the others means there’s still a lot at stake for me…

Name Round 1 Euge 24 Me 23 Paul 23 Slavo 22 Karolina 22 Benjamin 22 Nadine 21 Jens 19 Igor 19 Ela 18

So round two will hopefully thin out the herd a little more (Go UK!!!!) but this isn’t looking nearly as good as last year did for me.