The Daily: Ole Miss!, Trono Family Reunion, Nation Wide Shamrock

And so it begins!

Ole Miss comes from 17 down to knock off BYU in the play-in First Four game.  Last year, Tennessee parlayed a play-in first round victory to a spot in the Elite 8, before falling to Derek Trono's Michigan Wolverines.  Is Ole Miss this year's unheralded SEC squad that'll go deep in the tourney???

Speaking of Derek, he got his picks in shortly after his Aunt Lisa.....and a day ahead of his Aunt Julie....and Uncle Paul and Brother Luke are lurking out there somewhere.   Aunt Lisa entered from Virginia, while Aunt Julie emailed from her luxury suite at TD Garden.  Rice's "scouts" are nation wide!  Don't be surprised to see kids from Boston or Virginia wearing the green & white next season!

But speaking of nation wide, how about The Shamrock!  My dad entered from North Carolina.  Now, granted, he tried to slip both Kentucky and Wisconsin past me, but he entered! And, any minute now, I expect to receive picks from Tom Lewis of Indy Cornrows fame.  The Shamrock is everywhere!

Good news, bad news for Tom.

The Good:  5 Indiana schools made the tourney.  The Bad: all 5 ended up in the same region! Not exactly the best Shamrock strategy.

My money -- Tom's entry includes Purdue, if only to keep himself in the good graces of Suzanne Lewis, my favorite Boilermaker and to whom I'm forever grateful for introducing me to Harrys Chocolate Shop, the Mid-West's official bar of The Shamrock 15.

The Daily: PK sets a record, the Committee disappoints.

Well, it's only Monday morning, but already a Shamrock record has fallen!

At 8:53 AM, a mere 14 hours after the brackets were released , my brother, Patrick Kennedy, submitted his picks. I have no idea what the old record was, but it wasn't Monday morning.  As well as I know most of you, I'm fairly certain 83%  you waited until about 4:45PM on Thursday and tried to pull the old "I was working and haven't seen any scores."  The other 17% waited until Friday.

Great enthusiasm from PK!  Clearly he's motivated to bounce back from a controversial 3rd place finish in last month's Pour House Chili Contest.

Speaking of records, I have a feeling the record for "percentage of entrants who pick the same #1 seed" won't last much longer.  Last year, 43 of 63 contestants picked Florida.  I might be crazy, but I don't anticipate much love for Duke, Villanova, or Wisconsin.

Finally, I'm disappointed Duke is a #1 seed.  As a 2, Duke would've drawn a ton of Shamrock support from all you misguided Blue Devil fans.  The Committee's decision to make UK & Duke 1's renders it unlikely that a Duke loss in the first round, which would be their third in four seasons, will impact the Shamrock's outcome. I was looking forward to the collective anguish.

Alas, hope is not lost.  Check out this interactive bracket from the folks at The Power Rank. Duke plays the winner of the play-in first round game between North Florida & Robert Morris. Power Ranks favors North Florida.  If the Ospreys  win, they have a 1.2% chance of knocking off Duke.  Holy Lloyd Christmas!  And what a nickname!  Go Ospreys!

2015: Back to Back Stan Slams?

The Shamrock

2015

Shamrock II

A March Tradition

THE SHAMROCK is back!  STAN WILLIAMS dominated from start to finish & clinched the inaugural Shamrock before the semi-final games tipped off.  Stan’s picks from the 7 & 8 seed lines, UCONN & Kentucky, played for the title and were joined in the Final Four by his #2, Wisconsin.  Stan’s stunning SHAMROCK victory catapulted him to The Stan Slam:

Won the Shamrock

Won the Burlington Free Press World Cup Challenge

An undefeated season & the Division 1 State Championship in soccer

Found a new gig as a blogger.

But as I said in last year’s final Shamrock Daily, enough about Stan.  Let the games begin. 

The rules, scoring, and prizes are on the tabs.

Fee is $10 per entry.