The Awl Bracket Contest Update: In Which Everyone Learns That TruTV Is Channel 779
Wow! Now I don’t want to speak for everyone here, but I think we can safely say that the first two rounds of this tournament (I’m ignoring the nonsensical practice of calling the play-in games the first round. Is anyone who’s not being paid by the NCAA actually calling it this?) have been pretty crazy! Equally exciting: the The Official 2011 Awl March Madness Bracket Tournament Challenge Sponsored By The Awl! Let’s go through some of the highlights.
The Big East? More Like The Not-So-Good-At-College-Basketball-East! If you weren’t following college basketball this year, there was a lot of talk about how the Big East conference was head and shoulders above everyone else. As it turns out, this is not really the case! Of the 11 Big East teams given bids to the tournament, only 2 remain. But, don’t fret: Those of you who picked the Big East to excel at the women’s tournament should know that the Big East is an incredible, undefeated, 9–0! Lol, jk. No one picked any teams for a women’s college basketball bracket, ever. How many women’s brackets do you think were filled out this year by not Barack Obama? Two? Three? Are these games even televised? Don’t worry, people who are saddened by your brackets being ruined by the Big East sucking in the tournament, let’s all share a big laugh at the expense of women’s sports!
Buzzer Beaters! There were a lot of them! How exciting!
Children Make Mistakes! If you didn’t catch the end of the Pittsburgh/Butler game, there was some controversy after a foul was called at the end of a tie game on a Pittsburgh player who was rebounding a missed free throw by his teammate. Now, if you aren’t familiar with how this works, it’s a pretty big mistake by the Pittsuburgh player to foul in that instance, although there’s an argument for the fact the officials could probably just let that call not happen as it’s the end of a tie game that would go to overtime and give both teams a chance to play an extra period of basketball in order to determine the winner. But back to Nasir Robinson, the Pittsburgh player who committed the foul: it’s insane to think that there is so much pressure put on this kid, because, despite the fact that he’s 6'5"/200+ pound huge basketball player, he’s still a junior in college who was born in 1989 (1989!!!). I’m probably being a little more sympathetic than I would otherwise be because of ESPN’s Fab Five documentary that showed Chris Webber’s mistake in his final college game, and obviously that was a much bigger mistake on a much bigger scale, but, still, seems crazy to think that these kids handle that sort of pressure. (1989!!!!!!)
Can That NAPA Auto Karaoke Guy Ever Work Again?! I mean, the commercial should be applauded for being so standout, but don’t you feel sort of bad for the guy in it because it seems like now that this is successful he’s locked in to being the NAPA Auto Karaoke Guy forever, not unlike the Verizon guy or Jared Fogle. (Probably worth mentioning that he’s also probably getting really rich off that commercial too, but still, FOREVER THAT GUY!)
The Awl Bracket Topped By “Bittersweet”! I would have more insights here, but everyone decided to come up with clever names for their brackets, instead of using their commenter names, making it mostly impossible for me to identify them and mock or laud them for being able to pick teams so well! To “Bittersweet”’s credit, although he/she/it claims to have picked “A completely random bracket” (the name of his/her/its bracket), it seems like there was at least a little know-how involved in his/her/its picking as he/she/it didn’t pick, like, Wofford to win it all. So, kudos to you thus far!
As far as Awl contributors, Abe Sauer looks to be closest to the top. I can tell it’s him because he thankfully made his bracket name the same as his commenter name. Tell me other people, was your bracket pun worth it? Was “Kenny Bracketface Edmonds” really that good of a joke that you couldn’t pass it up? Think long and hard “Vicky J”! Amongst Awl staffers, Edith and Adam are performing the best, but will probably be undermined by the fact that they stuck to their WASP-y Northeastern roots (they’re both from New England or some other really White people-y place) and both picked UConn to win it all, which, no matter how good Kemba is, isn’t happening.
(Also, If you’d like to associate your bracket with your commenter name, feel free to put your bracket name below in the comments. This is not meant to be as comment bait-y as it sounds. Honestly.)
