The Madness is ON!! Midday Update - 8 games complete - 3:30pm PST

Kudos to the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles!!!  They busted brackets today, becoming just the 9th 15 seed to knock off a #2 seed as they beat Ohio State, a 15 point favorite!!  Just 4 entries picked up the 13 bonus points from ORU (2 entries from Jackson - first name?) along with Brian Gimotty's Spatif (best bar in the world, ever!) Tatanka (best drink in the world, ever!) and DocentDarling from Darren Kenney - who is the last perfect entry in the Hopski (picking just the first 5 games).

Oral Roberts train to shoot the ball - click link for article - they started off their season with each player getting 6 weeks to sink 20,000 jump shots (unlike say Indiana - where Archie required 20,000 defensive slides to defend the paint!).  This was not a one-off miracle day for ORU, the led the NCAA in free throw % this year (82.4%!!) as well as 3 pointers per game (11.4)!  They were built to beat a team like Ohio State that really only had a single inside threat - so matching up was not a problem.  What a win!  Certainly a spot in the Sweet 16 may not be a stretch for the Golden Eagles with Florida up next!!

In addition - it looks like Oregon State will be delivering the annual 12/5 upset victory - taking out the Tennessee Volunteers rather handily.  Yawn - a bit of a side note after the ORU victory.  Pac12 though looking good at 2-0 already!

Back to this year's Hopski.  129 entries received (and I presume all will be PAID in the next 48 hours!!).  Here's the breakdown of the Champions picked:

Gonzaga 60

Illinois 37

Michigan 13

Baylor 6

Alabama 3

2 for Texas and Houston and one each for Virginia, Iowa, Purdue, Ohio St, W Virginia & Rutgers.

Thus, hahahahahahaha - In Roy We Trust from Mark Iantosca (Connecticut Dad, JP Morgan VP and a once great Warsaw NBA point guard, now probably looking more like a center) becomes the FIRST ENTRANT to be eliminated from Hopski Champion contention.  That I believe is a Hopski record (5th game to be eliminated).  You da man Mark!!!   **get that entry fee in asap!!!

On a side note - as quite a few of you have Indiana ties one way or the other........

THE MASSHOLE HAS SPOKEN:

Boston Celtics head coach and Indiana native Brad Stevens reaffirmed on Friday that he is not considering the IU job.  I'm not a kid anymore. I'm a 44-year-old Masshole," Stevens said. "I swerve around on the road, eat Dunkin' Donuts and I root for the Patriots."

Yes - that is your Commish right at this moment getting off the couch knowing that Brad Stevens is NOT coming home to Indiana.........

Enjoy the rest of the day - I am off to The Patio to watch some games somewhere other than my living room with my dog and daughters.  Next blog update probably Saturday morning sometime.  I will try and update standings, etc... later this afternoon.  I really need to get the auto-updater thing working!!