Day One - Hail to the Failures

Around 11:00 last night you may have heard a collective groan from a large area just east of Lake Michigan.  When the Michigan Wolverines, the second seed in the entire tournament, succumbed to lowly Cornell in overtime, not only did the entire state of Michigan emit a noise intoning frustration and disbelief, but a large section of Wockeydom shouted unsavory words to the sky as well.  It happens ever year--a heavily favored top seed gets knocked out on the first day, dozens of brackets are blown, and angry Wockeyites curse the fact they spent ten dollars on this stupid pool.  We've all been there.  Well, except for Kevin Jewett.  The man is a Wockey god.

The damage was fierce and widespread yesterday.  When Michigan bowed out, it meant that 27 Wockey brackets lost their championship pick.  15 more brackets also lost their winner when Denver and Miami went down (including your esteemed Commissioner-stupid Redhawks).   

After all of the carnage had been scattered, only three Wockeyites had managed to come out of the day unscathed.  Congratulations to Stu Speicher, Russell Kras, and Finley Mathiasen on picking all four games correctly yesterday. 

However, the most improbable and unbelievable result from yesterday is that 32 teams--32!--got zero picks correct.  That's 16 percent of the brackets!  We may have a ten-way tie for Wockey Puckhead this year.  I don't think I can afford all of that framed art.

It would be unfair to single out any of the 32 Wockeyites that screwed the pooch on the first day of the tournament, so I'm going to do it right now.  Last year, the Walker family continued a proud tradition of losing when me and my younger brother Zach duked it out for the ignominious right of being named Wockey Puckhead.  Fortunately for myself, Michigan made it to the Frozen Four (they giveth and the taketh away) helping me escape last place and leave it to Zach.  Hoping not to be outdone by our futility, this year youngest brother Chris and the esteemed captain of the Walker clan, our father Todd, deigned to choose a single team correctly yesterday in hopes of keeping the title of Wockey Puckhead in our family, where some believe it should never leave.  To the rest of you, know that both of them picked Boston College, UMD, Minnesota, and North Dakota to win today.  You'd better hope none of those teams are also moving on in your bracket.

Other interesting notes:

-Of the 32 Brackets of Shame, three were entered by current or former professional sportscasters, once again proving my theory that picking this thing is pretty much dumb luck.
-Two brackets that got 3 of 4 picks correctly were selected by coin flip and by having my four-year-old daughter randomly select names out of a hat, once again proving my theory that picking this thing is pretty much dumb luck.
-Up until four years ago, Stu Speicher had never heard of college hockey, and in fact believed hockey to be a term used when describing something annoying as in "This mosquito is really hockey" or "That is one hockey disc jockey", or "Alex's continued push of this joke is starting to get hockey."
-During your lifetime, the average human will grow 591 miles of hair.
-Kevin Jewett only got one pick correct yesterday and had Michigan going to the title game.  He may be mortal after all.

Heading into today, Boston College, Minnesota, North Dakota, and UMD are all heavy favorites according to the Wockey brackets, which means there's sure to be more heavy damage done.  Good luck to all!

On a brief side note, the standings page should be ready some time later today.  The scoring information will be posted, but for those wondering, the scoring is as follows:

1st Round Win - 3 points for a correct pick
Regional Final - 5 points
National Semifinal - 7 points
Championship - 10 points

In the last few years, the Wockey Champion has always won by picking the national champion correctly, so hopefully your national champion is still alive after today.  Unlike mine.  Stupid Miami.