Sorry this is a little late, but I wasn't by my computer last night. And just a disclaimer: as you can see from my Day 1 and Day 2 entries, these thoughts are my opinions. As such they're inherently biased, which I realize isn't exactly in line with journalism objectivity. So if any Duke fans are reading this, sorry.
Continue after the jump.
Yesterday, my colleague Andrew Scurria questioned why, politically, President Obama would fill out a bracket. Stats guru Nate Silver offers one answer: Obama's picks -- which, as of this writing, have the Leader of the Free World ranked at No. 3,337,106 on ESPN.com -- tend to favor schools in swing states.
Jay Leno asked Obama about this 36-plus minutes into his Tonight Show appearance:
MR. LENO: Like, do you look at the whole picture when you do that? For example, isn’t that a swing state? (Laughter and applause.) I'm just saying, are you looking at the whole picture when you pick?
MR. OBAMA: I mean, the fact that teams from North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, all seem to do well in my bracket –- (laughter) –- I think is a complete coincidence. Absolutely.
Silver's findings were statistically significant (at the 90% level), but probably not significant in any real sense, with 2012 still three years away.
Yet there have been some more meaningful studies to get you through March Madness, and Penn has been at the forefront. In last Sunday's New York Times, two Wharton professors wrote that NCAA hoops teams trailing by one at half are actually more likely to win than teams up by one. More after the jump.
From a political perspective, I don't see why President Obama's advisers thought it was smart for him to fill out an NCAA bracket. If he does poorly, he looks like a sports dunce. If he does well, he looks like a man who should be spending less time filling out brackets and more time saving Citigroup or crucifying A.I.G. And no matter how well Obama does, someone who wasn't happy with a Presidential snub was bound to mouth off at some point.
For Penn president Amy Gutmann, on the other hand, making picks in public is a good move. She has nothing to lose in the court of public opinion. If her bracket gets busted, who will notice?
Wouldn't you know it, Obama's picks are falterning already, while Gutmann's are doing quite well. Penn's fearless leader gue- I mean, picked the correct team in 23 of 32 first-round games. Obama's bracket — the one issue he's been conservative on — was right on just 19 of 32 games, and he lost two of his Sweet Sixteen teams (Florida State and Wake Forest), while Gutmann lost one (also Wake Forest).
Welcome to Session IV of the 2009 NCAA Wrestling Championships at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis! Soon up for the Quakers will be their final competing wrestler, No. 8 seed Rollie Peterkin at 125 pounds. A recap of earlier rounds will follow an account of his consolation quarterfinal bout.
Here's a quick recap of everyone's results:
125: No. 8 Peterkin def. Olanowski (Michigan St.), 21-1
No. 8 Peterkin def. No. 9 Clark (Iowa St.), 6-3
No. 1 Donahoe (Edinboro) def. No. 8 Peterkin, 7-3
No. 10 Sentes (Central Michigan) def. No. 8 Peterkin, 4-0
Peterkin's record: 2-2
141: No. 5 Hoehn (Missouri) def. Rappo, 3-2 TB1
Fish (Boise St.) def. Rappo, 7-0
Rappo's record: 0-2
149: No. 3 Caldwell (NC State) def. Grajales, pin
Grajales def. Hickman (Bloomsburg), 10-5
Grajales def. Kyler (Army), 3-2
Barnes (Oregon St.) def. Grajales, 11-3
Grajales' record: 2-2
157: No. 8 Hall (Boise St.) def. Dragon, 8-5
Johnstone (Ohio St.) def. Dragon, 11-8
Dragon's record: 2-2
174: Giffin def. No. 10 Brenner (West Virginia), 6-3
No. 7 Miller (Central Michigan) def. Giffin, 4-1
Onufer (Wyoming) def. Giffin, 5-3
Giffin's record: 1-2
HWT: Everhart (Indiana) def. McLean, 11-5
Hammond (Cornell) def. McLean, 3-1
McLean's record: 0-2
Hello and welcome back to the 2009 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Penn 125-pounder Rollie Peterkin is about to begin his quarterfinal match against No. 1 seed Paul Donahoe of Edinboro, so a recap of last two sessions will follow an account of Peterkin's match. Thank you and keep reading!
Here's a quick recap of the tournament so far for each Penn wrestler.
125: No. 8 seed Rollie Peterkin started strong, beating unseeded Evan Olanowski of Michigan State by technical fall, 21-1. He followed that up with an equally impressive win, outlasting No. 9 seed Tyler Clark of Iowa State, 6-3, to make it to the quarterfinals. Peterkin just lost his quarterfinal match to No. 1 seed Paul Donahoe of Edinboro, 7-3. A full account of that match can be found below.
141: In his final NCAA tournament, senior Rick Rappo had a disappointing performance, going 0-2 and being eliminated on the first day. He looked good in his first match, taking No. 5 seed Marcus Hoehn of Missouri to double overtime before losing 3-2. But he couldn't follow up that strong performance and lost his first consolation match to Cory Fish of Boise State, 7-0.
149: Senior Cesar Grajales started off his tournament with a tough draw, having to wrestle No. 3 seed Darrion Caldwell of NC State. Caldwell proved too fast and explosive for Grajales, notching a pin in the first period. But Grajales was able to bounce back, notching two consolation wins, over George Hickman of Bloomsburg and Mitchell Polkowske of Northern Colorado, to make it to the second day.
157: Like Rappo, 157-pounder Matt Dragon had a dissapointing first day. He went 0-2, losing to No. 8 seed Adam Hall of Boise State and Jason Johnstone of Ohio State. Despite being a senior, Dragon has one more year of eligibility, so he may well be able to make All-American next year.
174: One of the more impressive performances of the first day came from redshirt sophomore Scott Giffin. He started off with a big upset of No. 10 seed Kurt Brenner of West Virginia, 6-3. He then followed that up with a narrow loss to No. 7 seed Mike Miller of Central Michigan, falling 4-1. He will wrestle unseeded Shane Onufer of Wyoming in his first consolation match.
HWT: Senior Trey McLean wrestled one of the first matches of the day, and thus knew he was relegated to the consolations very early after losing, 11-5, to Nathan Everhart of Indiana. He followed that up with a 3-1 loss to Zach Hammond of Cornell to end his Penn wrestling career.
Continuing with the March Madness, I thought I'd post my thoughts on Day 1. So continue after the jump to read what I liked and disliked from Day 1.
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Welcome back to second session of the 2009 NCAA Wrestling Championships, held at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo. Before I get started, here is a quick recap of last session and the matches that Penn wrestlers have already wrestled this session.
Last session, the six Quakers wrestlers were only able to produce a total of two wins. Rollie Peterkin, seeded eighth at 125 pounds, won his opening round match over Michigan State's Evan Olanowski, 21-1. Scott Giffin scored a big upset over No. 10 seed Kurt Brenner of West Virginia at 174, outlasting the Mountaineer 6-3.
Aside from those two impressive wins, the Quakers had a lackluster first session. Heavyweight Trey McLean and 157-pounder Matt Dragon both lost in pigtail matches, and Cesar Grajales and Rick Rappo, at 149 and 141, respectively, each lost in the first round.
At the end of session one, Penn was in 31st place with 5.5 points.
Thus far, the second round has been more of the same for Penn. The Quakers had two good matches, a 6-3 win by Peterkin over No. 9 seed Tyler Clark of Iowa State and a 10-5 triumph by Grajales over George Hickman of Bloomsburg. But, just like in the first round, the Red and Blue had to deal with some dissappointment. Both Dragon and McLean ended their Penn wrestling careers on down notes. Dragon lost 11-8 to Ohio State's Jason Johnstone and McLean fell to Cornell's Zach Hammond, 3-1. Both are eliminated from the tournament.
Rick Rappo is still waiting to wrestle his first consolation match.
This is Eli Cohen coming to you live from the Scottrade center in St. Louis, Missouri. I'll be posting live updates on the Quakers wrestlers' performances at the NCAA Championships through Saturday. Six Penn grapplers qualified for the tournament, but only one, #8 Rollie Peterkin at 125 pounds, is seeded.
Follow along as I use Cover it Live below.
These four next days are the best four days in sports.
No question.
Whether or not my bracket gets completely shot by Sunday, I always enjoy this first weekend of the tournament. However, I agree to some extent with this Micahel Wilbon column. With fewer and fewer Mid-Major teams receiving at-large bids, some degree of the magic of this weekend has disappeared. Let's say either 12 seed Arizona or Wisconsin beats Utah or Florida State, respectively. Would it even feel like an upset since it'd just be a power conference team winning? (I mean it's Arizona, for crying out loud. They've made the tournament for 24 straight years.)
Mid-Major snubs or not, we still have some local interest in the tournament. Penn played four tournament teams this year: North Carolina, Villanova, Temple and Cornell, with the first two playing today and the second two starting tomorrow. UNC's going to coast against Radford, but No. 14 American might give Villanova a tougher game than you might think.
However, I still believe that Villanova will beat them. In fact, I have Villanova going really far. Like really, really far.
As you can see on the DP website by scrolling over "See DP editors' brackets" in the lower right-hand corner and then choosing my name, I've picked Villanova to go to the Final Four. I also have Connecticut, Louisville and Oklahoma, with the Huskies beating the Cardinals in the National Championship game. So yeah, I basically have 1985 all over again, with three Big East teams, but I don't have the Wildcats pulling off the upset. I just think Blake Griffin would be too much for Daunte Cunningham.
And I have Fran Dunphy getting not just his first tournament win since 1994, but his first two tournament wins. I can't wait for Christmas to have a career night against the Orange in the second round. But again, if I think Griffin would best Cunningham, he certainly is besting Olmos.
Finally Cornell. Yeah you're not beating Missouri. I see Missouri's athletic guards causing numerous first-half turnovers (let's say 12) against the Big Red using their "40 minutes of hell" press. Cornell might hang around for the first couple of media timeouts, but this game should be over by halftime.
Other notable upsets: No. 12 Northern Iowa beating No. 5 Purdue and No. 4 Washington (both overrated teams in my opinion). No. 4 Gonzaga beating UNC in the Sweet 16 (Ty Lawson's injury scares me). And I have three 11 seeds winning (VCU over UCLA, Utah State over Marquette and the aforementioned Temple upset).
Backtracking for a second, I strongly encourage you to check out the DP link above since it has all of us sports editors' picks, as well as stats for every tournament team.
I'll admit I had a lot of trouble choosing my bracket this year (and to be honest I have a few other entries in various pools). So how badly do you guys disagree with me?
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