Friends in Madness,

Welcome to one of Commish's favorite annual emails. It's packed with goodness:

• Bracket leaders so far
• Potential Score standings in each Bracket pool
• ID'ing our best Survivor picklines so far
• Survivor Golden Spreadsheet analysis
• PERFECT pick'em scores in Round 2

I can't remember an NCAA Tournament that was more Jekyll and Hyde in the first two rounds.

Round 1: Every upset that COULD have happened seemingly did.

Round 2: Every major upset bid fell short, including going 0-for-3 in overtime games.

Given the chalk (translation: a lot of good looking brackets), we are in for a wild finish.

ROUND OF 32 RESULTS

What happened, in one paragraph

(11) Oregon lost in double OT, to (3) Creighton. (9) Texas A&M lost in OT to (1) Houston. (14) Oakland lost in OT to (11) NC State. (10) Colorado and (7) Texas fell JUST short vs. (2) Marquette and (2) Tennessee. You get the idea? We're left with one of the chalkiest Sweet 16 lineups in recent Tourney history.

BIG BRACKET

• R32 avg points: 21.2 (of 32 possible). Again, ALL 1- and 2-seeds advanced. Gonna be a high scoring bracket round when that happens.
• Total avg points: 42.2 (of 64 possible).
• Most damaging loss: Baylor (to Clemson). This was the only true upset of the round. 226 of us had Baylor making the Final Four.
• Leaders: @jakespiro11 and @DoTheDizzle (55 points). Jake's bracket has 'Zona over Tennessee in the final. Dizzle's bracket has UNC over Purdue. Both have all Final Four teams intact.
• Best Squad: The Busted Brackets (152 points). AC Alumni March Madness is RIGHT behind at 151 pts. 

SURVIVOR

• Round W/L record: 1,982 - 142 (93%). Our top 10 picks all won. One of the best survivor rounds in SZN history, across any sport.
• Damage done: 164 down (22%). Baylor (91 picks) was responsible for more than half the carnage.
• Survivors: 582 are on to the Sweet 16. 
• Best Squad: 9 Squads left with at least 3 survivors, including something called Gagglegoose MM. 

PICK'EM

• Round performance: 78.7% win rate. Of the 16 teams that had more picks than their opponent, 15 of them won. Baylor was the lone exception. 
• Best round score: 32 (12 people). That's right. TWELVE people went 16-0. Check out how nice that looks!
• Overall leader: @burnie1583 (41-7). They went 16-0 in R32 after a solid 25-7 performance in R64. Overall standings
• Best Squad: The Busted Brackets (113 wins). SIX squads are within 5 wins of the lead. 

BRACKET #2

• R32 avg points: 20.8 (of 32 possible). We took more upset chances here than we did in BIG Bracket.
• Total avg points: 41.7 (of 64 possible). 
• Best round performance: 30 (three people). No one was perfect, but 15/16 ain't bad!
• Leaders: @Cardarelli103 and @Bgonc (54 points). Cardarelli's bracket has UNC over Purdue in the final. Bgonc's bracket has Creighton over Iowa State (though is down a Final Four team in Baylor).
• Best Squad: Marching to Madness with Nigel (145 points). Dub City is in second place at 140. 

UPSET BRACKET

• R32 avg points: 19 (of 36 possible). WAY lower than our R64 average of 43.4
• Total avg points: 62.5 (of 123 possible). 
• Best round performance: 32 (7 people). The max was 36, with 3 bonus points from Clemson-over-Baylor and 1 bonus point from Gonzaga-over-Kansas.
• Leaders: @Bishopsycamore (105 points). Our Round 1 leader has a big lead (11 over @Spartans1) and wants that wire-to-wire win. Bishop's bracket has KU in the Final Four but otherwise looks strong from here. Third place @faypgbc's bracket has all 1-seeds in the Final Four and all 1-2 matchups in the Elite Eight except the Midwest, where they have (1) Purdue vs. (15) Saint Peter's (lol).
• Best Squad: Buzzer Beaters (249 points). It's like this squad has done Upset Brackets before! They're up 22 points on the field. 

100 TIER BRACKET

• R32 avg points: 21.5 (of 32 possible). Better than the other brackets!
• Total avg points: 42.1. What's interesting about 100 Tier is the AVERAGE typically matches (or perhaps even exceeds) the main pool, but the top score is ~always lower. 
• Best round performance: 28. Nobody got 16 or 15 right, but 32 of our 100 players got at least 12 picks correct, which elevated the average.
• Leader: @Staceysedge (53 points). Stacey has opened up a 4-point lead over @Mcmanus2410 and the field, BUT Auburn in the final might not get it done. Scroll on for Potential Score standings!

BRACKET POTENTIAL SCORE STANDINGS

Potential Score = Highest score someone's Bracket could earn, if everything breaks their way from here.

In theory, the leader right now could have 2 Final Four teams who've already lost. Potential Score standings are thus a more precise representation of who might win the pool.

We'll get this on the website eventually, but for now, we've got a (FANCY) Google Sheet.

View Bracket Potential Score standings >>

Here are the leaders in each Bracket:

BIG BRACKET:

1/ @jakespiro11 (128-point potential)
2/ @Natehohm13 (126)
T3/ @collinevans (125)
8 others tied at 125

BRACKET #2:

1/ @Cardarelli103 (127-point potential)
2/ @ChipotleJEFF (126)
3/ @Tmarcos24 (125)
T4/ @Lambda_derg (124)
2 others tied at 124

100 TIER:

1/ @Mcmanus2410 (122-point potential)
2/ @dtleo (121)
3/ @jameschodgins (120)
5 tied at 119

UPSET BRACKET: This is... a lot more complicated to calculate. We're working on it! 

BEST SURVIVOR PICKLINES SO FAR

Similar to Bracket Potential Scores, looking at Survivor picklines tells you which people have the most firepower left.

Of course, you still need to win your picks. That's always and forever the only thing that truly matters in Survivor. But it helps if you've got a bunch of 1- and 2-seeds left to pick from.

Or if you're our "leaders", ALL of the 1- and 2-seeds...

Highest combined seeds picked among survivors:

• @gdmslug (43): (11) NCST (11) ORE (9) NW | (5) SDSU (4) DUKE (3) ILL
• @arocsports (41): (9) TAMU (7) UT (5) ZAGA | (11) NCST (5) SDSU (4) BAMA
• @Seahoffs (40): (11) ORE (5) SDSU (5) ZAGA | (11) NCST (4) DUKE (4) BAMA
• @Captainsandy (40): (11) NCST (11) ORE (9) MSU | (4) BAMA (3) ILL (2) MARQ

DID GM JUST IMPROVE THE GOLDEN SPREADSHEET?

YES HE DID. Because @TheGM is a bad, bad man.

For the uninitiated, the Golden Spreadsheet is the single most useful analysis tool for Survivor and One-and-Done pools. It tells you what % of (alive) players have used each team/player.

Illinois, unsurprisingly, is our most used team at 65% (they were the top pick in BOTH R64 and R32). So if you're one of the 35% of survivors who still has Illinois available, that COULD come in handy.

Purdue is the most used 1-seed so far (34%) while Houston (23.5%) is the least.

NOW, what GM did was added an INDIVIDUAL view of teams (players) available on each person's pick history page. 

So if you're getting down to it and want to analyze exactly which teams each PERSON has available, just click their username in the standings and see their pick history.

Yours in hoops utopia,
The Commish