March Madness First Four Day 1: Office Chatter

There's nothing quite like the Monday in the office after Selection Sunday. The old guys and young country-clubbers will be talking about The Players and the casuals will be talking about their weekends, both still 48 hours from even thinking about their bracket. However, us ball-knowers will be throwing out feelers. Whether that's blatantly asking people to join their pools, our simply throwing out the phrase "St Johns is back" into the ether and poking our heads up from the cubicle to see if it landed on anyones ears. Any excuse to talk March Madness, and anything to delay Monday morning work for 10 more minutes. If you haven't been paying attention, but still want an excuse not to respond to Manager Jim's overly enthusiastic Monday morning "rise and grind" Slack message, just inject the question "Can anyone but Duke hang with the SEC?" into any Hoops convo. Perfect line to throw out, covers the two biggest storylines at once, makes you look knowledgeable, and will easily set off 5-7 minutes of chatter to shorten your Monday.

Speaking of buying time, we do have the First Four to get to before the madness starts on Thursday. And while some of you may have forgotten, let me be the first to remind you I went 46-32 last year, so I may have found something (doubtful).

[16] Alabama State (-2.5) vs [16] Saint Francis Total: 142.5

Ummmm... ya... this game stinks. Not the best start to March, but it's the first tournament game so I guess it does not have to be. Saint Francis somehow squeaked by heavy favorite Central Connecticut, a team they lost to twice by double-digits this year, in their conference championship. While Alabama State won their conference as a 5-seed with an average victory margin of 3.7 points. The pre-game coach handshake will simply be the Paul Rudd Hot Ones meme. No one thought either would be here and, triple OT aside, no one will remember either of them being here by Saturday. Instead of hoping an ugly game will be good, lean in to it. Embrace the suck. Saint Francis cannot score against any non-terrible team, and Alabama lives and dies (mostly dies) by the 3.

The Pick: Under 142.5

[11] North Carolina (-3.5) vs [11] San Diego State

Total: 143.5

There are multiple teams you could make an argument for that were more deserving than both of these teams. North Carolina is 1-12 in Quad 1, and SDSU rode a 3-point win over Houston in Vegas in November all the way to a play-in. If you want to stir the pot at work some more, start talking about how the Networks requested this bi-coastal match-up with a blue blood program for "ratings" over choosing the most deserving teams. That always goes well. However, much to the Networks delight, UNC is red-hot compared to SDSU who flamed out of their conference tourney to NIT-bound Boise State in their first game. The Tar Heels (21-1 vs non-Quad 1) continue to roll bad teams in this one.

The Pick: UNC -3.5

Nothing like a little 1-2 to wet the beak. Keep it simple. Just need to see the ball go in the net before we can get hot.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, so let's enjoy it. I'll see y'all tomorrow to cover Wednesday's games.