First Round Running Post: Everyone's Picks; Live Bracket Updates; Contest Coverage
Your first-round NCAA tournament running thread featuring everyone's picks, live bracket updates, and contest coverage.
We are underway in the first round of the inaugural Robn $2,500 Tournament.
I've gone ahead and paired each matchup's responses together, so you can view your picks next your opponent's picks to see how you're measuring up in real-time. This is also the first time you'll be able to see what your opponent (and everyone else) has picked.
That is viewable here:
Separately, the bracket will be updated live as results come in. The bracket is viewable here.
Congrats to the handful of you who have already won and advanced to the next round because your opponents failed to submit.
This email will also be the lead post on www.robnsports.com with the same headline as above.
Be sure to check back on this post as we'll be updating results in real-time and adding color on some of the spiciest matchups and results below.
Colorado Beats Florida, Rekofke Downs Moscowitz (2.4% of all points allocated)
Kyle "The Dirty Duck" Rekofke took down first-round opponent Larry Moscowitz (adding insult to injury due to Moscowitz's personal Florida Gator proclivities), winning an insurmountable 1,855 points
Casey Stettler, meanwhile, used the Buffs win to inch closer to a massive comeback win over the lower-seeded Kevin Jackson. Stettler still needs wins from James Madison and Grand Canyon later tonight to pull off the epic comeback.
Otherwise, very few points were allocated on this game since the price wasn't posted on it until late the night before the 9am PT submission deadline. Shout out to Rekofke and Stettler who sat up late night Wednesday to wait until this line was posted and took a streaky Colorado team in a good spot.
Yale Stuns Auburn As Hogan, Forman, Benjamin all win (2.4% of all points allocated)
In a all-timer of a March ending, Yale came back to take the lead against Auburn, then somehow held off the Tigers' many chances to win in the final two minutes.
The massive upset made winners out of three Robners who all took Yale 6.7x.
Josh Benjamin took out Jake Williams, winning 670 points and finalizing his score over Williams of 1,053 to 673.
In a move of unnecessary over-aggression, David Forman went all-in on Yale, winning 7,330 points in a single game and OBLITERATING his poor opponent, the No. 7 seed Michael Hirshenson off the face of the Earth.
Sarah Hogan, meanwhile, utilized a 400 point allocation on Yale to win 2,660 and defeat Aidan McDowell, who himself was on Yale but to a much smaller degree.
Shout out to Devin Kimball who also won 670 points with a Yale sprinkle, though he had already advanced to the second round earlier.
Clemson Chokeholds New Mexico, Makes Winners Out Of Botle, Owono (8.2% of all points allocated)
The fourth-highest allocated game of the first round had several ramifications for Robn-ers' first-round survival.
In spite of being a betting favorite, New Mexico (0.75x) was a trendy "upset" pick both in this tournament and in the real world. But the Lobos disappointed their backers.
Raymond Owono defeated Jake Hatch with the Tigers' win, winnings
Andrew Bolte defeated Christian Odjakjian with the Clemson win, winning 594 points on the Tigers.
Jake Williams and Josh Benjamin were on opposing sides of the game. The Clemson win denied Jake the chance to extend his lead over Josh, who picked up 132 winnings. Jake now leads by 290 points. Josh can win with either a Vermont upset over Duke or a Yale upset over Auburn.
Kevin Jackson unsuccessfully putting 300 points on the Lobos kept opponent Casey Stettler's hopes alive - but he's still clinging by a thread. Stettler likely needs all of James Madison, Grand Canyon and Colorado in order to knock off Jackson, who leads 550 to 0.
Eric Single also won big on Clemson, but had already progressed due to forfeit.
Colgate-Baylor and San Diego State-UAB had very minimal point allocation, and no allocation which would affect the outcome of any matchups. Western Kentucky-Marquette and Stetson-UCONN were not offered on the card.
Northwestern Dominates FAU In OT, Leaving Burnett And Owono On The Ropes (3.5% of all points allocated)
Heavy favorite (for an 8-9 game) FAU went down to Northwestern, who caught late fire against the Owls.
FAU's loss was nearly devastating to A.G. Burnett, who would have won his matchup against Tim "The Fabric" Twilliger with an FAU win. With Twilliger's 685 in winnings in the bank, A.G. will now lose the matchup unless either James Madison or Grand Canyon wins.
The win also kept Jake Hatch's hopes of victory alive against Raymond Owono. Hatch won 932 points and now needs a New Mexico victory over Clemson, while Owono will win if the opposite happens.
Other winners Jon Dziok and Josh Pearl won on the pick, but already have advanced due to forfeit.
Darrell Mitchell's 526 winnings, meanwhile, do not matter in the grand scheme of things vs. his opponent Bob Moncrief - that game boils down to whether Moncrief's pick of James Madison wins over Wisconsin..
Kansas Holds Off Heroic Push From Samford (6.5% of all points allocated)
If you thought NC State-Texas Tech was one-sided, every point of the 5,552 allocated to Samford-Kansas was on upset darlings the Bulldogs.
Stephen Hill's all-in on Samford was one of the most notably aggressive wagers. His loss means an automatic victory for his opponent, the No. 4 seed Kyle Shields, even though Shields also allocated 400 points to Samford and lost, himself.
Sarah Hogan and Andrew "The Lightning" Bolte each allocated 500 and lost. Hogan is still hanging on to a 400-point Yale prayer in her matchup against Aidan McDowell, while Bolte's matchup with Christian Odjakjian depends on the two games mentioned below.
Devin Kimball and Tevin Hall allocated 800 and 400 points respectively, on Samford, but they each automatically won their round due to opponent forfeit.
Washington State comes from behind late to knock off Drake (8.3% of all points allocated)
Drake suffered first-round heartbreak against a Power Conference team they should have beaten for the second-straight year.
Jon Merck came away the biggest winner with over 1,000 winnings. Merck won all five of his picks today, and Wazzu was the highest allocated one. The win led to the unfortunate demise of Zack "Professor Z" Talbott, whose remaining allocations on James Madison and New Mexico would not be enough to vanquish Merck even if they were successful.
The other major winner was Nancy Fowle, but unfortunately her 408 in winnings was not enough to keep her alive against Tyson Goss.
The biggest losers on Drake included Christian Odjakjian (800 points). Odjakjian is all allocated out. His matchup with Andrew Bolte now hinges on whether Bolte wins either his Clemson or James Madison picks tomorrow.
Kyle Shields allocated and lost 652 points (whose entire matchup hinges on the Samford-Kansas game anyway), Connor Pelton (440) and Raymond Owono (450).
Opponents Casey Stettler and Kevin Jackson both allocated points to Drake. Jackson leads that matchup 550-0 going into Stettler's several Friday sprinkles.
North Carolina State continues magic momentum, defeats Texas Tech (3.8% of all points allocated)
Almost everyone who got in on this game was in on NC State (2.0x), and they were resoundingly rewarded.
Tyson Goss led the way in terms of volume, winning 1,000 on the Wolfpack, and defeating his opponent Nancy Fowle despite her winning two lower-paying picks.
Alex Aragon won his third game of the day, winning 800 and extending his total to 1,560, still short of the amount needed to guarantee victory over opponent Shane Rima.
Zach Bloxham won 800 on the Pack, extending his lead over Austin Farnsworth to about 850 points. His matchup with Farnsworth now turns on Farnsworth's 350-point pick later tonight on Samford (2.75x) (which as of this writing hung in the balance).
Christian Odjakjian won his first pick of the day, netting 600 points that he allocated to NC State. The win helped him pull a bit closer to opponent Andrew Bolte.
Greg Talbott won yet again and extended his lead over Skyy Vodka Cabell to roughly 1,000, setting up a flurry of Cabell sprinkles tomorrow to have much more meaning than originally thought.
Trendy Upset Pick McNeese State Doesn't Pan Out Against Zags (8.5% of all points allocated)
This game was the third-most allocated of the entire first round, and points came in overwhelmingly on McNeese, a popular upset pick.
Downtown Tyler Brown became the first participant to advance based on on-court results, taking down Chip Ormond who went all-in on McNeese.
Biggest winners on the Zags included Jeff Lunsman, Nancy Fowle and Jake Williams. All three are still in play relative to their opponents.
Sarah Hogan, Jake Hatch and Jonathan Michaels meanwhile lost 600, 500 and 500 points respectively.
Hogan's match with Aidan McDowell will now likely turn on Hogan's long-shot allocations on Samford or Yale.
Hatch's match with opponent Raymond Owono now hinges on whether FAU beats Northwestern tomorrow morning. If they do, Owono will win automatically.
Oakland-Kentucky was a fantastic game but only involved two allocations (919 points on Kentucky and 100 on Oakland) by two people who already won their matchups due to forfeit (Fred Flinstone on Kentucky, Devin Kimball on Oakland).
Texas Beats Colorado State In Game Where Both Teams Attempt To Play Basketball (6.5% of all points allocated)
All 5,713 points allocated on the game were done on Colorado State, who came into the game hot after a First Four throttling of Virginia.
This was the seventh-most allocated game of any in the first round despite the line for the game only being available for people to select on the card for 24 hours (as opposed to the full 60 hour window).
It did not go well for those who partook.
Downtown Tyler Brown, the No. 3 overall seed who nearly went all-in on the underdog Rams, gained nothing from 1900 of his available 1938 points. His first-round matchup with Chip Ormond will be determined by whether Chip wins his all-in play on McNeese State later tonight.
Opponents Tim Twilliger and A.G. Burnett allocated 760 and 513 points on the Rams respectively. Twilliger has 700 remaining (across Samford 2.75x and Northwestern 1.37x), while Burnett has 1,027 remaining (across Grand Canyon 1.87x and James Madison 2.17x).
No. 7 seed Michael Hirshenson allocated 1,000 unsuccessfully. His match with David Forman will now turn whether Forman wins his extremely bold all-in on Yale (6.1x).
Ryan Munson got nothing from his 200-point allocation and has 521 points left, all of which are allocated on Texas A&M. His contest with Chelsea Goss will now ride on whether Goss wins her James Madison allocation tomorrow night.
Dayton's 24-4 closing run caps off astonishing comeback win over Nevada (3.9% of all points allocated)
Darrell Mitchell, who had just previously picked up a win with Oregon, also got . And yet, neither win matters for him. The matchup between him and 63 seed Bob Moncrief will come down to whoever wins James Madison-Wisconsin. If the Dukes win, Moncrief will upset Mitchell. If Wisconsin wins, vice-versa.
Alex Aragon barely missed getting his third win of the day, and a chance to add yet again to his Grand Canyon insurance total.
Greg Talbott did get his third win of the day, nearly doubling his lead over Skyy Cabell. Their matchup will likely hinge on whether Cabell wins his massive Texas A&M allocation (1000 points at 1.0x). If Cabell loses that, Talbott definitely wins, and Talbott might even win in spite of an A&M victory.
The other significant winner was Andrew Bolte, who netted 440 points and opened up an early lead on Christian Odjakjian with many picks left to play out on both sides.
Oregon Holds Off South Carolina (9.3% of all points allocated)
This was the most-allocated game of the first round. All 19 people who picked the game picked Oregon (1.1x), and they all won as the Ducks bullied and buried the Gamecocks.
Your biggest winner was Jared Dupes, who nearly went all-in on the Ducks, but Dupes already defeated his opponent Jake Welch because Welch didn't submit.
Skyy Cabell was the next biggest winner, taking home. However, due to his opponent Greg Talbott's earlier win on Duquesne, Cabell will need a win tomorrow vs. Texas A&M to advance.
Four others, Kyle Shields, Caden Wickwire, Kevin Jackson and Ryan Munson each allocated 500 to the Ducks and won. The win was particularly big for Munson, who already won big earlier on Duquesne, bringing his total to 1,310. Munson's opponent Chelsea Goss also netteed 362 points on the same game to begin her accumulation.
Top seed Alex Aragon added to his Grand Canyon defense fund with a 440-point win to add to his earlier 320 points, while Austin Farnsworth got 385 much needed points to pull a bit closer to his opponent, Zach Bloxham.
Oddly, opponents Zack Talbott and Jon Merck mirrored each other for the second time in four games. Talbott had put 300 points on Michigan State while Merck put 200 on Michigan State. Both won. Talbott put 300 points on Oregon while Merck put 200 on Oregon. Talbott holds the early lead, but both have several more picks left to play.
(Creighton/Akron and Morehead/Illinois accounted for about 1% of all allocated points, combined, and resulted in very small wins for a handful of contestants, so we skipped this recap.
Duquesne holds on against BYU (1.4% of all points allocated)
Only five people picked this close contest, with no allocation larger than 500 (Nancy Fowle on BYU - sorry).
Ryan Munson, Devin Kimball and Greg Talbott each took the Dukes and got a very nice 3.8x multiplier on their winnings.
However, each went so small (200 points, 125 points and 200 points respectively) that their opponents still have enough left on the docket to catch up.
Talbott opponent Skyy Cabell must win his 1,000 point allocation on Texas A&M to have a chance to defeat Talbott.
Munson opponent (former Robn CFB Champion) Chelsea Goss must now win her 750 point allocation on James Madison to have a chance to defeat Munson.
Meanwhile, Fowle is now severely disadvantaged against her opponent Tyson Goss, who can defeat her if any of North Carolina State, UAB or James Madison win.
Michigan State defeats Mississippi State (7.64% of all points allocated)
Contestants won 3,141 points on the Spartans blowout of the Bulldogs. The game was the 6th-most allocated of all first-round games.
The biggest winner was Aidan McDowell, who gained a 720-point lead over opponent Sarah Hogan.
Meanwhile, three matchups went head-to-head on this game:
- Jake Williams (won 332) vs. Josh Benjamin
- Zach Bloxham (won 400) vs. Austin Farnsworth
- Jonathan Michaels (won 400) vs. Cannon Winder
Benjamin has like 11 total picks, and will mathematically be alive vs. Williams for awhile.
If Bloxham wins one of his two remaining picks (NC State or TCU) it will be nearly impossible for Farnsworth to advance.
