All,
The field of the 2026 NCAA Tournament has now been cut in half following yesterday's opening round games. The games mostly went according to script, with the only worse seeded teams to win on the day were 9 seeds, who actually have historically won more than half of all their opening round matchups against #8 seeds. Florida saved us all the hassle of having to lookup "where the heck is Prairie View A&M anyway?" more than doubling up their score. The #1 and #2 seeds had an average margin of victory of 30+, though UConn brought that number down in a surprisingly tight game with Furman. The day was not without drama, though, despite the lack of upsets. Tenth seeded Santa Clara stayed tight with blueblood Kentucky throughout their 10 v 7 matchup. With just 2.4 seconds left in a tied game, the Bronco's Allen Graves drained a 3. As the bench and players erupted in celebration, the Wildcats quickly inbounded the ball before Santa Clara could get a timeout (or at least before the ref could see that Santa Clara was trying to call a timeout). Flying past the revelry, Ortega Oweh of the Wildcats got just past half court before launching a desperation shot that sailed through the now silent arena, kissed off the glass and dropped to tie the game. The buzzer beater itself did not seal the fate of Santa Clara, but clearly their spirit* was destroyed in that briefest of seconds. Kentucky pulled away in the extra session, sending the Broncos packing.
The Pool of 42 completed its second day of competition as well. Joan Ganton surged into the pool lead thanks to the 100+ outputs from Florida and Purdue. She is followed closely by Tom Melton and Kim Huang. Yesterday's leader David Luftman's scoring pace slowed on day 2, dropping him down to 4th place. At the bottom of the pool, the colorful Red Rampage BTP John is now the low scorer with just 236 total points. Unfortunately for him, blue state Virginia got their act together to hold off Wright State and stay alive in the pool - so he will keep earning points. John is trailed by Tara Rogers and Denis McCarthy, who benefited by sub-threshold scores by Clemson and Miami Ohio, which earned them negative points. 
Our high scorer of the day was Mike Negley, who put together 693 points on day 2, earning him the second $20 L'Etape award for winning the stage. Joining him in the winner's circle is Paul Schreiber, who now finds himself in the dubious position of being directly in the middle of the pool. Despite making it an early uphill battle for him to get to either pole, he is now playing with the house's money, also pocketing $20.
The day also marked the first bonus points earned for anyone that selected the "Marta" bonus, awarding points based on the scores from the women's tournament. The standings sheet will now show which women's team the entrant has, so you can follow along as that tournament continues on its one day lag from the men. So far, the Ryan Crouser bonus (for teams scoring 3 consecutive baskets) is the highest scoring, adding 150 points per entrant who selected it. That number may be front loaded with the high scoring outputs from the top seeds, however. Following that is Bonnie Blair (layups) with 138 and Big Air (dunks) with 129. Bringing up the rear is Marta and its women's points - but, as mentioned before, those bonuses are on a one day lag from everyone else, so expect that number to rise.
Remember, the base threshold goes up to 66 for round two. The following have adjusted Thresholds:


Joan Ganton: 71
Tom Melton: 70
Kim Huang: 69
David Luftman: 68
Michael Deckner: 67

Pacifist Admiral Tom: 65
Christopher Davis: 64
Denis McCarthy: 63
Tara Rogers: 62
Red Rampage BTP John: 61

Current scores are below, with complete standings attached.


Name TOTAL
POINTS
Joan Ganton 872
Tom Melton 865
Kim Huang 828
David Luftman 825
Michael Deckner 821.2
Zac Favreau Smith 810
Lorenzo Quiogue 808.9
Jacob Schreiber 796.6
Leo Dorfman 792.8
Adam Hudnut-Beumler 779
Jakub Stosik 773.6
Shubhro Biswas 768.5
Neal Griffin 767
Ryan Flynn 764.75
Michael Miniaci 763.2
Bob Hopper 1 762
Mike Bopp 752.2
Patrick Steines 751.1
Sean Garahan 750
Natalie Luftman 746.75
Caroline Schreiber 746.5
Kerri Luftman 745.25
Vincent Hubner 745
Ben Nemser 741
Uncle Jack McDonald 740.8
Brian Bharwani 737.2
Giuseppe Randazzo 735.25
Kathleen Cahill 733.2
Matthew McTague 732
Ryan Heffernan 730.4
Mary Ellen DePaul 728.75
Brian Leamy 727
Daniela Randazzo 726.4
Sarah Ganton 725.7
Antonio Ayala 724.3
Daniel Sumner 721
Greg Nilles 717
DAVID MILLER 714
Ethan Deckner 709.25
Kurt Thiemann 708.75
Ben Tobin 708
Emma Gibbons 704.75
Mike Negley 703.3
Josh Deckner 703.2
Bridget Heffernan 703.2
Michael Schoendorf 702.5
Brian Ganton 699.5
Thomas Daly 698.5
Patrick Appello 698.4
Michael Boyan 694.8
Will Sargisson 693
Dominic Sembello 689.4
Jack Toomey 685.4
Lainie Gussman 682.25
Mario DePollo 681
Bobby Robertson 680.75
Chris Pierpont 677.8
Salina McLaughlin 676
Eric Eckenrode 675
Philip G DePaul 674.4
Patrick Steines 2 669
Jack Schreiber 665.7
Team Thom 665.6
Jim McCarthy 665.5
Katie Schreiber 664.8
Lauren Schreiber 664.75
Jeremy Schreiber 664.1
Bob Hopper 2 659.7
TJ Cilvick 659
Noah Balanoff 657.2
Tom Groth 656.25
Lynn Delaney 655.5
Rhonda Veugen 655.45
Josh Meyer 654.5
Aunt Cathy McDonald 654.4
Connor Gentile-DePaul 652
Sean Farrell 650.6
Patrick Keisler 640
Eamon Redington 636.55
Ean Steinberger 629.75
Nabeel Azar 624.2
Max Deckner 624.1
Dave Pettit 623.55
David Marchisin 622.2
Molly Wagner 620.2
Kaitlyn Pierpont 619.2
Paul Schreiber 617.6
Eileen Rosa 617
Jomo Thorne 615.7
Ryan Gibbons 614.25
John Englert 613
Mark Sanicki 609
Michael Pinbell 608.6
Noah Balanoff 606.6
Justin Pasquale 605
Jillian DePaul 603.4
Larry Kriz 602.5
Charles Santanna 601.6
Tyler Cross 600
Jaclyn Farrell 596.65
Mark Gruber 596.5
Brian Thiemann 594.65
Dean Macchi 585.6
Tony Miniaci 584.25
Mavis Mai 583.4
Kelly C Hirano 581.6
Killer B's 579
Mckenzie Maier 578.5
Eric Fishman 575.2
Monica Heffernan 572
PAUL THIEMANN 571
Mike Heffernan 570
Ray Lacho 569
Kerry Farrell 565.6
Meri Schreiber 564.8
Andrea Pellicciari 563.7
Lauren Gentile 563
Brian Redington 1 561.2
Brian Pierpont 556
Molly Farrell 550.75
Julia Ford 550.15
Omar Azar 549.8
Philip R. DePaul 549.75
Alisha Schreiber 548.25
Kevin Park 546.5
Nick Hurt 545.25
Jay Rosenberg 543.5
Sidney Schreiber 542.8
Kelly G Hirano 541.45
Ben Benoit 540
Stu Nemser 537.3
Michael Pinbell 534.75
Mike Vogel 534.05
Michael Patti 531
Donald DeCaro 529
Bob Corcoran 529
JJ Phillips 528.5
Bob Wagner 527
Derek Landel 524.4
Tina Nugteren 522.1
Michael Schreiber 519
Matt Solow 516
Victoria Keisler 515
Maryellen Groth 509.6
Ed Li 501
Robert Cappuzzo 500.6
Kevin Payne 500.25
Bill Lynch 493.3
Matthew Schreiber 492.75
Sam Schreiber 488.2
jason gaddy 475
Juliana Jackson 474.6
Bill Scarpinato 464.25
Catherine Bopp 461.1
RANDY RUTHERFORD 456.6
Massimo Randazzo 452.3
Jason Schreiber 445
Lisa Ito 429.15
Corwin Rhyan 428.9
Mark Rothstein 426.75
Matt Henrikson 419
Purple Tolerance Daddy Kyle 408
Jaklyn Limoges 383.25
DAVID MILLER 377.25
Seany Farrell 374.3
Luke Schreiber 371
Andrew Limoges 371
Brian Redington 366.7
Brian Redington 2 366.7
Steph Dowd 366.55
Pacifist Admiral Tom 332
Christopher Davis 293
Denis McCarthy 291
Tara Rogers 265
Red Rampage BTP John 236

* Spirit gave me the perfect opportunity to make a Broncos/Spirit the horse tie in reference, but much like Santa Clara, I just couldn't close the deal.