Katie Nesbitt is a legend!

Here we go, folks. The Sweet 16 kicks off today with four regional semifinal games on tap:

• 2:40 pm – (8) Loyola Chicago vs. (12) Oregon St (CBS)
• 5:15 pm – (1) Baylor vs. (5) Villanova (CBS)
• 7:25 pm – (3) Arkansas vs. (15) Oral Roberts (TBS)
• 9:55 pm – (2) Houston vs. (11) Syracuse (TBS)

Supposed to be sunny and 70 here in Cincinnati, so your beloved Commish is gonna have to get his yardwork out of the way early so I can reserve my spot on the couch.

A look at Great American March Madness Central Command (aka GAMM-Com) on day #1 of the tourney. And yes, those are Batman socks, you jealous bastards.

Speaking of getting things out of the way early, congratulations of a sort are in order for rookie participant Katie Nesbitt, who has already locked up the  “Nancy Burns Award,” given annually to the participant who finishes in last place. Katie, with a stunning 12 points, had cemented her “victory” (so-called) by the middle of the 2nd round, which GAMM researchers believe is the earliest in pool history. Frankly, it’s a mystery how she ended up in last place. I mean, here’s a screenshot of her bracket:

Hartford? Look, Vin Baker’s not walking through that door, guys …

Katie, a co-worker of daughter/Asst. Commish Lauren Dennehy at Alba Salon & Spa (“The Best Salon in Cincinnati”), went with what is believed to be the never-before-seen strategy of picking all of the #16 seeds to make it to the Final Four.

NARRATOR: It did not pay off

Not sure if Katie thought the higher the number, the better … ? In any event, as the winner of the “Nancy Burns Award” for finishing in last place, we’ll be

Feds to charge BIG 10 with 7 counts of fraud as Michigan only team left remaining!

My compliments to whoever made this thing:

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The Big 10 entered this year’s tournament sitting real pretty, with a whopping EIGHT teams in the Field of 64, including two #1 seeds (Michigan & Illinois), two #2’s (Ohio State & Iowa), a #4 (Purdue), a #9 (Wisconsin), and two #10’s (Maryland & Rutgers).

And now, after a mere 2 rounds? Michigan, who were 86-78 winners over #8 LSU last night, are the conference’s sole surviving team.

Michigan, after surveying the rest of the conference

This, of course, is music to the ears of our pool’s most noted Michigan fans, the Peraino family. Well, 3 of the 4 of them anyways. They don’t like to speak of daughter Rosie’s decision to attend Ohio State … or “The Great Betrayal” as it came to be known as in family circles. Son Dominick even bribed me with a $5 contribution to “The Commish’s Beer Fund” this year just to keep me from picking his beloved Wolverines, apparently afraid I would jinx them if I did. In retrospect, given my track record, it was probably a smart move on his part.

Heading home instead of joining the Wolverines in the Sweet 16 are #2 Iowa, who were upset by #7 Oregon 95-80, and #10 Maryland, who fell to #2 Alabama 96-77.

That Maryland score shouldn’t have really surprised anyone though, since I imagine BIG 10 schools are pretty used to losing to Alabama by now.

As you can probably imagine, social media was an absolute hell-scape for

Illinois and The Commish both go down in flames!

Appreciate the support, dude. It’s okay though, I can take it. But good point on the Venmo thing though

Well, where to start … with the fact that this year’s tournament keeps raining upsets down upon us like it’s monsoon season? Or that your beloved Commish has now extended his losing streak to 28 consecutive tournaments?

The Commish’s pick to win the whole thing, #1 Illinois, got absolutely shellacked by their in-state rival, #8 Loyola-Chicago and their 101 year old mascot, Sister Jean, by a score of 71-58, as the 2018 Final Four participants jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. I’m just glad it happened early enough in the day so that the sting had worn off so that I didn’t have to cry myself to sleep. Again.

Yeah, I think we can all agree on that one, Roman.

In retrospect, it looks like the Big 10 may have been just a bunch of frauds this year with #1 Illinois, #2 Ohio State, and #4 Purdue already sent packing.

As for Loyola-Chicago, the Ramblers are now off to the Sweet 16 where they’ll face #12 Oregon State, who were 80-70 winners over #4 Oklahoma State. Joining them from that part of the bracket will be #2 Houston and #11 Syracuse, who defeated #3 West Virginia. So to recap, the Midwest Region’s four remaining teams are a #2, #8, #11, and a #12. Right. Got it.

Indeed.

In terms of twists though, the West Region wasn’t too far behind as their Sweet 16 match-ups include #15 Oral freaking Roberts vs #3 Arkansas, who barely survived their game vs #6 Texas Tech, and #1 Baylor vs #5 Villanova.

Checking the GAMM standings, we find Chelsie Jackson (one of Assistant Commish Lauren Dennehy’s co-workers at Alba Salon & Spa aka “The Best Salon in Cincinnati”) in a 1st place tie with Jordan Smith, whose other bracket is in 5th place. Chelsie’s

March Mayhem as upsets & forfeits lead to day #2 chaos!

Shaka Smart at the exact moment he realized Texas is soooooo not back

Following on the heels of #2 Ohio State and #4 Purdue getting bounced on day #1, the bar was set high for day #2. It didn’t disappoint, as both Texas, and the reigning NCAA champs,  Virginia, both got sent packing.

Texas, the East Region’s #3 seed, lost a 53-52 nail-biter to #14 Abilene-Christian. Trailing by 1 with 1.2 seconds left, Abilene-Christian’s Joe Pleasant, a 58% free throw shooter on the season, calmly sank both attempts to give the Wildcats the lead and then intercepted the Longhorn’s desperation inbound pass to put the icing on the cake:

Also going home a tad earlier than expected was the West Region’s #4 seed, the defending champion Virginia Cavaliers, who lost a 62-58 thriller to the Ohio Bobcats. Pool participant Eliot Bloomberg, friend from high school and a Virginia alum, points out that the Cavaliers did however win their first ever NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving championship yesterday though. So, they have that going for them, which is nice.

Here ya go, Eliot! Show this to all the haters!

While those games were certainly shockers, the biggest surprise of the day was no doubt the news that VCU, the #10 seed in the

BIG 10 IS A BIG FLOP! OSU & PURDUE GO DOWN IN WILD 1ST DAY!

Ya think, Roy? 

Wow, what a start to things. Waves of upsets on the 1st day of play have thrown the tournament, and our pool, into chaos. Chief among them, no doubt, was the South Region’s #15 seed Oral Roberts’ shocking overtime win over #2 seed Ohio State. Oh, sorry … over THE Ohio State. My bad, guys. I can’t imagine Buckeye Nation slept too well last night after all these golden looks they had at the potential game-tying 3 in the waning seconds of overtime:

Ouch! Ya know, Roy is right … that’s GOT to sting.

The ending of the OSU – Oral Roberts game created a bit of an awkward situation yesterday for daughter / Assistant Commish, Lauren Dennehy,  She and a number of her co-workers from Alba Salon & Spa (“The best salon in Cincinnati”) were out at a local establishment enjoying some adult beverages while watching the game. As you can imagine, there was a heavy Buckeye influence in the crowd, and when OSU’s final game tying attempt clanged harmlessly away ending the Buckeye’s title hopes, the life was sucked out of the room. Well, except for one person, that is. Lauren, ever the champion of the underdog, let out a huge cheer only to be greeted in return by the icy stares of her fellow patrons, who apparently don’t love a good underdog story as much as she does. For old people, like me, it was straight out of the classic 1970’s “Schoolhouse Rock” video about “interjections” …

“♫ Interjections! Show excitement! Or emotion! They’re generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point, Or by a comma when the feeling’s not as strong.♫”

Lauren, yesterday afternoon

I told you, it’s an old people thing, kids. You won’t get it.

By the way, shoutout to Lauren’s co-worker at Alba (“The best salon in Cincinnati”),

ANNNNND WE’RE BACK!

So it does, Moira. So it does.

Took us a little longer than anticipated to get here (a whole year, but who’s counting?) but, at long last, I am pleased to finally welcome you all to Great American March Madness XXVIII (aka “GAMM XXVIII”). Yes, you read that right, this thing’s been kicking around since 1993. And let me tell ya, I’m thrilled to be back doing this again after all the COVID chaos of the last 12 months.

Know what I’m not thrilled with though? CBS Sports dot com, that’s who. Of course, anyone who read my blog entry from a couple of days ago about it is already aware. For those who didn’t read it, here’s the TL/DR recap in GIF form:

Artist’s rendering of CBSsports.com’s “Bracket Games”

There were A LOT of really inconvenient, annoying changes they made to their platform since the 2019 pool, but the biggest one was no doubt allowing people to click “submit” on partially completed brackets. This caused many folks to think they had successfully filled the entire thing out, when in reality I found numerous brackets where even the Championship Game hadn’t been picked. I tried to catch as many as I could and contact folks beforehand but, if I missed yours and, as a result, your bracket turned out to be ineligible, my apologies.

Oh, and get this, after one of my many complaints to them about their raging dumpster fire of a website, the fine folks at CBS Sports dot com made the mistake of sending me a customer service survey to complete. Yes, I went “full Karen” on them, as the kids like to say these days.

The Commish getting ready to bring the thunder down

Meh, enough of all this “dwelling on the negative” crap. It’s bad for pool morale. Okay, here’s some good news for ya … no, I’m not referring to the news that it turns out that J-Lo and A-Rod are still very much in love and that the marriage is still on. No, just that your beloved Commish ended up getting his 1st dose of the COVID vaccine yesterday. I’m experiencing some mild side effects today, but I’m

Guys, we have to face facts … CBS Sports “Bracket Games” is a train wreck.

“And let’s check in to see how things are going over at CBSsports.com …”

The Commish needs to vent.

So, in the two years since they last hosted March Madness pools, CBS ended up making wholesale changes to their March Madness hosting platform. I’m not sure if the folks who participate in my pool see much of a change, but guys, let me tell ya, as the “Bracket Manager” (as they like to call us), the “new and improved” website is, well …

From not being able to send out invites directly via the website, to no longer having the ability to see who has/hasn’t completed their brackets, to having my last 15 years of CBS standings wiped out, to not being able to view a list of everyone that’s entered a bracket … well, not until Friday after games begin anyways, which will be too late to help me. Let’s just say, I’m not a happy Commish these days.

And the worst of it all, it appears that the website lets you start a bracket and leave the page without saving it, which was not the case under the old platform. My greatest fear is that come Friday, I’ll find that there were folks who believed they had successfully completed their bracket, but either didn’t enter the “total score” tiebreaker or didn’t click “Submit” when done with their picks, and thus will be on the outside looking in when the Tournament starts.

Yep, not great, Bob. Not great at all.

There, I had to get that off my chest. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I’m off from work the next 2 days, so I’m going to go have some green beer.

Commish out!

GREAT AMERICAN MARCH MADNESS XXVIII INVITE

You should have received an email invite from me last night. If not, let me know and I’ll resend, or check my Facebook profile for a link.

Please note the following before joining:

1) ALL ENTRY FEES MUST BE PAID VIA VENMO (see instructions below). NO EXCEPTIONS, SO PLEASE DO NOT FILL OUT A BRACKET UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO DO SO!

2) YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO INVITE ANYONE TO JOIN WITHOUT APPROVAL FROM ME FIRST (You are however allowed to invite members of your household, or anyone who is a co-worker of mine)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so with all that out of the way, after a 1 year COVID hiatus, please allow me to extend you a formal invitation to join my 28th annual NCAA Basketball pool!

If you haven’t entered previously, to access the pool, please click the link I emailed you. You will need to sign up at CBS Sports with your own unique “user id” and password and, once you’ve done that, you can then access your bracket by entering our group password.

Other stuff you need to know:

• Entry fees once again remain at an inflation-proof $5 per bracket for the 28th time in a row.
• Payouts are 1st – 60%, 2nd – 30%, 3rd – 10%, Best 1st Rd – $25, Last Place – $5.
• The deadline for entering your bracket is Friday, March 19th at 11:30 am (games start at noon).
• The deadline for submitting your entry fee is Monday, March 29th.
• Pro Tip: Do NOT be late with your entry fee! Delinquent payers will be posted in the Hall of Shame!

To pay your entry fee, please send it to me via my Venmo account: “Greg-Dennehy“. Venmo is an easy to use app for electronically transferring money and can be found in both iTunes and the Google Play Store. I am no longer accepting cash, checks, PayPal, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, GameStop stock, the barter system, or any other type of payment.

If you’re old, like me, or just technologically challenged, and have no idea what I’m talking about with all of this Venmo business, ask your kids to Venmo your money to me. Trust me, they know what it is.

Good luck!
Commissioner Dennehy

LONG LIVE THE KING!

“LION KING” MAULS “FINDING NEMO” IN TITLE GAME ROUT!

Well, this one was over early, folks. “The Lion King,” a heavy Vegas favorite, stormed out of the gate to take a 20+ vote lead by mid-morning over “Finding Nemo” and never looked back, cruising their way to an impressive 138-76 blowout win.

One got the sense early on that the “Finding Nemo” squad was a bit intimidated heading into the match, highlighted by this unfortunate incident in pregame warm-ups …

Good thing Team Nemo wasn’t wearing their home whites

The victory capped an impressive run by “The Lion King,” whose carefree, “no worries,” problem-free, philosophy served them well in their rare “crunch time” moments in the tournament.

Team captain Rafiki raising the Stanley Cup

The post-game celebration was marred a bit though when team security was forced to escort the following individuals out of the locker room after showing an unusual amount of interest in several of the Pride’s cubs …

THE BRAWL FOR IT ALL! “LION KING” VS “FINDING NEMO!”

Well, here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for … the Disney March Madness National Championship!

Starting with a field of 68 films, we’re now down to our final 2 teams in “The Lion King” and “Finding Nemo,” the top seeds from the Mickey and Small World Regions, respectively. Here’s how the overall tournament bracket has rounded out up to this point:

Click to open in new window

“The Lion King,” the 1994 animated masterpiece that helped usher in the “Disney Renaissance” period, has a tournament resume second to none. With wins over standout films such as “Dumbo,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Up,” and “Toy Story,” this tale of a young lion cub’s quest to reclaim his family legacy is peaking as it heads into the tournament championship.

Their opponent? “Finding Nemo,” the epic 2003 story about an overprotective clownfish dad, along with his forgetful friend, Dory, as they search for his missing son. “Finding Nemo’s” path to the Championship was no less arduous than “The Lion King’s,” with victories over “Bambi,” “Inside Out,” “Frozen,” and “Monster’s Inc.” They’ll have their work cut out for them today though, as Vegas has them as an 8.5 point underdog.

That’s the spirit!

So, without further ado, I present to you the Disney March Madness National Championship Game:

DOWN GOES TOY STORY! DOWN GOES TOY STORY!

LION KING & FINDING NEMO ADVANCE TO MONDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH!

“The Lion King,” the Mickey Region’s top seed, was able to erase an early 1st half deficit vs “Toy Story,” before taking the lead and never looking back on their way to a stunning 104-95 win.

Game recap in GIF form:

The win propels The Lion King into Monday night’s National Championship game vs

CLASH OF THE TITANS! #1 “TOY STORY” vs #1 “THE LION KING!”

TOY STORY & MONSTER’S INC PUNCH THEIR TICKETS TO THE FINAL 4!

The Disney March Madness Final Four is set and, brother, we have got some fire match-ups coming your way today. With a chance to compete in Monday’s Championship on the line, no game in our tournament has been as eagerly anticipated as today’s contest pitting our two #1 seeds from the left side of the bracket against each other in “Toy Story” vs “The Lion King.”

“Toy Story,” the Pixar Region’s top seed, continued their impressive tournament run with a 113-84 win over a very formidable #3 seed in “Beauty & the Beast.”

Joining Woody and Buzz in the Final Four, is “Monster’s Inc,” the Princess Region’s #2 seed, having vanquished #4 seed “The Incredibles” by a score of 129-68.

Besides the Disney Final Four, know what other big event is going on today? That’s right, it’s Assistant Commish Lauren Dennehy’s 26th birthday! And the best part? She gets to spend it with her parents after moving home to ride out the quarantine!

Lauren leaving her roommates to come home

People often say to me, “Commish, no offense, but you seem like you’re kind of a nut job. Are any of your kids like this?”

I don’t know. You tell me …

So, tonight, my friends, do your beloved Commish a favor and lift a glass in honor of the Assistant Commish.

Okay, here we go, everyone, … the Final Four! Cast your votes below for who should appear in Monday’s National Championship match-up:

A tale as old as time … #1 “Toy Story” vs #3 “Beauty & the Beast!”

WAYWARD CLOWN FISH VANQUISHES THE ICE QUEEN!

“FINDING NEMO” DEFEATS “FROZEN” TO ADVANCE TO FINAL 4!

The Small World region’s #1 seed, “Finding Nemo,” has advanced to the “Disney March Madness” Final Four, defeating #3 seed, “Frozen,” 116-86 yesterday in the Regional Final. The news came as a delight to parents around the world who had grown physically ill, circa 2013, from hearing that annoying “Let It Go” song over and over and over and … .

Good question, fellas. Read on …

Next up for Nemo, Marlin, Dory and the rest of the gang is a match-up vs the winner of today’s Princess Regional Final between #2 seed “Monster’s Inc,” and #4 “The Incredibles.”

Joining Nemo in the Final Four will be the Mickey Region’s top seed, “The Lion King,” who made quick work of #2 seed, “Up,” by an impressive 153-49 score.

In his post-game presser, “Up” head coach, Carl, was clearly frustrated by what he called “a complete lack of focus” from an unnamed player on his squad. When pressed further on the matter, Carl, ever combative with the media, refused to clarify which player he was referring to.

We have our suspicions though

Moving right along, there are 2 more match-ups on the schedule for today, with berths in the Final Four at stake:

“Lion King” roars into Elite Eight vs “Up!” “Finding Nemo” set to bring the heat to “Frozen!”

Not so Sweet 16 for Princess Ariel! #4 “The Little Mermaid” sleeps with the fishes! 

Oh, he dead, alright!

“The Little Mermaid,” the Mickey Region’s beloved #4 seed, has been vanquished back from whence she came (*cue that “Under the Sea” tune*) after getting mauled 146-70 by the Region’s #1 seed, “The Lion King” in their Sweet 16 match-up.

The win advances Team Simba to the Regional finals, where they’ll be joined by #3 “Beauty & the Beast,” #3 “Frozen,” and #2 “Monster’s Inc,” all of whom turned in impressive Sweet 16 victories yesterday:

“Monster’s Inc’s” victory brings to an end any title hopes for #14 seed “Tangled,” whose Cinderella run to the Sweet 16 had captivated the nation. At first, I was a little puzzled why “Tangled’s” support with the masses had suddenly collapsed, until Asst. Commish Lauren Dennehy alerted me to the following coinky-dink from the film:

Did “Tangled” hit too close to home?

Turning our attention to today’s schedule, the Elite Eight gets under way with Regional Finals for both the “Mickey” and “Small World” regions on tap:

“Snow White” vs “Beauty & the Beast” in epic Sweet 16 showdown!

CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT FOR #1 SEED CINDERELLA!

INCREDIBLES WIN THRILLER TO REACH ELITE EIGHT!

Our first #1 seed has fallen! “Cinderella,” the Princess Region’s top ranked squad, was upset yesterday by #4 seed, “The Incredibles” 100-94, in a contentious affair, highlighted by non-stop “smack talk” by team matriarch, Helen Parr:

Get ‘er, Elastigirl!

Our other Sweet 16 match-ups didn’t prove to be very competitive, with #1 seeds, “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo,” and #2 seed “Up,” all easily advancing to the Elite Eight:

Turning our attention to today’s schedule, we’ve got 4 more exciting contests on the slate as the Sweet 16 wraps up play:

The Disney March Madness “Sweet 16” is under way!

MANGLED BY “TANGLED!”

#14 SEED CONTINUES MAGICAL RUN AS LADY & THE TRAMP SENT PACKING!

Reminiscent of Loyola in 2018, or Florida Gulf Coast in 2013, Disney March Madness has found it’s underdog darling in the form of the Princess Region’s #14 seed, “Tangled.” The 2010 homage to “Rapunzel” has captivated the nation with it’s run through the tournament, first taking down #3 seed “Toy Story 3,” and then yesterday eliminating #6 “Lady & the Tramp,” by a score of 109-74.

Tangled’s storybook journey continues into the Sweet 16 where they’ll now face #2 seed, “Monster’s Inc.”

Preaching to the choir, lady. We’re all self-quarantining these days.

Speaking of the Sweet 16, we have half of our contests on tap for today, and the other half slated for tomorrow. Cast your votes below for who you’d like to see advance to the Elite Eight:

Forgetful fish hopes to defeat family of superheroes! #5 “Finding Dory” vs #4 “The Incredibles!”

BLOW-OUT CITY!

TEAMS PRACTICE EXTREME “SOCIAL DISTANCING” … NOBODY WITHIN 44 POINTS OF EACH OTHER!

Man, that was a bloodbath yesterday. All eight of our 2nd round contests proved to be absolute runaways, with nobody closer than #4 Inside Out’s 44 point win over #5 Toy Story 4, 144-100.

Seeing the 4th member of their franchise go down in flames appeared to fire up #1 seed Toy Story, as they administered a brutal beating on poor #9 seed, A Bug’s Life, blasting them by a score of 231-15. WARNING: We’re about to show you footage from yesterday’s contest, but some may find it disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

Toy Story raining blows down on A Bug’s Life

Reached for comment after the match, Toy Story’s team captain, Woody, looking almost catatonic, could only offer this chilling quote:

“Deep in the recesses of my brain, a tiny red-hot little flame began to grow. Something had happened. A fuse blew and I had gone out of my skull.”

Whoa. Okay, Woody. Why don’t you go over there and sit down for awhile, okay?

Turning our attention to today’s schedule, we have 8 more contests on tap as our remaining teams attempt to punch their tickets to the Sweet 16:

Frozen vs Cars kicks off 2nd Round in epic match-up!

Yesterday saw a number of match-ups go down to the wire, as #11 The Aristocats pulled off the come-from-behind, upset win over #6 Coco by a score of 98-91, and #10 Hercules emerged victorious in “The Brawn Brawl” over #7 Wreck-It Ralph 95-91.

Here’s yesterday’s complete scoreboard:

Tough day all around for the Wreck-It Ralph franchise, as #16 “Ralph Breaks the Internet” was completely mauled by #1 “The Lion King” by an astounding 179-8 score. Unfortunately, Vegas only had The Lion King laying 170 points, for those who were betting the game.

Nope!

It was also a tough day all around for The Commish who had “Wreck-It Ralph” advancing to The Sweet 16. I’m in the clubhouse at the end of the 1st round with an embarrassing 26 out of 32 possible points thus far.  Any perfect brackets out there still? Let me know in the comments below or on today’s post on my Facebook wall.

Second round action begins today with a number of exciting contests, headlined by #3 “Frozen” vs #6 “Cars” in the Pixar Region. Vote early and often … well, by “often,” I mean as often as you can get around my “1 vote per internet cookie” restriction. And remember, polls close in 24 hours:

BRAWN BRAWL: Wreck-It Ralph vs Hercules!

The ass-kickings continued yesterday, with 6 of our 8 match-ups ending up in absolute routs. It was so bad, many social media websites labeled “Little Mermaid’s” 184-7 beat-down of “The Rescuer’s Down Under,” and “Finding Nemo’s” 183-9 throttling of “DuckTales: The Movie” as “sensitive content.”

Bro, there ain’t enough towels to clean that mess up.

After all the carnage settled, here’s what the scoreboard ended up looking like:

While #6 “Lady & the Tramp’s” nine point victory over #11 “Peter Pan” was the closest match of the day, the most competitive was easily #2 seed “Toy Story 2’s” 106-86 win over #15 “The Jungle Book.” This one saw Buzz, Woody and the rest of

Cinderella takes on Pocahontas today in literal vs figurative “Cinderella story” match-up!

FAVES ALL WIN IN ROUTS!

ALADDIN COACH JAFAR UNDER FIRE!

A fairly boring day yesterday here in Disney March Madness, as a quick check of the scoreboard shows all of the day #4 favorites cruising to easy blowout victories:

While all of the matches were early runaways, none stood out more than the 171-8 pasting that #5 Aladdin laid on #12 Tinker Bell. The team’s head coach, Jafar, has come under heavy criticism for his handling of the game. Taking a page out of UConn coach Geno Auriemma’s book, Coach Jafar continued to play his starters well into the 4th quarter in order to run up the score, only  pulling them after the school’s Sultan, er, I mean, Dean, stormed down to the court to angrily confront him.

Hopefully today’s match-ups bring a little more sporstmanship! Remember people, you’re supposed to be setting an example for the kids!

We’ve got 8 more contests on tap for today, highlighted by Play-In winner, #16 Pocahontas’ attempt to grab the glass slipper from the Princess Region’s top seed, #1 Cinderella.

Vote in each of the 8 polls below to help decide the winner:

Commish DOUBLES (yes, *DOUBLES*) the number of daily polls! Shows he’s a true man of the people!

#14 TANGLED PULLS OFF 1st ROUND SHOCKER!

TAKES DOWN #3  SEED TOY STORY III!

Well, good thing I don’t gamble. Yesterday, I talked about what a tough fight #14 “Tangled” had on it’s hands going against #3 “Toy Story 3.”  Ouch! Tangled ends up pulling off the biggest upset of the tourney thus far, taking down a film that many people had going a long ways. People, for instance, like Me & Mrs. Commish (she considers it the best of the Toy Story series), who had it going to the Elite Eight and Final Four, respectively. Ouch, again!

The gang watches as Mr & Mrs Commish’s brackets go up in flames

Joining “Tangled” in advancing to the next round were “Bambi,” “Dumbo,” and “Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs,” all of whom won by comfortable margins. It was a little touch and go for Snow White’s squad early on though, as her team’s lack of height put them at a distinct disadvantage going up against the 6’4 “Lord of the Jungle” (so-called). Eventually though, their superior work ethic kicked in and it was off they’d go, making “short” work of the might Tarzan (“short” work … get it?)

These guys are all business

Of course, moving right along, as they say in the newspaper biz, I’ve “buried the lede” with today’s update. That’s right, just like surgical mask manufacturers these days, I too have decided to ramp up production in order to meet demand … with more polls! Yes,

Sleeping Beauty cancels classes at Monster’s University!

Day #2 of Disney March Madness featured a good ol’ fashioned buzzer beater in the Mickey Region, as #7 Sleeping Beauty barely edged out #10 Monster’s University by a 2 vote margin in a see-saw affair, 115-113. While schools around the country are closing their doors due to the Coronavirus, Monster’s University is shutting theirs for a different reason.

Don’t be! Survive & advance is all that matters, kid!

For those folks on the losing end of that contest, take heart. The betting line in Vegas was “Monster’s University” +3, so if you had money on the game, you ended up covering.

Unfortunately, Sleeping Beauty’s heart-stopping win was where the day’s excitement ended though. Our other 3 match-ups all ended up being runaway blowouts right out of the box, as “Inside Out,” “A Bug’s Life,” and “WALL-E” all cruised their way to easy victories.

#9 “A Bug’s Life” pulled off a mild upset as they laid waste to the 100 Acre Wood, defeating #8 “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” by a score of 148-81. A Bug’s Life will now face the winner of the “Toy Story” vs “Meet the Robinsons” match-up.

Team captain, Flik, with the inspiring pre-game pep talk

Over in the Small World Region, not even the Knights of the Roundtable could keep

Oliver & Co. bounces Tigger right out of the tournament!

In what proved to be a knockdown, drag out brawl that went down to the wire, “Oliver & Company,” the charming take on the Dickens classic, “Oliver Twist,” about a homeless kitten who joins a gang of dogs, took down Winnie the Pooh’s hyper-active buddy, “The Tigger Movie” by a mere 28 votes, 186-158, in a Disney March Madness “instant classic.”  While Tigger heads back to the 100 Acre Woods to lick his wounds, Oliver & Co. will be moving on to face #6 seed “Cars.”

A dejected Tigger leaving the arena last night after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Oliver & Co. 

While Tigger’s loss came as a surprise to many, it was not a surprise to our long-time bracket analyst, Mike Hudak, who was on the money in this pregame video report he filed with The Commish from his home base yesterday:

Also a surprise in the minds of many observers was the inclusion of “Pocahontas” and “The Aristocats” as play-in participants, as many felt they made strong cases for

Disney Movie March Madness: Play-In Game Edition!

Welcome, everyone, to Disney Movie March Madness!

Just like with the NCAA Tournament where the “First Four” gets things started off, it’s the same with Disney March Madness as we have eight films battling it out in an attempt to punch their ticket to the Big Dance. These 4 match-ups are to fill out the final remaining spots in the 64 team bracket, attached below.  On the individual polls, just click whichever movie you think was better, and the one with the most votes after 24 hours gets to advance into the bracket:

Play-In Game: “Mickey” Region:

First out of the box, we’ve got Thomas O’Malley and the rest of “The Aristocats” (1970) taking on Michael J. Fox and “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” (2001):

Welcome to Disney Movie March Madness!

*** BREAKING NEWS ***
DISNEY MOVIE MARCH MADNESS BRACKET RELEASED!

When the Coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament, a young boy named Brett VanCauwenbergh‎ reached out to me in my capacity as the world’s greatest March Madness Commish with a request. His request, a simple one, basically boiled down to this: “Commish, the people of this country are going to be bored AF for the next 3 weeks while confined to quarters with no college basketball. We need something to fill the void!”

Well, Brett, your prayers have been answered. At the urging of Assistant Commish Lauren Dennehy, and following on the heals of my prior Christmas Movie and Sports Movie bracketology tournaments on Facebook, I am pleased to announce my latest venture … Disney Movie March Madness!

Yes, that’s right, friends. Much like Daniel and his white Vans, we’re back at it again! With help from my assistants, the aforementioned Lauren and Facebook-less Matthew™, I have created the attached bracket style tournament featuring 68 animated Disney movies in order to determine which is the greatest of all-time. Each day, I’ll be posting polls for various match-ups here at my blog, “Great American March Madness,” with the movie that receives the most votes advancing to the next round. The bracket has been broken into 4 regions, named after some of the great Disney milestones: the “Pixar,” “Princess,” “Mickey,” and “Small World” regions (Editor’s Note: The region names don’t necessarily reflect the movies assigned to that given region).

I’ll be making these posts “public” so feel free to share if you’d like. Attached is the