It is indeed early, but the contenders are already being separated from the
pretenders. Scores range from 13 to 0, with ASM's John Bellwood proving the
old adage that you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take by failing
to fill out his bracket. At the same time, he doesn't have to deal with the
failures we each experience of picking that elite 8 team that loses in the
first round.

Let's take a look at the leader board…

Tied in first after the first day are four participants:

1) Jess Mosser

Best 1st day pick: UW-Milwaukee over Oklahoma

Worst 1st day pick: Seton Hall over Wichita State

Could drop if: A lot of upsets don't happen in the sweet sixteen. As if
picking 'Bama over UCLA, Bucknell over Memphis, and Seton Hall over
Tennessee wasn't bad enough, the Atlanta region looks like it may eat Mosser
alive having picked NC State into the sweet 16 and Syracuse into the great
8. The final four pick? Iowa. Count me among the doubters he will stay on
top.

2) Editor-in-Chief John McCabe

Best 1st day pick: Texas A&M over 'Cuse

Worst 1st day pick: Xavier over Gonzaga

Could drop if: Some of the top seeds don't hold up. The experienced veteran
of the group, John shows his wisdom in picking things fairly safely and not
going nuts with the upsets. He could have risen above this group had Xavier
been able to contain the 'Stache in the Oakland region, but such is the
tourney. However, should a 1 or 2 seed fall before the sweet 16, Johnny Mac
(his nickname that I just made up) may be tipping a few back on St Patty's
Day to compensate the loss because his Elite 8 is filled with the biggest
seeds.

3) Nathan Carlile

Best 1st day pick: UW-Milwaukee over Oklahoma,

Worst 1st day pick: Marquette over Alabama (and beyond)

Could drop if: He gets Pittsnogled. Nate-Car (yet another lame nickname I
just made up) busted his brackets a bit already by picking Marquette into
the Elite 8 (whoops!) and to redeem himself needs Southern Illinois to upset
WVa and make a Sweet 16 run.

4) Scott Larson

Best 1st day pick: Texas A&M over 'Cuse

Worst 1st day pick: Marquette over Alabama

Could drop if: Day 2 doesn't see some upsets. ASM's resident funnyman may
have kept himself in the running, but he's going with wins by Northern Iowa
over Georgetown and the especially surprising Bradley over Kansas. Scott, if
you wanted us to laugh you could have just written another column…

The rest:

Tied for 5th place (12 picks right): Gabriel Norris, Jim Lundes, Johnathan
Bentz, Josh Johnson, and Seth Glasgow

Tied for 10th place (11 picks right): Brad Seal, David Hale, and Megan
Tomlin

Tied for 13th place (10 picks right): Chris Sokolowski, Steve Schafer and
Zeke Smith

In 16th place (9 picks right): Josh Binstock

In 17th place (8 picks right): Nick Kanios

Bringing up the rear: Jon Bellwood… 0 picks correct on 0 attempts.

Stay tuned tomorrow as we reveal the movers and shakers on day 2 of the
tournament.