2019 March Madness - The Draft

I TRAVELED 500 MILES TO GIVE YOU MY SEED

58 of the 80 players drafted are from teams seeded 1-7. “Bonus” players that earn the 1.5x multiplier from seeds 8-14 make up the remaining 22 players drafted; no players were selected from teams seeded 15 or 16. Here is a table of players per team’s seed:

Seed    Players Drafted

1 14

2    15

3    8

4    8

5    2 (yikes!)

6    5

7    2

8    5

9    2

10    4

11    5

12    3

13    2

14    1

I drafted the most 1-seed players (5), while Alison drafted the most 2’s (4). Stu drafted the most 3-seed players, all of them members of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Jake is the only owner with no 1-seed players, and the average seeding of his players is 7.75. For comparison, most owners’ average seed number is between 5 and 6.




DOUBLE DUTY

Except for Stu’s trifecta of Red Raiders, no one has more than two players from the same team. 2 of my first 3 picks were from Virginia, and I also have 2 UNC guys. Gav picked up 2 UNC role players at the end of the draft. Bob also has 2 Virginia guys. James has 2 K-State players.




PICKING THE SCHOOLS TO PROVE TO DAD I’M NOT A FOOL

UNC had the most players drafted - 6 of them! Every other 1 and 2 seed had 4 players drafted, except for Tennessee, which had 3.





THE FIRST FOUR FOUR

Four players from the “First Four” play-in games were drafted. Jake has a Belmont and St John’s player, Gav has a Belmont, and Stu has Temple’s Shizz Alston Jr.





NAMES IN THE GAMES

Speaking of this man named Shizz, Stu’s team has a bunch of great names: Shizz, Bruno Fernando, Jaylen Nowell, Tariq Owens. Shawn’s got some cool-sounded dudes as well: Mfiondu Kabengele, Marial Shayok, Tyus Battle, Neemias Queta, Miye Oni. Alison has a Xavier and a Zavier, plus Rui Hachimura and the legendary Admiral Schofield. I think De’Andre Hunter has a fun name, because I think of it as “The Andre Hunter”, and picture him chasing Andre Agassi around with a hunting rifle.

CURSE OF THE ORANGE PEARL

Not a single player from the Auburn Tigers was drafted! That’s the only team seeded 1-4 that was shafted. Yet no one took a player from their first-round opponent NM State,





THINK ABOUT DIRECTION WONDER WHY YOU HAVEN’T BEFORE

Almost everyone has a player from each region, but Jake doesn’t have anyone in the Midwest, and Stu doesn’t have anyone in the South.





HARD HITTING POSITION ANALYSIS

More guards were picked than forwards. 48 guards, 29 forwards, and 3 centers.





Okay, let's look at these squads!

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	1	Gavin	E	1	Duke Blue Devils	Zion Williamson	F
2	20	Gavin	E	11	Belmont Bruins	Dylan Windler	G
3	21	Gavin	W	1	Gonzaga Bulldogs	Zach Norvell Jr.	G
4	40	Gavin	S	8	Ole Miss Rebels	Terence Davis	G
5	41	Gavin	E	4	Virginia Tech Hokies	Nickeil Alexander-Walker	G
6	60	Gavin	S	11	Saint Mary's Gaels	Jordan Ford	G
7	61	Gavin	MW	1	North Carolina Tar Heels	Nassir Little	F
8	80	Gavin	MW	1	North Carolina Tar Heels	Garrison Brooks	F

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Gav used the top pick on the best player, and grabbed some bonus players before completing his team with lesser-known UNC guys.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	2	James	W	1	Gonzaga Bulldogs	Brandon Clarke	F
2	19	James	MW	3	Houston Cougars	Armoni Brooks	G
3	22	James	E	3	LSU Tigers	Tremont Waters	G
4	39	James	S	4	Kansas State Wildcats	Barry Brown Jr.	G
5	42	James	S	6	Villanova Wildcats	Eric Paschall	F
6	59	James	S	4	Kansas State Wildcats	Xavier Sneed	F
7	62	James	W	13	Vermont Catamounts	Anthony Lamb	F
8	79	James	MW	13	Northeastern Huskies	Vasa Pusica	G

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After his first pick of the Zag, James boldly chose no other player from a Final Four favorite.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	3	Bob	E	1	Duke Blue Devils	RJ Barrett	F
2	18	Bob	S	1	Virginia Cavaliers	Ty Jerome	G
3	23	Bob	E	2	Michigan State Spartans	Nick Ward	F
4	38	Bob	MW	8	Utah State Aggies	Sam Merrill	G
5	43	Bob	S	5	Wisconsin Badgers	Ethan Happ	F
6	58	Bob	S	8	Ole Miss Rebels	Breein Tyree	G
7	63	Bob	W	2	Michigan Wolverines	Charles Matthews	G
8	78	Bob	S	1	Virginia Cavaliers	Braxton Key	G

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Bob has 2 UVA players, but also 2 players that might face off against UVA by the Sweet Sixteen - Ole Miss and Wisconsin.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	4	Luke	MW	1	North Carolina Tar Heels	Luke Maye	F
2	17	Luke	E	1	Duke Blue Devils	Cam Reddish	F
3	24	Luke	W	2	Michigan Wolverines	Ignas Brazdeikis	F
4	37	Luke	S	12	Oregon Ducks	Payton Pritchard	G
5	44	Luke	S	3	Purdue Boilermakers	Ryan Cline	G
6	57	Luke	MW	2	Kentucky Wildcats	Reid Travis	F
7	64	Luke	W	7	Nevada Wolf Pack	Caleb Martin	F
8	77	Luke	MW	4	Kansas Jayhawks	Devon Dotson	G

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Luke drafted his namesake, a Duke guy, and then 4 guys I am not at all aware of but their stats seem good, and yeah, this is his team.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	5	Chris	MW	1	North Carolina Tar Heels	Cameron Johnson	G
2	16	Chris	W	5	Marquette Golden Eagles	Markus Howard	G
3	25	Chris	E	2	Michigan State Spartans	Kenny Goins	F
4	36	Chris	S	2	Tennessee Volunteers	Jordan Bone	G
5	45	Chris	MW	10	Seton Hall Pirates	Myles Powell	G
6	56	Chris	W	6	Buffalo Bulls	CJ Massinburg	G
7	65	Chris	S	6	Villanova Wildcats	Phil Booth	G
8	76	Chris	E	10	Minnesota Golden Gophers	Amir Coffey	G

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Chris said during the draft that everything was going great for him and he was getting all the players he targeted, so if he loses he will blame himself.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	6	Dan	MW	1	North Carolina Tar Heels	Coby White	G
2	15	Dan	S	1	Virginia Cavaliers	De'Andre Hunter	G
3	26	Dan	S	1	Virginia Cavaliers	Kyle Guy	G
4	35	Dan	W	1	Gonzaga Bulldogs	Josh Perkins	G
5	46	Dan	W	2	Michigan Wolverines	Jon Teske	C
6	55	Dan	MW	1	North Carolina Tar Heels	Kenny Williams	G
7	66	Dan	E	10	Minnesota Golden Gophers	Jordan Murphy	F
8	75	Dan	W	4	Florida State Seminoles	Terance Mann	G

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I have wanted to draft these 2 Virginians all year long, even though the only UVA game I watched this year was their ACC Tourney loss to Florida State. I am not a reasonable person! As you can see, I am not cheering for any upsets except for the Gophers.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	7	Alison	W	1	Gonzaga Bulldogs	Rui Hachimura	F
2	14	Alison	S	2	Tennessee Volunteers	Admiral Schofield	G
3	27	Alison	MW	2	Kentucky Wildcats	Keldon Johnson	G
4	34	Alison	W	2	Michigan Wolverines	Zavier Simpson	G
5	47	Alison	E	2	Michigan State Spartans	Xavier Tillman	F
6	54	Alison	MW	3	Houston Cougars	Corey Davis Jr.	G
7	67	Alison	S	12	Oregon Ducks	Louis King	F
8	74	Alison	MW	7	Wofford Terriers	Cameron Jackson	F

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Alison replaced Brian last minute, and this is her first year participating, and this team looks fine! Nothing wrong with a 2 seed - that's almost as good a seed as you can get!

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	8	Stu	MW	2	Kentucky Wildcats	PJ Washington	F
2	13	Stu	W	3	Texas Tech Red Raiders	Jarrett Culver	G
3	28	Stu	MW	4	Kansas Jayhawks	Dedric Lawson	F
4	33	Stu	W	3	Texas Tech Red Raiders	Matt Mooney	G
5	48	Stu	E	11	Temple Owls	Shizz Alston Jr.	G
6	53	Stu	E	6	Maryland Terrapins	Bruno Fernando	F
7	68	Stu	MW	9	Washington Huskies	Jaylen Nowell	G
8	73	Stu	W	3	Texas Tech Red Raiders	Tariq Owens	F

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Last year's champ probably needs Kentucky to go all the way, and obviously a huge run for Texas Tech.

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	9	Shawn	S	2	Tennessee Volunteers	Grant Williams	F
2	12	Shawn	E	1	Duke Blue Devils	Tre Jones	G
3	29	Shawn	W	4	Florida State Seminoles	Mfiondu Kabengele	F
4	32	Shawn	MW	2	Kentucky Wildcats	Tyler Herro	G
5	49	Shawn	MW	6	Iowa State Cyclones	Marial Shayok	G
6	52	Shawn	W	8	Syracuse Orange	Tyus Battle	G
7	69	Shawn	MW	8	Utah State Aggies	Neemias Queta	C
8	72	Shawn	E	14	Yale Bulldogs	Miye Oni	G

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Shawn says he was inspired to draft this Yale dude while eating a burger at Culver's and watching him play against Harvard. I was eating Burger King when I watched Virginia lose that game I mentioned earlier. Thank you, burgers!

ROUND	SELECTION	OWNER	REGION	SEED	Team	Player	Position
1	10	Jake	E	2	Michigan State Spartans	Cassius Winston	G
2	11	Jake	W	12	Murray State Racers	Ja Morant	G
3	30	Jake	S	3	Purdue Boilermakers	Carsen Edwards	G
4	31	Jake	W	11	St. John's Red Storm	Shamorie Ponds	G
5	50	Jake	E	4	Virginia Tech Hokies	Kerry Blackshear Jr.	F
6	51	Jake	E	11	Belmont Bruins	Nick Muszynski	C
7	70	Jake	S	9	Oklahoma Sooners	Christian James	G
8	71	Jake	S	10	Iowa Hawkeyes	Tyler Cook	F

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Forget it Jake, you had to draft last! With most of the top guys off the board, he adopted a reasonable strategy of picking high-risk, high-reward dudes, and kept it up for the duration.

2018 Soundtrack

I do this every year. These songs are what I loved this year, or what reminds me of this year, and are arranged in an order that sounds good. The playlist used to be designed to fit on an 80-minute CD. I have not checked to see if these 16 songs clock in under that mark, because the Spotify web player does not give me this information. 

So yeah, Spotify. This is the first year that I have not distributed CDs nor mp3 files. I have not edited mp3 metadata to change track numbers and list the genre as "Dan2___" so that these files could be easily searched and found. If someone demands it, I could still do those things, but it seems everyone has moved on to streaming services. I suppose the artists are technically making more money on my soundtrack then in previous years -- they're getting tenths of a penny every time you stream one of these songs, and when I mailed you a burned CD they earned nothing. But man, it would be cool if you bought a physical copy of at least one of the artists I recommend. 

Stream this 2018 Soundtrack Spotify playlist at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2RYHPPIt9Swa7JeAGCPn2j. 

Previous soundtracks can be found at https://open.spotify.com/user/djn2210 or https://tornadoslide.blogspot.com/2018/08/soundtracks-on-spotify.html. 

I did make this cover art for the nonexistent CD/mp3s. It's a photo I took of the RCA dog, Nipper, sitting atop the Maryland Historical Society building in Baltimore.

The Sloppy Boys - Party With the Reds

I usually put songs that people might find annoying at the start of the playlist, dating back to when I’d burn these soundtracks to CDs, with the idea that it could be easily skipped before enjoying the rest of the songs uninterrupted. But man, if you skip this track, you are missing out on the finest portion of any song of this year of our Lord. I’m speaking, of course, about the breakdown in the middle of this song about soft pretzels. “They got those big pretzels, baby!” is repeated four times, and each time sounds sweeter than the last. Or should I say SALTIER?

Tove Styrke - Say My Name

NPR did a guest DJ interview with First Aid Kit, and one of the songs was this one from their homeland of Sweden.

Alex Lahey - Love you Like a Brother

I listen to Hayes Davenport host the podcasts “Hollywood Handbook” and “LA Podcast”. He was a guest on the “Who Charted” podcast and recommended Australia’s Alex Lahey, so I checked her out and I am happy to report that both of her albums are great. If my daughter wrote this song for my son, I mean, I would never stop crying.

Frightened Rabbit - Get Out

Their “Painting of a Panic Attack” album has been in my car since I bought it. Not because it was in heavy rotation -- it’s more that there’s plenty of room in the console for CDs now that I rarely buy the physical media. I saw it in there and listened to it on a trip to my local half-organic market (I had a coupon!). A few days later, Scott Hutchinson went missing, and a few days after that it was confirmed that his depression led to his death. “Get Out” sounded great when I saw them live, and I suggest you listen to it as loud as you can stand.

Cranberries - Analyse

Delores O’Riordan is dead now, too. Cool cool cool. I did the very basic thing where I listed to their greatest hits after she died, and goddamn The Cranberries were so good. Of course, I’ve always known that. I owned “No Need to Argue”. And owning that album paid off huge a few years ago, when the title of that album was the answer to the Final Jeopardy-type question to music trivia at a local shithole. We stole the win away from much better teams who knew obscure yet hip facts about Frank Zappa but couldn’t recall No Need.

MGMT - Little Dark Age

This song grew on me until it could not possibly grow any larger, for it is now very large indeed.

Hop Along - Fox in Motion

Jason Mantzoukas cited this band as a favorite while talkin’ music with the boys of the R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: Me? podcast, so I listened to their first album and their latest, and I recommend both.

boygenius - Stay Down

I liked Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers, and Julien Baker before they merged to form boygenius. Dacus appeared on the 2016 soundtrack, and Bridgers and Baker both caught my attention too late into 2017 to appear on last year’s list. Now seems like a good time to mention that while I usually try to break up the repetition of male vocalists with female ones in my soundtracks, the opposite was true this year. Women be singing!

CHVRCHES - Graves

I’ve liked each Chvrches album less than the previous one, but they’re still good. Like Wes Anderson movies?

Say Sue Me - But I Like You

The AV Club suggested this South Korean surf rock band. The albums I listened to were nice but lacked what I would call a single - this track comes closest.

We Were Promised Jetpacks - Someone Else’s Problem

This is the kind of guitar-driven alternative rock music that I struggle to find nowadays, when most up-and-coming artists are using synths and leaning into electronica. This album was released the same weekend that my family was out of town, so I was able to enjoy a rare instance of listening via the basement receiver hooked up to the sub and the good speakers, while watching muted college football.

R.E.M. - I Believe

The R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: Me? podcast began on February 21 and a new hour-plus episode appeared on my phone almost every week through September 4. I listened to every one. I walked around downtown Baltimore, seeing Mount Vernon and Edgar Allen Poe’s grave while listening to David Wain talk about his high school R.E.M. tribute band. That very night, before the Orioles/Royals game began, I recognized “Can’t Get There From Here” played from the Camden Yards PA system - an early R.E.M. song I never would have placed without the podcast. I drove from Taos to Albuquerque listening to Todd Barry relive his R.E.M. concert experiences. I, like, drove to work and back listening to this podcast, and listened to it while I played Star Wars Battlefront II on my PlayStation. I listened to it while I removed our old can lights from the ceiling and replaced them with LEDs. And what did I learn? A lot about R.E.M. And a lot about myself? Maybe not. I learned that I don’t dislike R.E.M., and I probably never did, though I didn’t like them as much as others, and I got sick of many of their songs, and I just never really liked any R.E.M. enough to purchase their records. I had a hard time deciding which song to put on the soundtrack. The podcast theme, “White Tornado”? “Can’t Get There From Here”? “Bittersweet Me”, a song I rediscovered? “Imitation of Life”, the song I remembered from the unique music video, and couldn’t recall the melody of until, after weeks of trying to get it out of my brain without cheating and listening to it, the chorus magically appeared? “Don’t Go Back to Rockville”, one of my favorites? I went with “I Believe” because it was the top choice of hosts Scott Aukerman and Adam Scott.

First Aid Kit - Hem of Her Dress

“Ruins” was my favorite album of the year, and I listened to it very much, and I made my kids listen to it in the car and even made them watch YouTube music videos of the singles. It was the one concert I attended this year. Soon after the album’s release, Corinne and I were talking about our favorite tracks and it led to this classic text exchange (my texts are on the right):

David Byrne & Brian Eno - Strange Overtones

Neko Case tweeted about this album on the occasion of its 10-year anniversary, so I gave it a spin and found this gem.

Okkervil River - The Dream and the Light  

The new Okkervil River album isn’t exactly a return to form, but it does have two pretty good songs - this one and “Love Somebody”. If you don’t love the wailing saxophone in this song you can fuck right off. I mean, sure, to my untrained ear it sounds like someone pretending to know how to play the saxophone faking his or her way through it, but it still feels right.

Lucy Dacus - Night Shift

Many months before her EP with boygenius was released, I was enjoying Dacus’ solo album. I discovered on my March trip to New York that the cab ride from LaGuardia to Chris’ Brooklyn apartment is approximately the same length as the record. Just missing a spot on this playlist is the song Floyd and I sang along to on the radio in our Uber home that night, Styx’s “Renegade”.