Some of the early matchups are complete, and there were a lot of surprises. Let’s take a look.

(1)   Wooden over (16) Riddell, 91% - 9%

The overall number one seed cruised to victory over Bobby Buckets. A tough draw for Bobby, taking on a national champion. This whipping is reminiscent of the beatings Boilerdowd would routinely take from J during the salad days of 1994-97.

(5) Hoffman over (12) Hall, 82% - 18%

In the Keady region, another noncompetitive matchup and a win for the post-war era, as Hoffman from the ‘40s crushes Hall from the early ‘80s.

(4) Moore over (13) Lundy, 99% - 1%

Also in the Keady, we had the most dominant performance from fan-favorite E’Twaun Moore in a bludgeoning of Lamar Lundy, who, as at least one person pointed out on Twitter pointed out, deserved better. Lundy was a monster who was drafted by both the NFL and the NBA in 1957. But Smooge was a force on a team many believe was a Final Four squad that just never got to go.

(8) Austin over (9) Mitchell, 61% - 39%

We remain chalky, but this one surprised me a bit. As a personal fan of Chad Austin, I voted this way but Todd Mitchell and the three amigos were similar to the crew that included the aforementioned Smooge as a squad that Purdue fans everywhere felt was FF-worthy. It was a good 8-9 matchup, but I expected it to be closer.

(6) Keller over (11) White, 75% - 25%

A late-‘60s vs a late-‘80s battle goes to the decade of sex, drugs and rock and roll.

(10) Deane over (7) Ford, 57% - 43%

We have our first upset! Steamin’ Willie Deane takes down Bob Ford from the early-‘70s.

(3) Swanigan over (14) Robinson, 99% - 1%

We have another monster blowout in the Keady as Boogie takes out Mike Robinson, a nice player in his own right but clearly no match for the All-American, Big Ten player of the year and recency bias.

(2)   Dischinger over (15) Painter, 62% - 38%

Coach Painter puts up a sprightly battle against the three-time All-American and All-Big Ten Disch, but ultimately falls.

The next batch are up and running as this post is live. Cast your vote!