EL SEGUNDO/CERRITOS, CA (smt)- The ides of March saw the 2009 bracket unveiled and the Ides of Fabone showed how to pick a bad bracket.  With a record 114 entries, lots of new nicknames populated our 15th pool.  There were just three people who tried to enter and didn't follow through so we will miss UclaRam, AlanGParsons, and Jack Tripper, much better nicknames than Bob, Bama G 2, and 2CrowBugs.

That's 4 nicknames down, 110 to go.  Pay attention now.  Without further ado...

There were references to players (The Heels Toe Hurts, Hard to Thabeet, and soccer's ALAN!ALAN!He's Da Man), teams in the tournament (TrojanDan, MIZZOU77, Bearly Playing, Hot for Chief, Pride of TROY!, Bama G, Buckeye Mike, and Big Red) and teams not in the tournament (NIT Gator, SeanGator, Die with SEC (boy, a lot of Florida fans), and 9ers in 10!). 

I haven't seen a movie in a theater since Spencer was born two years ago, but the rest of you have as evidenced by Batman, Slumdog, LuckyNumberSleven, Little Miss Sunchips, and SilverSurfer with older movies Rainman and The Terminator (or the new one!) thrown in the mix.  Television got their fair share of mentions with comic references Tenawesome T, Bramlet Abercrombie, Rubber Biscuts, and SlackJaw and commercials (Nannerpus but I'm surprised no reference to the addictively funny Go Meat!).

There were some that sounded like super heroes (Rod Thunder, Sarge, Dr Fun, G-funk, Phantom, Swerveman, The Mighty Mobelfakta, Big Luther, and Aileen Viray (actually, that's her name but it sounds cool)), some like villains (Scrimshaw Pirate, Reckin Crew, Krimsonguard, and Octagon of Doom), and some like a group of wannabes (The Rat Pack, Paint Crew, Team Samurai, and Flip Fighters).

There were nicknames as pairs (Van&Sam, Spencer&Me, and Shake N' Bake) and nicknames that could go as pairs (CrowBugs1 and Roach Motel, VEGAS32 and Jinx, Belucky2 and Getlucky2, and obviously Krispy Kremer and Krispy Seconds).

There was DaMan and THE man (Presidential Picks) (like him or not).  People were concerned about the economy (Bail-Out Fund, Need a Bailout and C$) so some had to resort to foods and sweets for comfort (Carseroni Rides Again (Carson+macaroni), CustardPie, Sugar Mama, and Stud Muffin).  One just looked forward to the next day (Wake Up) and some looked forward to the next sport (Is It Opening Day Yet and Soccerbix).

People told us where they're from (TxGirl, Coastal Envy, and Frank from Seattle), referred to their kids (My Three Sons, Littlemissnana, Love SP, Baba, and AJ and Bono (as far as I could tell)), or alluded to their profession (Spotter and EEChick).

What's Up picked with little knowledge, Pre-Selection Picks picked with no knowledge (before the brackets were announced), and Not So Random tried with skill- but all 3 were eliminated.  Baby Ouija may have used spiritual techniques, SOURCE may have used multiple references, and Bingo may have used senior citizen help- but all 3 were eliminated.  Poolraider has done this many times before, Bracket Buster had hope, and Number One felt confident- but all 3 were eliminated.  However, the simple Brett Picks (but not the simple Teddy's Teams) and the "what the heck" Bizarro Larzby still have a chance to win the pool.

We had our animal nicknames alluding to dogs (Saikdog and Indy (if you've forgotten (see # 1)...) or the sound my son Spencer makes when referring to a dog (ARPS)) and monkeys (Yellow Monkey and Paper Mache Monkey).  We had those you'd find in the sky (Flying Ace, Flying Elvi, and Bluestars (without the 1996!)) and those you'd find on the ground (Got Snow and Waves). 

Of course, we had our short nicknames based loosely off the person (Hendo, Suznana, Larzby, AC, and Khatna (but it's also this, which is almost as disturbing as when we had Meconium in 2002 - don't click on either link if you want to have a nice night's sleep)), some new strange longer ones based off the person (G's Up and Ho's Down and Chas Croix).  Was there numerology for some (Buckeye23 and Slamjam51)?  We also had the king of romance covers (Fabio) and a queen (Queen B).

Whew.  Much easier when there were just 59 nicknames.  If I butchered the meaning of your nickname, please feel free to vent on our discussion board or our Facebook page.  If you want to know which person chose Paper Mache Monkey or which idiot chose before the brackets were announced, the Who's Who list has been posted since the first weekend.

You may still be in it, check out the Bonus1 winning possibilities (51 entries can still win $40) and visit http://www.hwci.com/ncaa.

    Tids & Bits:  For the first time since 2003, I decided to not use ALL CAPS for nicknames in my updates since I am no longer tailoring to "text" emails, and thus the boldface should be sufficient to tell when a nickname is mentioned... there are some rules to nicknames - it must start with a number or a capital letter, has to be 21 characters or less, be PG-rated, and not include URL problematic symbols such as "%", "?", or "+"... "&" is okay, although you won't be able to view your bracket immediately after submitting it (we had to fix the nickname after the fact for Van&Sam and Spencer&Me)... every year, I tell myself to just highlight about half the nicknames and every year I end up using every one... I also tell myself not to put so many links in, but some are just cool hidden gems... while some can easily fit multiple categories (e.g., Big Red for team, color, super hero) others like Chas Croix are just force-fitted to a category... my "out" categories were "much better nicknames", "super heroes", and "villains" where it was totally subjective and were a place to put a nickname if something more natural didn't occur... the other hard ones are the same ones year-to-year, which I try to fit into a new category if I can... amazed myself by being politically neutral with Presidential Picks - had a much harsher category in mind...