It's in the Name (Mary)
"I...made a bracket choosing schools whose names had the most letters in common with mine (Mary McDow Rincon). In the case of a tie, I chose the higher-seeded team. Note: I did this without using any scratch paper to tally letters, and based on the abbreviated name on the ESPN website. I concede that there are a couple of mistakes, but I'm done with the bracket part and eager to move on the the smack-talking part." You can get the greater context for these choices here
Grad Rate / Seed (Dodie)
This bracket takes the graduation rate of all of the teams in the tournament and divides it by their seed number to get there grade-rated seed (GSR). In every matchup, the team with the higher GSR was declared the victor. I wanted to congratulation those with a high graduation rate, but take the team's ability into account. (Utah State, seeded 12, and Wofford, seeded 13, both have 100% grad rates, but I could not see them in the final four.) The numbers on graduation rates for basketball players have a rwide range. You can see the full report here. It has also gotten some decent media coverage, including a defense by Maryland Coach Gary Williams of their 8% graduation rate, the lowest in the 65 field team. The top ten for graduation rate have more than 905 success. These include BYU, Marquette, Notre Dame, Utah State, Wake Forest, Wofford, Duke, Lehigh, Vermont and Villanova. The bottom ten are, in descending order, Clemson (37%), Missouri, New Mexico State, Baylor, Kentucky (and I'm sure it will only go down next year), Tennessee, Washington, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, California (20%), and Maryland (8%).
By this method Duke beats Kansas in the final, and as the tie breaker I entered their GSRs: 92 and 73.
High Seed Wins (Will)
Ever a respecter of authority, Will has entered a bracket that thinks the tournament selection committee knew what they were talking about when they seeded the teams. We'll have to see what the final four looks like.
Obama's Picks (POTUS)
This blog takes some satirical inspiration from the now-president's book title, so it only seemed natural to let him join us. I imported his bracket from ESPN, and he, among others, had Murray State winning the first round.
Piers: Big [B]East chooses the higher seed except when there's a Big East team involved. Then it chooses the Big East team. When two Big East teams are involved, it chooses the higher seeded (tie breaker if necessary: higher ranked) Big East Team.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly this year the committee was unable to avoid same conference matchups before the regional finals. Usually they try to avoid that.
My Most Wins Bracket simply chose the team with the most regular season wins regardless of conference, schedule, etc.
ReplyDeleteNell
Having watched three basketball games in the last eight years, I just go by my wealth of innate college hoops knowledge.
ReplyDeleteMy Chicken Curse bracket favors teams who played South Carolina over all others and favors those who South Carolina beat during the season over those who beat us. For all other games and games with the identical priority, I used my vast knowledge as a bracketeer to make the choice. As a result of all of this the final four turned out to be Richmond vs Kentucky and Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee. South Carolina had beaten both Richmond and Kentucky and turning aside all loyalty to Nellie's alma mater I picked Kentucky. In Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee the system required the pick of Vanderbilt because the Cocks managed to beat them in the last regular season game and were mauled twice by Tennessee. In the Vanderbilt vs. Kentucky final I had the discretion and picked Kentucky. In several of the other games clients paid me to pick the other team. The Model Rules of Chicken Cursers prohibit my disclosing the identity of any clients but I will say that Wake Forrest and Ohio have some wealthy and generous alumni. Also don't overlook the willingness of Todd Keithly to make a deal or his love for his native state.
ReplyDelete