Picking against our faves....

...I actually picked a Syracuse arch-rival to win it all. Ack!

Meanwhile you're all being nice not mentioning the NCAA investigation of Syracuse hoops... I hope it doesn't amount to much.

Must I root for my bracket

Once again this year I'm in the unfortunate position of picking teams I don't want to win. Do I root for the bracket or with my heart? I may have to go change my picks.

Will

Two Raskin entries this year

You will be glad to know that not only did I submit the fabled Yankee Interloper, but my kids Morris (age 8) and Daphne (age 10) cooperated to pick their very first ever bracket.

They have called their team the New York Big Shots. Chips off the old block, they.

Good luck to all!

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Nate Silver

Nate Silver has weighed in here.

I'm with POTUS

The End Game

I crunched the numbers without Obama (who is clearly out of the running no matter what... sorry Prez).

First, if OSU wins it all, Dodie's "Buckeyes Pay the Bills" bracket will win.

If one of the other three teams wins the championship game, it gets more interesting:

Dodie will be out, since his bracket depends on an Ohio win. I looked at the current four top scores minus Obama: that's Austin, Erin, Randolph and me.

All four of us picked Kentucky to win, which means that relative to each other we will know where we stand after Saturday's games (because our scores will rise and fall by the same amount whether Kentucky wins, loses, or does not play in the championship game).

Here are the winners among the four of us, based on the potential championship line-ups:

Louisville vs. Kansas
Todd wins (880 will be the top score).

Louisville vs. OSU
Randolph wins (1000 going into the final), unless OSU wins it all (then Dodie wins).

Kentucky vs. OSU
Randolph wins (1160 going into the final), unless OSU wins it all (then Dodie wins).

Kentucky vs. Kansas
Todd wins (1040 going into the final).

Bottom line, the potential winners are Dodie, Randolph, and me. If you follow the Vegas odds, the most likely winner is Randolph. And if Kansas upsets OSU on Saturday, then I will be the winner no matter what happens in the other games.

Please check my math!

Cautiously optimistic

Huh. Maybe it's time I stop ignoring the glowing wall fixtures and watch some hoopsketball. Isn't that what it's called? This is very unexpected. I hope this is MY 15 minutes of fame!

 

Erin

Endgame?

Has anybody worked out the endgame yet? I think I stand to be in pretty good shape, but I thought I would ask. Got to thank my GT home boy Joel Sokol for the free advice. His LMRC methodology seems to do a better job than the selection committee or other systematic prognostications.

Still pretty impressed by the Barack-et turned in by POTUS.

Randolph

From "Oh, SU" to "OSU!"

Well, I wish the refs had let the teams play (OSU took 42 foul shots!), but really two of our best players (Waiters and Joseph) just didn't show up, and we got severely outrebounded. So, it was hard to be too upset after the game. Our biggest problem was losing our starting center (Fab Melo) before the tournament and it finally bit us. That I'm disappointed in the loss is a sign of how well the rest of the team had regrouped after losing him.

So, at least the Buckeyes are in it. My students and the Ohio taxpayers will be happy, which counts for something.

While I'm here I'd like to admit that, although I'd like to see Kentucky lose, I think it's remarkable how well all those McDonald's All-Americans play together as a team.

-Piers

Louisville

Amazing Louisville win. We ate dinner at a new bar/restaurant place tonight in Inwood and they had the game on. The last five minutes were incredible. Also: saw this video about Obama making his picks:

Syracuse-OSU

On Saturday, Syracuse plays Ohio State. I will be rooting for Syracuse, of course.

But this game made we wonder whether it's better to have two teams you like play each other in the Elite Eight, thereby guaranteeing that one of your teams will make it to the Final Four... or whether it's better to have them in separate games, in which case both could make it to the Final Four, but also neither of them might make it.

Right now I think I like the security of the first option. It means I'm guaranteed to have a fan's interest in the final weekend of games.

Piers

Bye Bye Bam

Wow, Louisville just destroyed Michigan State, vaulting me (quite temporarily, I'm sure) into the lead over our President.

Ready for more Basketball

Even though my brackets pretty much tanked early on, I find that I am
anxiously awaiting the return of basketball on TV and the checking of the
bracket status for the group. I too am always glad to have a president who
is at the top of the leaderboard--just one more reassurance that he is
smarter than most of us. But I wonder about his choice for champs. I agree
with Piers that Ky is looking like they will be hard to beat.

A late response to the explanation of the second bracket--Too Blue--I tried
to choose the team who wore blue. It was harder than I imagined , but I
thought that between Ky, UNC and Duke, it would be a good bracket.

Let the games resume.

Nell

Obama

It's pretty cool that our Commander in Chief is leading the pool.

Factoid

This fair state of Ohio has four of the Sweet Sixteen teams: Ohio University, Ohio State University, Xavier, and Cincinnati. Not bad!

Also, I'd like to point out

that after seeing Kentucky last night, I'm not sure any bracket that doesn't have Kentucky as champs has the potential to end up in first place.

Let the Smack Begin

MC, while you may have the potential to be in first place, let me point out that you are not actually in first place.

Enjoying the Moment

I would love to provide a witty story about how I made my picks, but the simple answer is: quickly and largely based on emotional response to the geographical location of the school. Which doesn't quite explain how I have Syracuse winning it all, but does help explain how Baylor is the last team that 'Cuse should beat.

I suspect that quite soon things will change for me (when is the next game??) - but for this brief moment, I have the highest possible points left. And at the same time, I'm only 50 points behind the leaders (a few more points behind Obama, but I'm not really counting him). It feels good to have so much promise. Though honestly, it's probably about the same amount of promise that Clarkson's bracket had on Tuesday...

What makes a good pick go bad?

          On Tuesday evening my bracket was completed.  They looked like nothing but winners.  I picked a few upsets, but they were sure things.  The biggest upset that I picked was eleven seed N.C. State and they came through. I resisted the urge to pick Belmont over Georgetown.  I knew that Xavier could beat the fighting Irish because I remember Winthrop beating them a few years ago and Jeff swears by the A-10.  They didn’t let me down.  I knew to go with Florida and Florida State because Florida will be a battleground state in November and it is never too early to curry favor with them.  They came through.  Same thing with Ohio, but I missed Ohio because I picked Michigan because I figured they improved due to the auto bailout.

          My bracket lost its way when Missouri lost.  I was a genius on Tuesday night when I picked them to go all the way, joining Jim Goff as the only other true bracketologist.  A bounce here and there and Norfolk State is having the times of their young lives.  A few hours later Lehigh who had exactly as many NCAA tournament wins as Rock Hill High before the Duke game was making sure that Coach K’s worried look was more than an act.  I knew Duke was not the usual Duke team but I remembered the magic of “the shot” that completed the comeback against UNC.  Alabama had the best football team in the country so surely they would have at least one win in them but they came up a point short. 

          I forgot that USF was also in Florida and picked Temple over them.  They won.  UConn lost.  One of my teams lost to a school named St. Mary’s.  Things were looking bad.

          One thing was certain Wichita State would take VCU for two reasons. One, Gregg Marshall is a great coach and everyone knows Cinderella cannot return to the ball.  But they don’t play in glass slippers and VCU won.  My other firewall was Vandy a sure bet for the elite eight. The just lost because the ball just doesn’t always bounce the right way.

          There is a bright side to this the fans of the schools beating my picks were extremely happy.  If I can make a few folks happy by having a bracket go into the tank, it is two days well spent.  I also was able to help Will and Leslie do some painting but my painting is as bad as my bracketology. 

          Being a Gamecock fan we have gotten used to saying “wait ‘til next year.”  Then I will have the perfect bracket, if it can always be Tuesday evening.

 

Clarkson

 

Fair fight?

I was going to make a joke about how the Fighting Irish (with their logo of an Irishman with his fists up) were no match for the firepower of the Musketeers. But looking at the Xavier logo, I now wonder whether they know what a musket is. Or maybe I don't.