Go Red Rams!

Tonight the Orange play. I bleed Orange, as you know. But what's more, this year, two of their starting 5 also went to Jamesville-DeWitt High School, my alma mater. The JD Red Rams (see pic). I wonder how many top teams have 2/5 starters from local high schools. For those who haven't been following them, this team also plays a very unselfish brand of basketball, leading the country for much of the season in team assists. And tonight, without their starting center, they'll be playing with a mere 6-man rotation. So it should be a fun and interesting game. And if you still aren't sure why you should watch SU play, let me just remind you about this guy (the pic is a little out of date):

Stat of the Day: Possible Points Remaining

SO some of you hot shots picked some good ones.  And others have the chicken curse fever.  But the scores across McDowHoops are only separated by a max of 50 points.  The real number to watch is the Possible Points Remaining to see who has the potential to dance the big dance.  Here are our entries top to bottom on possible points remaining.

ENTRY, OWNER	PPR	TOTAL
BIG BAD BRIAN 53 1, B. Richards	1760	100
Maggie, M. Gumbinner	1740	80
meine.gewinner, L. McDow	1740	90
Rugby Scrum, D. Rincon	1740	110
Tennessean, L. McDow	1740	100
GT takes it all, R. McDow	1720	100
High Seed Wins, W. McDow	1720	90
Luis "El Monstruo" Rincon, D. Rincon	1720	90
Maggie Lou's Quidditch, D. McDow	1720	100
Southbound Train, G. Raskin	1720	110
Yankee Interloper, G. Raskin	1720	110
Devastated in Durham, W. McDow	1700	90
Dreamin in Durham, W. McDow	1700	90
expert testimony, E. Fitzpatrick	1700	110
ToyotaAcceleration, D. McDow	1700	90
crawfordb11, L. Crawford	1680	80
Grad Rate / Seed, D. McDow	1680	100
Most Wins, N. Jenkins	1680	90
Obama's Picks, D. McDow	1680	120
Skyhook Keithley, T. Keithley	1680	120
Abby, A. Norris Turner	1660	100
KelleyR314 1, K. Ragland	1640	90
The Pied Picker, M. Jenkins	1640	110
Beaux Beaux JAS 2, J. Sadler	1620	80
Bea's picks, J. Gumbinner	1600	70
Ella's picks, J. Gumbinner	1600	70
Fran Dunphy's Mustache, R. Jaffe	1600	110
L Mishler Picks, L. McDow	1600	80
Lauren's picks, L. McDow	1600	90
Where's the CBI bracket? , J. Gumbinner	1600	90
Big [B]East, P. Turner	1560	90
Clarkson McDow 1, C. McDow	1560	90
Nellie, N. Jenkins	1560	110
Ithaca or bust, B. Harrington	1520	70
Slim Pickins, N. Jenkins	1500	90
Captain Cuse, P. Turner	1380	90
The Chicken Curse Lives, C. McDow	1260	90
MookMcD 1, m. rincon	1140	100
bryzzard 1, B. Harrington	1120	90
Go Vandy!, S. Igo	1120	100
It's In the Name, m. rincon	920	110

Method to March Madness

After a day of results, I'm hoping that with some of your entries there is a method to your March madness.  Otherwise, you have chosen poorly.  As an attempt to let those who see themselves teetering on the brink of elimination, I would like to ask you to explain the way that you have chosen teams if you have entered a method bracket.  Please respond in the comments here, so we can have all of these excuses explanations together.

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.