NCAA Tournament Challenge

[mith]

http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/

Group Name: Grey Labyrinth
Group ID: 10454
Password: skinnyd

[dethwing]

X all the way!

[dethwing*]

Any idea what they're going to do with the expanded tournament? Will we pick all 4 play ins? Only the "12-seed" playins? None of them?

[dethwing*]

*Note to self. Read the page before asking dumb questions*

So, none of them it is. Now that made sense with the 64/65 match, cause that team wouldn't beat a 1-seed if you gave them 1,000 tries.

But with the 12 seed match ups? Wow, those happen all the time! So what are they gonna do? Put like "Butler/Alabama" as a single option to indicate if EITHER wins against the 5? That's so dumb.

[mith]

Agreed. I guess it's a timing issue (only 2 days to fill out the bracket if you included the play-ins), but it's pretty lame that they aren't included.

[Undercover Monk]

Go Butler last year i had them in my final four but i don't think i will be riding that horse again. Im guessing at least a sweet 16 expirience for the dawgs.
_________________
The Classic Blunders:
1. never get involved in a land war in Asia
2.Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line
3. Never release Peyton Manning

[L'lanmal]

As always, I will be scoring a smaller, more elite , group using a method that more rewards picking upsets. A small tweak this year due more to changing notation than anything substative: Each correct pick is worth (Round Number-1)*(Seed of winner) points.

For example picking a #1 over a #16 in the "second round" is 1 point, while picking a #12 over a #5 is worth 12 points, picking that #12 to win again (in what I suppose would now be called the third round) is worth another 12*2=24 points if correct.

http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/group?groupID=26278
Group: GL upsets
Password: sixthyear

[L'lanmal]

Bump. Last day to enter.

[Undercover Monk]

unfortunately i blew out my cars engine last night and in the chaos forgot to pick my games online. So bah but I do have my paper bracket so i will just be doing that this year good luck everyone.
_________________
The Classic Blunders:
1. never get involved in a land war in Asia
2.Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line
3. Never release Peyton Manning

[dethwing]

No one on ESPN got all 32, and 19 missed exactly one. Pretty typical.

[L'lanmal]

[Undercover Monk]

Woot Butler!!!! here we go again baby.
_________________
The Classic Blunders:
1. never get involved in a land war in Asia
2.Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line
3. Never release Peyton Manning

[Quailman]

L'lanmal leads the GL group, but it'll be tough to win with Pitt (his champion) gone. Not that I'm going anywhere. My money is on Trojan Horse.

[Trojan Horse]

[Schwartz]

I tried to enter my picks in the first group, but it (the group) was locked after play started. I did join the upsets group. I'm at 450pts (had Florida right yesterday - and the two West games with the right teams but wrong winners). Butler looked dominate yesterday in the other Southeast game.

[Quailman]

Obama has 570 points, and his two finalists - Kansas and OSU are still around. bah!

[Schwartz]

I was going to post Obama's too! He picked well so far - whish he could pick a winning economy!

[L'lanmal]

For all that people are shocked at the 10-12 seeds in the round of 16, there is an overwhelming number of favorites winning this year. Even with the unfavorable upset scoring, chalk brackets would lead all of us through the first rounds (although much buoyed by 24 points from 8v9 matchups), which usually does not happen.

And while the upset scoring brackets rarely come down to the final four, mikegoo has a chance to put it away early this year with a Marquette win tonight. If that doesn't happen, I *think* everyone still has a shot of winning.
Through 2 rounds (not including last night's games):

[Trojan Horse]

Butler wins again.

It's too bad Butler and VCU are both on the "right-hand side" of the bracket. A Butler/VCU final would be great.

[mith]

Ooh, ooh, what do I win?

(My brackets are horrible this year... I was going to say other than this one... but it's pretty bad too, except for the final.)

[Quailman]

I have a bracket in another group that started at about 2,700 of 6,100. It's now up to 154th with 650 points, and I have Kansas over UConn, so there is that.

My GL bracket, on the other hand, is finished.

I have UConn in the upsets bracket, so depending on the scoring, maybe I'll do okay if they win.

[Trojan Horse]

Prediction: Kansas and UConn both lose their next games, and mith wins with a mere 560 points.

[L'lanmal]

Not a bad prediction . . . I wouldn't bet against it.

Upset Scoring Brackets:
mith saves the face of human predictors by beating the chalk brackets by 1 point. Quailman can still beat him if (and only if) UConn wins out. Everyone else is done.

Final standings

[mith]

Take that, chalk!

[mith]

Also, Michelle's bracket is currently leading among my entries with 620... and Reindeer is my only bracket with any PPR to beat her. (It wouldn't be the first time she has beaten all my brackets...)

[Trojan Horse]

Butler downs VCU.

I don't care who wins the other semifinal game. Butler's the champ. Take it to the bank.

[Trojan Horse]

Or not.

Butler Bulldogs = Buffalo Bills.

[Quailman]

Congratulations mith, on winning the GL regular pool!

[mith]

And congrats Quail on winning the Upset pool!

[dethwing]

So all it takes to get 2nd is 1 elite-8 pick.