Congratulations to Beth and the Defending Champion Florida Gators!!! Not only was Ms. Elliot the only remaining contestant with a contender in the championship game, but she had the winner picked. Here's how the final rankings played out:
Well, needless to say.....Saturday didn't go the way that most of us thought it might. Every single contestant except one, Beth, has been eliminated from having a pick alive in the final championship game. Only 4 people had a winning pick on Saturday, with only one person, Julie, picking those Buckeyes of Columbus.
As it stands, if Ohio State wins tomorrow night....Ray wins the pool. BUT, because of the increased point values in the final round, if Florida wins tomorrow night......Beth will win the pool.
This is how the score sheet looks at the moment, Beth's score is the only one that can be affected by the final game (remember, a win in the final round is worth 5 points!):
And with that....enjoy the game tomorrow night. The Madness has come down to this, 2 football powerhouses vying to cut down the nets in Atlanta. Who'll it be?!?
Four rounds are in the books and this is how the standings look:
Unbelievable......if Kansas had beat UCLA tonight there would have been a three-way tie for first place! But alas, the Bruins of Westwood channeled the Wizard and were able to outlast those pesky Jayhawks to become the 2nd team to make it to Atlanta for the Final Four (set to face the winner of Florida vs. Oregon). Ironically enough, Kansas, who was the overall Number 1, is the first 1 seed to be eliminated.
Janet and Ray continue their sparring for the Number 1 spot, with Ray regaining the top spot. That three-way tie for third remains, however based on their picks for Sunday's games I'm afraid the triumvirate will be broken up by the end of tomorrow. With 6 people who have the potential of going 2-0 tomorrow there could be a lot of shake-up. At this point we're down to only 7 people who have their Final Four picks still intact.
Here are your scores....and don't forget that tomorrow's games start at 2:40.
That is a fierce three-way tie for 3rd, perhaps today's games will provide a little separation. I have to say how impressed that I am with the fact that 3 of our contestants have winning percentages of over 70%: Ray (73%), Janet and Susan (70%). Going in to today's games only 2 of our players have their Elite Eight picks intact: Bob and Ray. Though even their picks differ on one game: Bob (Kansas) and Ray (UCLA).
Today features two match-ups of #1's against #2's.....Memphis vs. Ohio St. and UCLA vs. Kansas. Below are everyone's picks for today and tomorrow's games:
Some amazing games tonight! Memphis in an absolute nail-biter; Greg Oden with the definitive block to make sure that Ohio St. advances; UCLA living up to their legacy; Kansas rockin' and chalkin' their way to the Elite Eight.
Friday night two more Number One seeds are put to the test with 4 games all together, what will this do to the leaderboard......check back to see!
How about Ben Howland (UCLA's head coach) going against his former Pitt team?
Sweet Sixteen Bonus Super Challenge Speed Money Round
2 comments Published by Jeremy on Monday, March 19, 2007 at 7:08 AMHere's a little twist to this year's pool. For those of you familiar with golf or poker......we're going to analogize this to "pressing" or "buying back in", respectively. For those of you who are luckily unfamiliar with those two matters this will be considered an elective option that you can choose to go with in order to improve your score. Of course, there's always the chance that you could hinder your score as well......
If you choose this option, your score as it stands now (see yesterday's post below) and the picks that you made prior to the tournament will be wiped clean and you will have the opportunity to complete an abbreviated bracket that has been reset to reflect the sixteen teams that remain in the tournament. Since your current score is wiped clean, and because this is an elective option that anyone can take, the point values for each win will be increased if you choose to elect into the bonus pool. However, the new point values will only apply to those who take the option and will be in reverse staggered order (5 pts. for any win in the Sweet Sixteen, 3 pts per win in the Elite Eight, 2 in the Final Four, 1 in the Championship).
So.....
If you're at the bottom of the leaderboard and want a fresh stab at the teams ......this option may be for you!
If you're at the top of the leaderboard and you think that the enhanced point values can give you a boost at this point or you think that with all of those Cinderella teams out of the way that picking will be easy the rest of the way......go ahead and elect!
And now for the mechanics of electing:
(1) Click here to view the amended bracket, compare it to the picks you have and see if this is the right choice for you,
(2) Send me a quick email or post a comment on this page requesting an "edit-able" copy of the new bracket,
(3) Fill it out all the way through the Championship game,
(4) Send it back to me at jdorfman82@yahoo.com by 7:00pm on Thursday March 22nd.
As soon as I hear from people, I will keep a running tally on this page of those who have elected, in case this helps in your decision-making/positioning.
Best of luck choosing what's the best option for you!
Postscript: This option will not be made available after any subsequent rounds, choose now or stay the course with what you have.
Well, the last two games are all but finished at this point.....Kansas is making its last few free throws and USC is finishing off the Longhorns (if only I could have been saying that about last year's Rose Bowl). The standings are as follows so far:
Ray, clearly using everything that his son taught him about picking basketball games, is leading the pack after having had at least a share of the lead for the entire pool so far. Susan is in a close second, but can't seem to shake Beth off her tail who is rounding out the top 3. As for the tournament itself, all 4 number 1 seeds are still alive and 3 out of the 4 number 2 seeds are still kicking. The SEC and the PAC-10 both have 3 teams advancing to the Sweet Sixteen, while the Big 12 and the Big East both have 2 teams each advancing.
With the damage from the first two rounds done it appears that 5 out of the 11 pool participants have their Final Four "intact". With that said, keep checking back to this site this week as I'm contemplating a bonus Sweet Sixteen pool........
Wow, three overtime games (one of which went to double overtime).....pretty exciting day in the tourny. Looks like everyone took a gigantic "swing and a miss" on the Maryland game, pretty impressive that Butler is in their second Sweet 16 in 4 years. If Butler makes it to the Final Four this year in Atlanta, with just over 3,600 students in their undergraduate program, they could manage to get about 20 times their student body into the Georgia Dome to watch the game.
Luckily for everyone, I just saw that the UCLA game went final with the Bruins holding off the late Hoosier run. And with the UCLA win, Janet has now tied Sue's single day winning percentage record with her 7-1 performance.
Here's the updated leaderboard of where we all stand at the moment:
Tomorrow's the last day when win's are 1 point each, after that this contest is back up in the air and is anyone's ballgame!
Alright, games tip-off at 1:10pm Eastern time today. Here's a link to a new sheet of everyone's picks for the Second Round.
Interesting tidbits:
(1) Beth, with her love for the Colonial Athletic Association, not only picked VCU to upset Duke, but she has them advancing today as well.....gotta love it; for the record, George Mason is also a part of the CAA
(2) There are two games today getting a Shamrock stamp of approval for what should be outstanding match-ups: Louisville/Texas A&M and Georgetown/B.C.
(3) Sue so far has the best single day record with a 14-2 performance yesterday....not too shabby
(4) Every single person has picked UCLA to advance past today, this is the only team that can boast a unanimous vote, including the number 1 seeds.
(5) Beth and Janet are the only two people that have their brackets "intact" going into today, meaning all of their picks for today are still possible.
Good luck everyone and keep an eye out for those Shamrock games!
Just got back to Northern Virginia after having flown in through a snowstorm en route from the 90 degree temps of Vegas, so really quickly here's the leaderboard:
Tomorrow, check back in between rounds of green beer for new updates. Good luck to everyone in the second round, may the luck of the Irish be with you!
With 1 day in the books, here's how things have flushed out:
The first day yielded 3 upsets, two stemming from that perennial hotbed of tough competition, the 8 vs. 9 match-up. The historical streak of Number 1 seeds never being beaten by Number 16's is still in tact with two more on the line today: Kansas and Florida.
Some games to keep your eye on today:
-UVA and Albany: I can't believe Bob and I are the only ones sensing upset here
-Illinois and VA Tech: the Hokies haven't been in the Big Dance since '96, time to make a stand and play on thru to the next round.....too bad you have to play in Illinois' backyard
- The 2 outstanding 8/9 match-ups (Villanova vs. Kentucky and Purdue vs. Arizona): as an aside, I dare you to find me another year where 3 out of the 8 teams in the 8/9 match-up have the same mascot. Anyway, which Wildcat team(s) is/are going to advance to Sunday?
-Can this be the Holy Cross Crusaders year, their first test comes against the Salukis of So. Illinois (by the way, this is what a saluki is..... I can't say that I'd want this as my mascot).
-And finally, will the defending champs, the Florida Gators, make it past their first game to continue their title defense?
Games tip-off at 9:15, get your score tickers fired up......Day 2 is upon us!
Duke who? Props to Janet, Ray and Beth for picking the Rams of VCU over Duke.
This report is getting posted after I just walked thru the sportsbook at Caesar's in Vegas and it is buzzing with VCU just tying Duke before the half. After spending a morning trying to figure out the location of Oral Roberts (Oklahoma), Old Dominion (Virginia), and Winthrop (South Carolina), I've put together a sheet of everyone's first round picks: 1st Round Picks.
Some interesting stats:
(1) With 11 contestants and 32 first round games there were a total of 352 picks made, of those 24% were upset picks.
(2) The 7 seed vs. the 10 seed match-ups have produced the most amount of upset selections with 29% of the total upset picks. The 8/9 match-ups have the second most upset picks with 24%.
(3) The most upsets in the first round were picked by Clare, the least by Beth.
(4) This tournament features two Blue Devil teams (Central Conn. and Duke), two Bruin teams (Belmont and UCLA), 3 Golden Eagle teams (Oral Roberts, Marquette, Boston College minus the Golden), 3 Bulldog teams (Butler, Gonzaga, Georgetown), and 4 Wildcat teams (Weber State, Davidson, Villanova, Arizona).
That's all for now, tonight we'll put up some results and rankings.
The games have started and excitement is in the air. I've gotten brackets from most everyone so later today I'll post everyone's first round picks and then late tomorrow I'll post results from the First Round. Good luck everyone! By the way, let's hear it for those BC Eagles this morning!
If you haven't gotten the email, go ahead and use this link to access a bracket template. Fill out all your picks and attach it back to me in an email, as listed in the rules:
Bracket, rules, etc.
As best I can tell (and correct me if I leave one out) we have 9 "alma mater teams" represented in the Tournament, these are schools in the Tourny that were attended by contestants in BBB. The list is as follows:
(1) Boston College
(2) Arizona
(3) Central Conn.
(4) Virginia Tech
(5) UCLA (by way of a brother)
(6) Michigan State
(7) Penn
(8) Virginia
(9) George Washington
(10) Syracuse (wait a minute, they didn't make the tournament.....outrageous)
As far as teams that should have made it instead of the likes of Duke et al who try to ride their so-called reputation into the Tournament, the list is as follows:
-Syracuse (see above)
-George Mason (though last year's run still feels pretty sweet)
-College of New Rochelle
-Arizona State (NIT-bound for life)
-UCSD
-Eastern Illinois (however Matt Painter, Purdue's head coach went here - thanks M.R. for that tidbit)
-Boston University
-Baruch College
-Univ. of Toronto (though I'm not sure how kindly the NCAA takes to foreign teams)
-American University
-San Jose State (Spartan Spirit!)
Get those picks in to me as soon as you can, we'll have stats, rankings, etc. posted as everything progresses.
Hey Everyone.......Its March, which means 2 things: (1) only 3 more months of snow in Syracuse and (2) the NCAA tournament is upon us! This year we're going to try to run most of the Bracket Bonanza through this site so check back often, post a comment if you feel so inclined, and otherwise enjoy the tournament. March 11th is Selection Sunday, so once all the seeds have been picked, we'll put together a bracket template and email out to all that are interested (we'll also post a copy of the bracket on this site). Once you get the bracket, fill out your picks through all of the rounds and email it back to me as soon as possible (at the latest by Wednesday the 14th). We'll post rankings, projections, and interesting tidbits to this site as the tourny progresses.
Keep an eye on your inbox for those brackets on Sunday!