Anyone pick St. B over FSU? If so, close but no cigar.
For those who thought Belmont would beat the Hoyas, you have 3:10 1:06 0:00 to make up an 18-pt. a 15-pt. deficit. Hey, it might didn’t happen 🙂
Why is the Norfolk St.-Mizzou game so close? Mizzou’s down by 4 late in the 1st half. Can you say bracket-wrecker?
Nice upset by NC State over SDSU, at least for those who picked it.
UPDATE MIZZOU LOSES
Filed under: Basketball | 16 Comments »
I advise not waiting until the last minute as the traffic at the site seems to exceed Yahoo!’s capacity to handle it.
Filed under: Basketball | 18 Comments »
For those who want someone else’s insight into the NCAA men’s hoops tournament, there are oodles of prognosticators out there.
I offer these examples without comment.
Graham Watson: Cinderella teams worth considering
In the end, it’s hard to accurately pick the upsets. Some bracketology pundit will inevitably be right. You yourself just may be that pundit.
Have fun!
Filed under: Basketball | Leave a comment »
Did you turn your clock forward?
Before conference tournament play began these were your top 12:
1 Kentucky (31) 30-1 775
2 Syracuse 30-1 744
3 Kansas 26-5 703
4 North Carolina 27-4 690
5 Missouri 27-4 620
6 Duke 26-5 604
7 Ohio State 25-6 568
8 Michigan State 24-7 540
9 Marquette 25-6 537
10 Murray State 30-1 526
11 Baylor 25-6 422
12 Wisconsin 23-8 417
So far, KY, agreed to be the best team in the nation, barely squeaked out a win in the SEC semifinal, Syracuse, Kansas, Duke and Marquette did not make it to their conference finals, and MO and Baylor exceeded expectations. The remaining teams have performed as expected – the Big 10 final result will not be an upset; however, if UNC loses in the ACC final, or if KY loses in the SEC final, that will be a surprise. There is no qualitative difference worth mentioning between being a one seed or a two seed in the NCAA Tournament – if form follows, you get easy sledding for the first two games. Everybody then is on even ground in the Sweet 16, because we have just seen that top 16 teams can all beat each other on a given night.
Match-ups matter. Baylor is big and fast, but has defensive lapses that a team consistent in spreading the court with good three point shooters and good passing to take advantage of spacing will exploit. Baylor cannot beat a Missouri or a Duke. Syracuse can beat anyone if they are shooting well. But they have the most trouble with a Missouri or a Duke, too, because they play zone. KY, UNC, and Kansas all play like NBA teams, although not quite as talented. Ohio St. is almost in that crowd with KY, UNC, and Kansas. Michigan State is a testament to the best coach in America, Izzo, who has good but not great talent and makes them tournament tough by the end of the year.
On another note, about human capital: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/friedman-pass-the-books-hold-the-oil.html?src=me&ref=general
My sis was graduated from Mich. St., PhD from UNC. Good luck to UNC and Mich. St. today!
Addendum: KY and UNC lost their conference finals. UNC benched one of its stars as a health precaution. Both teams are probably still “ones”. The Big Ten gives us its two premiere teams in the conference final, next.
Filed under: Basketball, education | Tagged: opening thread | 40 Comments »
I may not have access to the internet on Sunday so I’m posting this now.
Here are the logistics for the ATiM group pool. It’s out on Yahoo! Just follow this link to the Tourney Pick’em portal. Click on “Join a Group”. Our group particulars are:
Once in, you’ll be able to create up to five brackets under a single email address. Your family members are free to use their own email addresses to log in and create their brackets, but this makes it easier for those lacking email, such as DogJS, to participate.
The pool is technically open only to ATiM’ers and their families. If someone else reeeeeally wants to join s/he won’t be stopped, but seeing as no money’s involved and the prize is a nifty ATiM plaque or tchotchke I doubt too many will be that inclined.
You only need concern yourself with ‘the final 64’. The four play-in games prior to March 15 aren’t included.
The scoring system is intentionally skewed to reward risk. And you’re picking outright winners without regard to the point spread. There are two components to scoring.
The first component is the points awarded for making the correct picks. The number of points awarded doubles each round.
The second component is the seed differential bonus. It comes into play only if you correctly pick an upset, meaning the winner’s seed has a greater numerical value than the loser’s. The formula for the seed differential bonus is:
(winner’s seed – loser’s seed) x multiplier
The multiplier for each round has been set at three (3). So if you correctly pick a #10 seed to beat a #7 seed, your seed differential bonus is (10 – 7) x 3 = 9 points.
If you have questions, you may post a message, either on the group message board or here at ATiM.
Have fun!
Filed under: Basketball | 20 Comments »
Not much going on today other than basketball (sorry ’bout your ‘Horns, Mark!), gardening for some of us in warmer climes–although it hit 52 here yesterday afternoon, the overnight low was still 28–and weekend chores.
In addition to UT’s loss in the Big 12 conference championship last night, the Utes lost their final home gymnastics meet to Nebraska 197.6 – 197.45; Nebraska put on a hell of a show, because they only had seven active gymnasts for the meet and five of their athletes went all around. Now those are some tough chicks!
Last, I thought this was actually pretty good:
What do you guys have going on this weekend?
NOTE: And why, oh why, did I schedule a hair appointment for 12:15 on a day when MSU is going to start playing at 11:40 local????
Filed under: Basketball, Saturday | 7 Comments »
Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojkt
All Things in Moderation 