March Madness - Welcome to Bracketville!

[dlgood]

As I did last year, once again, I'll be hosting a free - for pride only - NCAA Men's Basketball Bracket on ESPN.com. Last year's pool was won by the brilliant sistakaren.

For those wishing to participate follow these easy steps:

1. Go to ESPN's Tournament Challenge page
2. If you do not have a free, ESPN Games ID, create an ID.
3. Join the group LJ Bracket Challenge and create an entry
4. Mock me and my crazy picks.

ETA: The team listed as Control Bracket is simply an entry I've added in which the favored seed (not the Vegas favorite) was selected to win every game. For the purposes of seeing how our upsets deviate from expectations.

Repeating:
Group Name: LJ Bracket Challenge
Password: 123456

Comments

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

I joined. I think that my picks are much more crazy than yours. =)

[ladyoneill.livejournal.com]

For the first time ever I just randomly picked without doing any research.

If I win I may shoot myself for the years of scouring stats. lolol

Thanks for doing this again even though Maryland didn't make it.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I might have to play.

you do understand you can't pick Maryland this year, right? :)

[sistakaren.livejournal.com]

Heh. When I saw the Sista_Karen, I thought: there's an impostor! Someone pretending to me on LJ! WHY!?!?! Then, I realized it was just a mistake. Heh. I have issues.

Yes yes yes, I'm definitely in. Though, I really feel like this year, of all years, it's hard to tell. I'm very very pissed that Dook got a fucking number one seed. Gah. Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I guess I'm just used to seeing that underscore. It really would have been funny if there was a Sista_Karen on LJ.

As for Duke's number one seed... Eh. They're going to lose early, so we can all have joy in laughing at them.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

We'll find out when the Tourney starts...

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

It's all in good fun. Gotta have something to do in between gearing up for that exciting Maryland/Oral Roberts battle in the NIT.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

What??????????????????????????

Well there goes my bracket.

[sistakaren.livejournal.com]

Tee hee. I hope you're right. That's my current crisis in making my bracket right now. But after seeing Syracuse vs. UConn I feel a bit secure in the idea that they can take down Dook. I don't think Dook would have beaten Wake. That and I'm worried about my boys. If we play like we were playing before McCants was injured (minus the 1st Dook game), I think we can win it all. But I've been a bit worried. It depends on what UNC team comes out for the tourney.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Yup - Dook winning the ACC Tourney looks a whole lot less special when one considers that they didn't have to play any of the teams that beat them in Conference play... I've got Syracuse beating them.

[sistakaren.livejournal.com]

Yup. Exactly. And I really have to say that the way the ACC bracket was set up bugged me. I'm not sure how it could be better, but I think that we should have had the chance to play the lowest seed and not Wake. Or however it worked out. It's just bizarre.

But yeah. I have Syracuse beating them too.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Huh. The ACC tourney bracket works exactly like a Best of 16 Team Funnel, except that there are no 12-16 seeds so the 1-5 seeds get first round byes instead. In Round Two, #3 Duke played the 6-11 winner, #2 Wake played the 7-10 winner and Carolina played the 8-9 winner.

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

Do you ever read Bill Simmons? He's a writer on Page Two, so I imagine that you do... Anyway, I chose Syracuse under the Ewing Theory as applied to the departure of Carmelo Anthony two years ago. =)

And I chose Florida just because I went there. I'm stubborn that way.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

I'm familiar. Bill Simmons' "Ewing Theory" doesn't quite hold because Syracuse actually won with Carmelo two years ago and did not win without him, whereas the Knicks did not win with Ewing, and got to the Finals when he was injured...

Beyond that... whatever works. I've got New Mexico winning a game, because, well, I just felt like it.

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I forgot that the Ewing Theory is specifically a team doing better without the big star, rather than winning it all after a departure that was supposed to hurt them. Still, whatever player we'd like to name that theory after, that's what I would choose.

Have you watched any of spring training so far? I'm thinking of trying to get to a few games in the next couple of weeks, as I'm down here in Florida. Don't know what team to go see, though.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Just a little bit. We have a TV in the kitchen at work, so we watched the first spring training game with the Nationals (Formerly Montreal Expos)... but after that I've stopped.

It's always felt to me like, unless I was going to be there in person, there wasn't much need to watch it on TV. I would say that, at this point, if you were going that almost any team will do...

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's hard to get into professional teams, and with college, it's always the same teams every year that make it, it seems like. Bah! Bah, I say.

I can't watch baseball on TV. I never get to see what I really want to see -- the outfielders adjusting to the pitch that's been called, how the pitcher throws, the leads off base, all that sort of stuff.

[bbethany.livejournal.com]

Couldn't resist joining in on the fun. Thanks for setting this up.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I've got your boys winning it all this year.