Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Final Four is set.

Here are the scenarios. Brigid wins in 75% of them.


Michigan State vs Villanova, MSU wins: Scott, Brigid, Ricky, Suzanne

Michigan State vs Villanova, 'Nova wins: Scott, Brigid, Ricky, (T4) Charlie & Scott Williamson #2

Connecticut vs Villanova, UConn Wins: Brigid, Charlie, Ricky, Scott

Connecticut vs Villanova, 'Nova Wins: Brigid, Charlie, Ricky, Scott

Michigan State vs North Carolina, MSU wins: Brigid, Scott, Ricky, Suzanne

Michigan State vs North Carolina, UNC wins: Brigid, Ricky, Scott, Josh #2

Connecticut vs North Carolina, UConn Wins: Brigid, Ricky, (T3) Brandon #3 & Charlie

Connecticut vs North Carolina, UNC Wins: Brigid, Ricky, Josh #2, Charlie

Friday, March 27, 2009

sweet 16 friday

only one update today. sorry. friends in town.

is it just me, or does this tournament seem to be lacking some excitement? the two late games last night were good, as were the first round friday games, but other than that, i see a lot of empty seats. is anyone else somewhat unimpressed? i can't be the only of the underwhelmed.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Sweet 16 Thursday

Sorry I was absent most of the weekend. Just not in a blogging mood. Good thing I don't do this for a job, eh?

Nothing exciting in the early games, but holy crap, what have we here in the last 2??? Mizzou (22 picking) puts up 102 on Memphis and Nova (44 picked) beats Duke by 23.

These games aren't big point producing upsets now, but will have a huge impact down the road (sorry, Brigid - you're done).

Spreadsheet will be updated with both shortly.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Day 4

Here are the numbers for tomorrow (again, 'dogs first, # picking dogs last):
siena / louisville - 1
cleve st / az - 2
dayton / KU - 6
USC / MSU - 8
marq / mizz - 36
ok st / pitt - 3
wisc / xav - 27
asu / cuse - 21

Day 3

I'm not going to be posting a whole lot while the sun's out today. Its gorgeous here in Wisco and I'll be outside for much of the afternoon. I'll check in every once in a while to update the scores and mention anything interesting I see.

(12:26 pm) For your rooting interests, Brigid has 'Nova and neither Bill McNary, my "theory" bracket nor Scot's Bracket Buster have a team in this game.

(2:09 pm) This one's a runaway. Sure, there are 4 minutes left, but this is a joke. Web page is updated, though not much changed. The game was only worth 2 points.

(9:37 pm) Damn. So close to both Texas and WKU upsetting Duke & the Zags. Damn. Scores are up.

Pre-game, Day 3

Some numbers for you:

(lower seeded team listed first, # indicates how many people made the pick)
A&M / uconn - 2 (griffenhagen 3, col mckeown)
purdue/wash - 56
maryland/memphis - 10
ucla/nova - 29
tx / duke - 20
lsu/unc - 1 (bird)
mich / ou - 14
wku / zagss - 12

If some of these upsets hit, we could have even more change in the standings!

Friday, March 20, 2009

End of Day 2

So, I was basically absent for posting this evening. Kinda tired. Just didn't feel like it. What a way to close out the first round, though, huh? Through some tough play by Arizona, Cleveland State and Wisconsin, a handful of us made a big jump in the rankings. We'll see how we do down the road as we're missing (especially me) quite a few Sweet 16 teams.

stay tuned for more tomorrow...

Session 3, Day 2

So, yeah... not much to say so far for the evening round. Morehead State is keeping it close in yet another 16 vs 1 game, but really, that's about it. Arizona is winning, but 71 people picked it, so that's not so shocking.

Session 2, Day 2

The numbers...

44 have Dayton over WVU
52 have Temple over ASU
9 have Cornell over Mizzou
EVERYONE has Pitt over ETSU.

(2:12 pm) I'm bored. I think that games should just start in the 2nd half with a randomly assigned score and let them play it out from there. It would be significantly more exciting for those of us sitting on a couch with a beer in hand at 2:12 on a work day. Either that, or i could just take a nap during the first half. That solution would probably piss off less poeple, wouldn't it?

(2:15 pm) This has been said before on other blogs, but I really hate the latest batch of Howie Long Chevy commercials. It seems to me that they're designed to make him look like a witty guy, but really, all he comes off as is a jackass.

(2:19 pm) You like my bored random thoughts yet? Here's another for you. Right about this time of the year in Wisconsin, its the perfect temperature outside. Warm enough to shoot some hoops, but cold enough that you can leave your beer in the garage and its the right temperature.

(2:23 pm) So, ETSU is putting up a fight. Not really noteworthy at this point in time because everybody picked Pitt to with the game this round. It would be interesting, though because 36 people have Pitt in the final four, and of those, 22 have them winning the whole thing. No big point swings now, but damn would that make late rounds fun!

(3:40 pm) Finally, these things are starting to get exciting! Mizzou's to the point that I could almost plug it into the sheet now. Somehow ETSU is hanging on and Dayton continues to make things interesting.

(4:10 pm) That 3 by Pitt may have just been the dagger in ETSU's back. Too bad. That really would have made this whole pool terribly interesting. I'm calling the Mizzou game. Scores will be updated shortly after all the games are done.

(4:18 pm) Scores are posted. Too bad the ETSU/Pitt game ended with a 10 point difference. It was really much closer than that all game. In fact, the 10 point lead they took at the end was the first and only time there was a double digit lead.

Session 1, Day 2

Don't have much to say yet. Its early.

(11:33 am) For your rooting interests, Buttski has picked tennessee, syracuse, marquette & kansas. The only upset here is UT, but then again, these games aren't really good upset candidates.

(12:04 pm) I'm happy to have found an alternative channel on Time Warner. The Marquette game is on CBS in HD and is, frankly, kinda boring. Marquette's D is suffocating the Utah State offense, so I'm watching the Tennessee/Oklahoma State game on some network called "ThisTV" on channel 201. There's also a "March Madness Central" thing on channel 118, but its just a lame call-in and highlights show. Not worth your time. I really miss DirecTV right now. Have I said that before? Next year, I might get DTV for the tournament and cancel it as soon as its over.

(12:48 pm) WHAT NOW??? So, shortly out of halftime, Utah State has brought it back to one against Marquette and NDSU back to 5 vs KU. What happened???

(1:17 pm) Syracuse won. Shocker. Utah State just took the lead. OK St up 3, KU only up 5. Looks like we have a good start to today's games! 13 people have picked NDSU. 42 picked Utah State to upset Marquette. 79 Picked Tennessee.

(1:40 pm) What a great opening round of games today. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Late Games, Day 1

Things seem to be going Buttski's way. Duke has already routed their opponent, WKU is up 11, the sooners are up 28 and UCLA seems to be fending off any and all advances by VCU. Disappointing for all of us who are counting on upsets to give us a points bump, but impressive for Mr. Butt (as funny as that looks, its pronounced like foot - i promise, i wore out all of the available jokes by the time Mike and I graduated from high school).

Mike's about 45 minutes away from having a perfect first day. There's no way of tracking all of the previous years, because I think I only added the day-by-day feature in the last year or two, but I'd venture a guess that he's the first to do it.

(11:34pm CDT) - Games are over, website updated. Congrats, Buttski. Impressive.

Evening games, Day 1

I'm pissed.

Since you're here, I bet you'll listen while I vent (and no, not the gay Coors Light venting).

If you were (un)lucky enough to be unemployed like me, you probably watched all of the games this afternoon. They sucked. Period. I left for Milwaukee (grad school @ MSOE) shortly before 5. Evening games started at the same time as my class. Being the good fanatically religious college hoopster I am, I watched the scoreboard the entire time. The first batch of evening games made me jealous of all of you donkeys that were watching the games with a beer in hand at your favorite watering hole. Jerks.

An aside, how awesome are the Jordan "Be Legendary" commercials??? I love the factory in Syracuse, NY, where no Rays or Raymonds work. http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/home/index.html#jtvContent?contentID=1247

Another aside, while I'm on the topic of awesome commercials, I love the Jimmy Rollins/Dick's Sporting Goods commercial. Yeahhhhhhhhhhh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kFH4gV8rGY

So, I was wrong a bit about my evening plans. I was able to sneak in an update as class was wrapping up and I decided against going to the bar, 'cause I wanted whiskey and didn't want to pay bar-prices for it. So, now I'm chillin' on my couch, watching WKU beat up on the (not-so) Fighting Illini with a stiff Jack & Coke in my hand.

As much as I hated watching the opportunity for 3 big upsets pass in the 6pm round of games, I have to congratulate Buttski for picking every single game correctly so far. If you want to cheer against him, he has Western Kentucky, Duke, UCLA & Oklahoma. Not terribly adventurous if you ask me.

Game commentary, afternoon day 1

- A&M is running away with it. I could almost call this one now.

- Cal State Northridge just took the lead. About half of you have Memphis in the championship game.

- I miss having DirecTV for just these two days. I'm quite bored with a tied 8 v 9 game. Would much rather watch Memphis & CS-N.

- Bear with me as I iron out a couple of bugs in the sheet. If you see something that's wrong, let me know.

- A thoroughly unexciting afternoon. UNC puts up a Hundy on Radford and UConn doubles up Chattanooga. UNI and Maryland almost made it interesting, but not interesting enough to keep me from a well-deserved nap.

- (6:03pm CDT) The Miss. St. vs. Wash. game is over. Website is updated. Class is starting. Like I said earlier, I'll post late tonight or tomorrow morning.

... and we're off!

116 entries this year. Good stuff.

I'm still waiting on 4 brackets, 2 from Jay Johnson and 2 from Brigid Mckeown. Jay had formatting problems and Brigid is having trouble finding a computer with excel. I know both of them have completed their entries, so I'm giving them a break - hey, its my pool....

I'll post as we move through the weekend, but for those who religiously follow the blog, I have to step out this afternoon at 5 or so. I have a class for grad school from 6-9 up in Milwaukee and might hit the bar afterwards. I'll post scoring updates when I'm home.

In the spirit of honesty and all that junk, I took 3 free entries, one for BabyK, due at the end of July. President Obama gets a free entry, though I probably won't pay him if he wins. The way he's giving out cash to banks and automakers, I don't think he needs it. I'm also subtracting $40 for fees paid to GoDaddy for the domain and website hosting and taking out $30 in paypal fees. Cool? Good. I'm glad you agree.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

'twas the night before...

some bulleted notes for all of you as you on NCAA's Eve.

- 74 entries so far. I've probably received 40 since 4pm!

- as usual, i'm giving myself and the BabyK (due late July) some free picks.

- in addition to the paypal fees I usually subtract, I'm also deducting fees paid to GoDaddy in securing the new domain name and hosting service (~$40)

- for next year (don't hold me to it), Buttski and I are working on moving this whole thing online. you'll login to enter your picks with a unique name and password. you'll also be able to call up anyone's picks as well as see all the normally excessive scoring breakdown you're used to.

- You can keep up with the scoring at www.upsetpool.com and my tourney blog, well... here.

- Someone from the post office opened and removed Dennis Johnson's payment. Don't know if it was a check or cash, but this one gets a free entry on account of the USPS sucking.

- I'm working on a sort of "family tree" for the upset pool. You can check it out here: http://www.mindomo.com/view.htm?m=0dd8aed4a1eb438dab965eab9f3aead2

- So far, there are only 3 people who have picked champions other than #1 or #2 seeds - they picked 'Nova, the Zags & 'Cuse. Bold.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Protest

I'm not watching the selection show. I decided that its dumb. Its just a bunch people bitching about who's in and who's out. I'll just wait until someone publishes the whole thing on a website.

Plus, a rematch of the last World Baseball Classic championship game is on - Japan @ Cuba.

Friday, March 13, 2009

ok, ok, ok....

So, I wrote that last post shortly after the end of regulation of the Syracuse vs Uconn game when Diefendorf (sp?) missed the win by the length of his fingertips. Now we're in the 6th overtime. Honestly, is there a better way to get excited about the NCAA Hoops tourney??? 3 days ago, I was wishy washy about even running the pool. Now, I can't control my excitement.

6 overtimes??? I'm starting to think conference tournaments are better than the real thing. If you've been keeping up with the Big 12 Tourney, you'd agree. All 4 top seeds are out over there. Granted, I'm somewhat partial given my Iowa State heritage (yes, I was in school when #15 Hampton beat Tinsley & Fizer's #2 seed 'Clones). Anyway, I've caught the fever. Bad.

I just hope the field of 64 (65) is as exciting as this game!

Also, Dick's Sporting Goods has been running some great commercials lately. Being a guy who led my conference in getting hit by pitches (no joke), my recent favorite has got to be this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kFH4gV8rGY

Wow. Game's over now. Congrats to both teams. This was truly one of the most unbelievable games I've ever seen.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

2009!!!

Here we go again. Its conference tournament time and I'm just now getting excited.

It has been quite an interesting year+. Since we last crossed paths, I had just left a great job testing explosives for the Navy and started working on fuel cell powered generators for Modine Manufacturing in my homeland of Southeast Wisconsin. Since then, things have been busy. I started grad school in the engineering managment program at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Angie finished her school year at Barnhart Elementary in Waldorf, MD. We moved into Mom's basement in Cedarburg, WI. We sold our home in Waldorf after nearly a year on the market and at a substantial loss. After living with my overly generous mom for 51 weeks (thanks for putting up with all of my crap and doing my laundry!), purchased a home in Racine, WI. Not 3 months later, Modine's stock tanked requiring drastic reorganization and layoffs, one of which was me. Somewhere in there I managed to get Angie pregnant. Now, I'm looking for a job (I'm a mechanical engineer with test and product development experience if you know of any openings - email for a resume) and trying to enjoy my time off. Somehow, despite all the turmoil, I'm terribly excited. Excited to become a father, excited to explore a new job and excited that its nearly NCAA tournament time!

If you've found your way to this blog, you've either been a long time participant or are considering it this year. I'm looking forward to another fun tournamnet and pool. Stay tuned for somewhat live updates as the tournament progresses.