Sunday scores

I'm not sure when I will be able to post scores from today's games.

For those of you not already in the know, Angie and I are in the hospital today and are expecting our second boy sometime this afternoon.

I'll post the scores as soon as I am home.

Testing... Testing...

Just trying out a blogging app for my phone...

finally, some upsets.

Nobody picked Lehigh.

Nobody picked Norfolk State.

26 Picked Ohio over Michigan.

Most people (81) picked Purdue.

As a reminder, only 40 picked my Cyclones. Shame on the rest of you.

Most importantly, now that a pair of #2 seeds have lost this year, we won't have to reflect on how Iowa State lost to Hampton as a #2 seed back in 2001.

New scores posted.

First Update, Friday

Welcome to the pool...

Sorry I'm just getting around to updating everything now. Life has been hectic the last couple weeks, but I have all the brackets entered now and that should help calm things down. Do me a favor and check the rankings to make sure I have all of your entries. If I missed one, I'll be happy to add it.

Thursday Game Updates...

• 59 people chose to pick the play-in games, so about half. I'm leaning heavily towards skipping the play-in games next year to avoid confusion. There aren't any upset bonus points available anyway. If you have a strong opinion the other way, send me a note and lobby your case - I'll listen.
• I'm pretty disappointed in all of you. less than 25% of you had faith in my Cyclones. You should all be embarrassed.
• However, half of you picked VCU. Its a good pick, but what the hell, people???

That's all for now. The spreadsheet will be up shortly.

Damn, Butler!

Congrats to Butler, Mike Hames, Josh Kennedy, Bryan Kaplan, Jay Farnam & Brigid McKeown for picking it. What a game.

End of Day 1

Scores are posted. Some good games today! Can't wait to get home tomorrow to park my @ss on the couch and watch ALL of them tomorrow!

Some interesting pick trends

• only 26 picked UCLA over Sparty. The big 10 fans were almost right!
• only 12 picked Morehead State (13 seed) over Louisville while...
• 69 picked Richmond (12 seed) over Vandy
• apparently there are a lot of Big 12 fans out there - only 37 picked Cincy over Mizzou.

As always, email if you have questions...

Stupid "first four"

The addition of the extra teams hosed a shitpile of equations in my scoring sheet - yeah, the one that actually gets published to the web. So, for right now, the rank and current score ARE correct, but everything else has a big wrench in it. I'll fix it tonight, probably - just thought you should be aware.

Finally...

Finally out of the conference room! Time to make a drink, catch up with the 21 brackets still to be entered and finally update the scoring for everyone. Not sure how long it'll take, but probably less than an hour.

If you want to know something immediately, shoot me an email.

And, we're off...

I can't stand Jim Nantz. He did, however get a call VERY right towards the end of regulation of the first game... as the game-tying 3 fell thru the net, he said "and March Madness is underway!"

I also can't stand that we have to go through the process of 4 play-in games (great blog-rant here), it is pretty sweet that we're treated to an overtime game in the first 16 vs 16 matchup between Ark-Little Rock and UNC-Asheville!

68 early entries. 46 picked UNC Asheville correctly. I'm not posting new scores until after tomorrow's games - you can check your own brackets.

If you haven't sent 'em in yet, make sure you get 'em in by tip-time on Thursday!

*edit* For what its worth, 41 people correclty picked Clemson.

Blind Picks

Ran across a cool thing while browsing this morning's sports headlines on www.quickish.com (check it out - its awesome). The Wall Street Journal has linked to a site that eliminates all ranks, records and team names, and has you pick based on an estimation of their RPI, NCAA seed, conference strength and four team strengths and weaknesses. I did a bracket of my own "MCK Blind Picks" for the pool this year. Interesting stuff.

Here's the site: http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/BLINDFOLDBRACKETS1103/index.html

Here's how mine turned out:

Welcome Back!

Its that magical time of year again keep checking in here for commentary and any pool-related news.

If you haven't received a reply to your bracket submission yet, don't sweat it. I have about 30-40 brackets in my inbox from last night alone and won't get around to inputting them until later this afternoon after I arrive in lovely Burlington, IA. I was planning to do it here at work this morning until I sat down to find an email from Management explicitly instructing us NOT to do any pool-related activities on government property. While I love the pool, it's probably not worth losing a job over. I'll get them all in by tipoff tonight.

Happy Basketballing!


- Posted from Matt's iPhone.

Location:Volunteer Dr,Milwaukee,United States

Final Scores

Hey there... sorry I've been absent for the final four and championship game. Between the results being set in stone and me being in DC for vacation, I had completely checked out on updating the pool. Results will be posted within 10 or 15 minutes of this post going up.

Congrats to this year's winners and lets hope the NCAA doesn't do something stupid and expand this to 96 teams. On top of being a generally dumb decision and an obvious money-grab, it would be a nightmare for me to redo my spreadsheet.

See you next March!!!

2010 Pool Wraps Up Today

I'm fairly certain that the results of this year's edition of the Upset Pool rests with the result of the Duke vs Baylor game. If Baylor wins, the standings should remain the same. If not, Scot will win and Josh should take 3rd.

Go Baylor!

Grey's Anatomy

Apparently, on Thursdays @ 8, we have 2 shows recording. Neither are the NCAA tournament. Since our awesome TimeWarner service is only capable of handling 2 feeds, the cable box changed the channel from 'Cuse vs Butler w/ 1:35 to go over to &(*#ing Grey's Anatomy. Some quick hustle to the bedroom and I was able to catch the last :34 seconds.

Phew.

I should apologize to Wes Johnson. If you're not aware, I'm an Iowa State guy and so was Wes, until he transferred to 'Cuse. I don't begrudge him for it. He was a sophomore and the coach that brought him in just got canned. But anyway, I should apologize, 'cause my picks have all gone south this year. After KU went down, I hitched my wagon to Mr. Johnson, Boeheim & the rest of the Orange(men). Whoops.

14 people just lost their champion. Out of 125+ entries, only 41 people have a champion remaining.

Oh, and only 3 picked Butler. Nice work, Colonel McKeown, Bryan Baudler & Janie!

What a tournament!

This is shaping up to be a barn-burner. Just looking at the top 10 or so, its impossible to come even close to predicting a winner based on what teams each person has left.

The remainder of the round 2 scores are posted.

Good luck in the Sweet 16.

Football kicked my ass.

No way I'm going to be near a computer when these games are done. My bed is calling my name... Loud.

I'll update first thing in the AM.


- Posted from Matt's iPhone.

Location:Green Haze Ave,Racine,United States

I. Love. March. Madness.

Holy crap! I had KU in both of my brackets, but was unquestionably cheering for UNI. What an awesome game.

Unless I missed one, NOBODY picked UNI. This game will cost a lot of people a lot of points.

... including me.

44% of us picked the Jayhawks to win it all. Ouch.

Wow... and now Washington???

Second Round Coverage

Sorry I didn't get last night's late games posted until this morning. They're up now, though.

The first scores today might be posted a bit later than normal - I have football practice at 11.

Yup. Football practice! I get to hit people again!!!

holy crap was that an awful call.

a lane violation... in the ncaa tourney??? with 18 seconds to play? i call BS.

scores are updated. i'll post after the last game tonight.

lets go Gouchos!!! beat those buckeyes!

WIFI!!!

I fired up the computer and apparently, it has a much stronger wifi antenna than my iphone. Bonus!

Scores will be updated as soon as the Ga Tech / Ok St game finishes up.... and then again after this session wraps.

Unlike earlier today, we actually have a couple of decent ones going on! I can't wait for the TV to switch to NM St & MSU!