March Madness bracket contest

[elwoodblues]

I still don't get the Duke hate.

[Bob Juch]

Not a lot of Duke love on Twitter:

If we root hard enough against Duke then all our sins are forgiven and the Indians get their land back.

Remember, Mercer is playing for the right to be taken off the "what the fuck state is this college in" list.

Clearly Coach K can't handle the Gauntlet of Fire that is the Atlantic Sun.

You didn't win a billion dollars, but Duke lost to Mercer so it's a wash

Worst part about Duke losing in the first round is that we don't get to enjoy Duke losing in any other rounds.

That Duke loss really killed Dick Vitale's March Madness bracket:

There are a lot of sad people here in my office; not because they went to Duke but because they picked them to win.

[Vandal]

I still don't get the Duke hate.

I don't either. I've asked a few people why they don't like the Dukies and no one can give me a good reason.

Some say they don't like Coach K (he's rat-faced, you know). Others have said they are mostly a bunch of spoiled white kids (sure, and check out the Harvard love in this tournament). It can't be because they are a successful program because so are Kansas and Louisville and Kentucky, but no one throws a party when these teams are eliminated.

From what I can tell, they run a clean program. No basketball scandals that I can remember. No Ohio State nonsense (sorry, THE Ohio State nonsense), not thugs, no drugs (player-wise).

Most of their players stay for four years and graduate (eventually).

Nope. I'm not seeing it.

[Bob Juch]

I still don't get the Duke hate.

I don't either. I've asked a few people why they don't like the Dukies and no one can give me a good reason.

Some say they don't like Coach K (he's rat-faced, you know). Others have said they are mostly a bunch of spoiled white kids (sure, and check out the Harvard love in this tournament). It can't be because they are a successful program because so are Kansas and Louisville and Kentucky, but no one throws a party when these teams are eliminated.

From what I can tell, they run a clean program. No basketball scandals that I can remember. No Ohio State nonsense (sorry, THE Ohio State nonsense), not thugs, no drugs (player-wise).

Most of their players stay for four years and graduate (eventually).

Nope. I'm not seeing it.

I don't know why that might be nationally, but around here I think it's because not many people who live here went to Duke; they went to UNC or one of the State campuses.

[Vandal]

No perfect brackets remain of the 11 million who entered.

[TheConfessor]

It took only the first 25 games to knock everyone out.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the ... 53949.html

[Buffacuse]

I still don't get the Duke hate.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that they win a lot, and they tend to beat the teams favored by all the haters...

...just a guess.

But, there's almost a Tebow-like element to this--they are perceived as holier-than-thou even though no one can ever point to any single thing they've ever said or done that would justify that conclusion.

Don't know about others, but even as a Syracuse guy watching a great new rivalry being born, if any of my kids went to Duke, I'd be thrilled.

[Bob78164]

Somebody was perfect through yesterday's games (and is still perfect as of this writing, though Dayton is threatening to tarnish that). He wasn't in the Quicken contest, but it's one hell of an achievement. --Bob

[Buffacuse]

And, my boys in Orange are back!

Then again, maybe not...

...sigh.

[Bob78164]

Does it count as a doubleheader if both games occurred on the same day in both teams' time zones? --Bob

[Pastor Fireball]

It was worth busting my WWTBAM bracket to watch my Wildcats shock the Shockers and end their perfect season.

[earendel]

OK, this year's tournament is really wack - it must be for me to be in first place after the first weekend.

[Pastor Fireball]

OK, this year's tournament is really wack - it must be for me to be in first place after the first weekend.

You know something is up when you have the first tournament since 1979* in which the Sweet 16 doesn't include either UNC, Duke, or Kansas.

(* = I'll go ahead and state that I may be exaggerating on that, in case somebody on the Bored decides to shout "HISTORIC WRONG!" at me.)

[jarnon]

You know something is up when you have the first tournament since 1979* in which the Sweet 16 doesn't include either UNC, Duke, or Kansas.

(* = I'll go ahead and state that I may be exaggerating on that, in case somebody on the Bored decides to shout "HISTORIC WRONG!" at me.)

I checked Wikipedia, and you're right. Throw in UCLA, and you can go back to 1961 (before there was a Sweet 16 as we know it).

[TheConfessor]

The Buffett Billion Bracket contest was supposed to be capped at 15 million entries. The organizers aren't saying, but it appears that they actually got about 2.5 million entries.
http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/2014/03/war ... -dolla.php

[Bob Juch]

You know something is up when you have the first tournament since 1979* in which the Sweet 16 doesn't include either UNC, Duke, or Kansas.

(* = I'll go ahead and state that I may be exaggerating on that, in case somebody on the Bored decides to shout "HISTORIC WRONG!" at me.)

I checked Wikipedia, and you're right. Throw in UCLA, and you can go back to 1961 (before there was a Sweet 16 as we know it).

Throw in UCLA? Ha! They're going to beat Florida.

[andyrinny]

Throw in UCLA? Ha! They're going to beat Florida.

And then they're going to win three more! So says my bracket (among the 0.6% of ESPN brackets that say so).

[mrkelley23]

The Buffett Billion Bracket contest was supposed to be capped at 15 million entries. The organizers aren't saying, but it appears that they actually got about 2.5 million entries.
http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/2014/03/war ... -dolla.php

I was excited to try it, until I discovered that you were not only required to provide a phone number, but that you had to agree to accept marketing calls and/or text messages. I'm sure I'm not the only one who backed out at that revelation.

[SportsFan68]

The Buffett Billion Bracket contest was supposed to be capped at 15 million entries. The organizers aren't saying, but it appears that they actually got about 2.5 million entries.
http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/2014/03/war ... -dolla.php

I was excited to try it, until I discovered that you were not only required to provide a phone number, but that you had to agree to accept marketing calls and/or text messages. I'm sure I'm not the only one who backed out at that revelation.

Yep, as soon as Ed flagged that little requirement, I decided not to enter.

[Kazoo65]

Our newspaper is predicting that both U of Michigan and Michigan State will wind up in the Final 4-and maybe actually play each other for the title-they called it a "fantasy final". If that happens, the ratings in Michigan will go WAY UP for the title game, because the whole state will be watching it (except me, I'll be at my Dale Carnegie class that day).

[andyrinny]

Throw in UCLA? Ha! They're going to beat Florida.

And then they're going to win three more! So says my bracket (among the 0.6% of ESPN brackets that say so).

Or, maybe not.

[Pastor Fireball]

Wow... what a game. My Wildcats upset the defending champions. Of course, my WWTBAM bracket was shot a long time ago, so that game had no impact on me.

The same can't be said for my Golden-Road.net bracket, though. I was the only person in that group to correctly pick 6 of the Elite 8 teams, and I was the only person in that group to predict that Kentucky would beat Louisville.

http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-cha ... ryID=51918

[jarnon]

Wow... what a game. My Wildcats upset the defending champions.

I was surprised that Kentucky, a recent champion, was just an 8th seed. Apparently, people who know something about basketball thought so too. Here's what ESPN wrote on March 18:

One of the biggest controversies surrounding the 2014 NCAA tournament bracket involves two in-state rivals with A-list head coaches, lofty preseason expectations and a national championship from the past two seasons: Louisville and Kentucky.

Not only did both teams wind up in the Midwest Region, but they also were placed in the same half of that bracket, meaning the Sweet 16 could feature a rematch of the teams' earlier meeting this season (won by Kentucky).

Both teams were seeded well below their quality, according to advanced team rating systems as well as many fans and experts. The implications of this "mis-seeding" go beyond hurting the feelings of Rick Pitino and John Calipari. It has a real effect on each team's chances to get back to another Final Four, as well as the chances for other teams unfortunate enough to be in their section of the Midwest bracket -- most notably the region's No. 1 seed, undefeated Wichita State.

It turns out they were right.

[Pastor Fireball]

Before today's games start, I want to remind everybody of my Golden-Road.net bracket because it currently sits in 2,854th place out of several million ESPN brackets. I correctly picked both Florida and Wisconsin (as I did in the WWTBAM group). If both Michigan State and Kentucky win today, then I will match the feat that my cousin Cameron pulled off in 2012: a perfect Final Four. (Cameron also correctly predicted that Kentucky would beat Kansas in the final. I would need a Florida-over-Kentucky final to blow his 2012 performance out of the water.)

[elwoodblues]

It did seem to me that Louisville was underseeded, and it seemed they were going out of their way to set up a Kentucky-Louisville matchup. But Michigan State was also underseeded at #4, and there did not seem to be any of their rivals in their bracket.

With Wisconsin beating Arizona last night there is a good chance there could be three Big Ten teams in the Final Four. I think that happened in the '80s with three Big East teams.