Tag Archives: Web Entry

Harvard? Not yet…

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As we head into the 2011 March Madness, it is possible the Harvard Crimson (eh?) may make the tournament.  They have a share of the Ivy League title and if Princeton loses today (starts in 30 minutes, and is only on ESPN3.com), the Crimson are in.  If not, then a one-game playoff on Saturday.  Harvard?!

As for the 2011 HWCI NCAA Pool, no changes to format or point system.  What will happen is that the First Four (games played on Tuesday/Wednesday) winners get inserted into the proper 64-team bracket (as the Opening Game winner has been since 2003).  What may happen, is that depending who wins, you may want to update your bracket (likely the #11, #12, or #13 seed).  Feel free to email the update (if it’s just one or two changes) rather than refilling a bracket before the deadline.

What will be interesting is that with TBS, TNT, and TruTV entering the mix, the schedule for Thursday-Sunday are wall-to-wall basketball, with games now separated by half-hours instead of starting 3-4 games at the same time, meaning, ideally, no games should end at the same time, so CBS has less of a chance of screwing it up.  Full tip-off times are found here.

Eight Hours Left

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Eight hours remain til the 9 am PDT deadline.  Note:  We will accept brackets til tipoff, which is 9:20 am, but the entry form will be disabled just past 9 am, so if you get to the java bracket, you can still enter your picks but make sure you submit it before 9:20 (we have a timestamp on the file you submit).  If you think you may not make it, scan and email your pencil-written bracket or fax it to me.

Currently, we have 89 entries including 53 that came in Wednesday.  That is short of our record 62 we got last year so topping 114 doesn’t look good, but there is still time.  Best of luck to everyone!

PayPal is Deemed Evil (So I’m not calling them that, just deeming them to be so)

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PayPal apparently now charges fees for receiving money of any type if you click their button.  They even take fees for donations!  Apparently the charitable giving is to PayPal, not the recipient.  Don’t know how long this has been going (I checked last year’s payments and they didn’t do this then) but I found out by accident because PayPal doesn’t SHOW you they took fees, just what the “gross” amount is.  So when I’m seeing $10 across the board, everything looks fine.  Click on details, and presto, halfway down the page, -59 cents for fees.  I’ve contacted those who aleady paid and asked them to volunatarily make up the difference (purely optional on their part, their entries still count and I’ll absorb the fees).

The website should be updated, but if you just want to send just $10.00 (no credit card payments), you have to do it the old fashioned way and log in to PayPal, click Send Money to “[email protected]“, choose a PERSONAL reason (not a PURCHASE reason) such as Gift, and send.

If you don’t mind paying $10.61 (regardless if it’s PayPal funds, eCheck, Credit Card or personal bank account), click the PayPal button on your web bracket confirmation page.

Despite all this, PayPal is still the easiest and most convenient solution out there and it allows us to accept credit card payments.  Just wish they weren’t all Pelosi-Reid about this.

Tricklin’ in…

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Our first entry was from Brian S. (Flying Elvi) who was going to be on vacation during this time in the Far East so he chose all the favorites for the first few rounds and then ordered his top eight teams (looking at only last week’s rankings).  Luckily, he had Purdue a very low #7 or else he may have regretted it when he came back (Duke was his 5th choice, so they will take out Purdue in the Sweet 16).  Although I picked my teams before Selection Sunday as well last year, we didn’t get the bracket up and running til Monday morning, so the Flying Elvi is the first entry submitted on Sunday since 2005.

Eight more came in on Monday which seems low but this seems to be a harder bracket to crack.  Of course last year, we had just 11 by Tuesday and ended up with a record 114.  Currently, we have 17 which is the same as last year at this time.  Interestingly, 8 of the 17 are online entries (people who somehow trust us with their money and found us through the magic of bing (okay, google).  Last year we had 13 online entries and in 2008 we had a record 15.  Of course, the best part of the online entries is that they always pay up immediately 🙂  The fact 15 of the 17 have paid up is nice (and I have beats on the other two).

For those who have played in the pool for ages, the “Referred by:” box is typically ignored but it does allow people to express their wittiness (if not in their chosen nickname).  Some gems:  “Mom“, “Gosh, I don’t know…been doing it for years...”, “walrus+sledgehammer=orgy“, “History/Picked by 4yr daughter“, “Mrs. Wonderful“, “The voices in my head“, “Ghosts“, “A little bird told me“, and “GOD“.  I bring this up because no one sees this but David F. and myself .  So, the Los Angeles Galaxy (now without Becks but the Galaxy should be used to that) have a mascot, okay, he’s sometimes a starting forward named Alan Gordon.  When the Galaxy missed the playoffs for three straight years, he was a source of entertainment (infamously known for tying his shoelaces while on a break, and thus, the nice cross into the box went to where he would’ve been had he not been tying his shoe).  So last year, Sam N. put down in the referred box “Alan Gordon” – I laughed out loud.  This year, David A. also put down “Alan Gordon” which I thought was classic until I remembered Sammy did it last year.  So if someone calls you an “Alan Gordon”, it’s not a compliment.

Brackets in an hour!

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Now when we’ll be able to get them up on our site, that’s another issue. Not sure if we’re doing any tweaks to the bracket form or not.  Hopefully, we will have the web entry ready by late tonight  though the past few years we’ve had external issues.

2006: Our local web host crashed and brackets weren’t up til 1 pm Monday.

2007: I was on travel to Merced and David was on travel in Houston, resulting in brackets being delayed until around 1 am Monday.

2008: We switched to a commercial server and had to re-upload all the files.  Even through all that admin stuff, we still managed to get the brackets up just before midnight.

2009: David updated the web look and had to work through WordPress quirks.  After several trials, we managed to get the brackets up 12:15 am Monday.

96!

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As of 2 am this morning, we unofficially have 96 entries, just 5 short of our record!  We are trying to match to the person RUBBER BISCUT, PRIDE OF TROY!, and BABY OIUJA (though we have a pretty good idea who these are, just need to confirm).  Gareth M even funded putting President Obama’s picks into this pool (PRESIDENTIAL PICKS).  Hopefully that bracket will bring him more money than the stimulus plan that was passed.  And still no love for UCLA (just one has them in the Elite 8).

How bad was UCLA’s pod in Philly?  They’ll travel around 2,720 miles while their opponent VCU will travel around 245 miles.  If UCLA wins, their two possible opponents will travel either 19 miles (Villanova) or 141 miles (American U.).

Special characters

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It took a while, but two people tried to use an “&” in their bracket nickname.  Don’t use ampersand (&) (or other crazy characters) in your nickname on the bracket because & isn’t URL friendly.  We can add the “&” later if you like it.

Your Picks

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If you want to edit your bracket, please re-submit your bracket and just put down as a nickname something like NICKNAME-REVISE, NICKNAME-UPDATE so we know you are updating and not submitting a new entry. If it’s a small or few changes (hey, change my champion to UConn instead of UNC), you can email us the changes.

Now, if you want to review your picks, you can go here. Or reprint it because you forgot to :-).

Remember the deadline is 9 am PDT Thursday! Submit early and then pray. Also, make sure you have let us know how you will get us your $10.

On the right light blue column, you will find the status of everyone’s picks (e.g., all paid up, in process of paying (e.g., eCheck), or we haven’t heard how you’ll pay. Also, it will tell you which brackets we have. So if you think you submitted a bracket (note the time listed, it’s updated every 4-6 hours) and you don’t see your nickname, email us.

It’s Over?

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I take one trip to the emergency doctor for my son and the Play-In game is already over? 🙂 BTW, my 23-month old son is okay though he may have a scar. I actually thought since I had to leave early from work (as did my wife) that I would be able to catch the game but all that was on was NIT stuff. Did they play this early so those in Newfoundland can watch it at a decent hour? Well, no one else cares.

Well, I’ve gotten the bracket to work with Firefox and IE 7 but others haven’t been so lucky. One of these days we’ll transition to a better java applet but it works for most people.

Also, make your payment arrangements. We’re behind last year’s pace and are projecting around 80 entries so make sure to tell your friends to enter!