Issue # 2.1.1 “Déjà Vu” (3/17)

Archive

Thursday, March 17, 2022  **HAPPY ST PATTY’S DAY**

4 DOUBLE-DIGITS WIN, KY TRANSFERRED OUT
Our 27th pool nets second-best 169 entries from 106 people

DEMOING THE WALK-IN, WALK-OUT AMAZON FRESH, CA (smt) – Hmm… last year, Day 1 saw 6 upsets, 3 overtimes (4 including First Four), a Big Ten disappointment (3-4 including First Four), the Big 12 was perfect (4-0), and a #15 upset a #2.  Today, 6 upsets, 3 overtimes (4 including FF), a Big Ten disappointment (2-3 including FF), the Big 12 was perfect (2-0) and a #15 upset a #2.  One difference was last year #8E-UNC lost in the 1st Round for the first time in 18 tries (also an #8 seed) and this year they routed #9E-Marquette.

The first two games set the tone with trendy upset picks #11S-Michigan and #13MW-South Dakota St playing.  Michigan, despite 14 losses, pulled away for the upset but #4MW-Providence denied the haters by beating SDSU (South Dakota St, not San Diego St).  Michigan led a total of 6 upsets on Day 1, the only bright spot for the Big Ten today… well, the other bright spot was an Indiana cheerleader rising high to rescue a stuck basketball above the backboard (they did lower the backboard and the excited guy holding her up nearly ran her head into it).  #12E-Indiana got routed by #5E-St Mary’s and supposed sleeper team and Big 10 champion #5MW-Iowa lost to #12MW-Richmond, a team that only got in by winning the Atlantic 10 tournament.  But the Big Ten troubles weren’t as bad as the Mountain West, who in addition to losing #12aW-Wyoming in the First Four, lost #6S-Colorado St, #8W-Boise St, and #8MW SDSU (San Diego St this time) to finish 0-4 and have lost their last 9 tourney games. 

Issue # 25.2 “25 Years: The Teams”

Archive

Tuesday, March 24, 2020
25 YEARS:  281 TEAMS HAVE MADE PROPER 64 IN OUR POOLS
Ignoring Opening Round and First Four losers, we have seen at least one new team each year

EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt)- In the final AP pool, teams 2 through 7 are not your usual suspects with only Florida St (ACC), Baylor (Big 12), and Creighton (Big East) coming from the Power 5 conferences.  Gonzaga (WCC), Dayton (Atlantic 10), and San Diego St (Mountain West) would have provided some much needed parity.  But alas, none of those teams will count.  So without a tournament, here is another 25 Year retrospective, this time focusing on the teams who have made the tournament (the proper 64 that is). 

So when the NCAA tried to mess up brackets by adding a 65th team (Opening Round 64v65) in 2001 due to the new Mountain West Conference taking away an at-large bid or when they added three more at-large teams to create the First Four (well, the First Round until 2016) in 2011, we ignored them.  The proper 64 bracket that starts Thursday at 9:15 am is what matters in this pool.  If you pick your bracket early you’ll just select “Team A/Team B” to advance and as always, you can change your picks up until the deadline.

Duke has been the top seed (#1 overall) 6 times including four in a row from ’99-’02  with Kentucky (4) and Kansas (3) right behind as shown in the table on the left.  From ’95-’03 the top seed was determined by the final AP pool before the tournament and from ’04-present the top seed is announced as part the NCAA’s ranked seeds listing.  UMass (’96) is probably the oddest top seed and local favorite UCLA was only the top seed in our first pool in ’95.  Five top seeds went on to win the tournament (’95 UCLA, ’01 Duke, ’07 Florida, ’12 Kentucky, ’13 Louisville).  Only twice did the top 2 seeds make the final (’99 Duke v UConn, ’05 Illinois v UNC) and twice did none of the top 4 seeds make the Final Four (’06, ’11).   UConn, however, has won the most titles (4) with Duke, UNC, and Kentucky winning 3 each in the past 25 years.  A #1 seed has won the title 17 times with UConn (#7E) the worst seed to win the title. 

Issue # 10.4.2 “Duke and Kentucky KO’d”

Archive

Sunday, March 31, 2019 

TIGERS WIN IN OT; DUKE AND ZION FALL SHORT
Carseroni 1st but stuck at 131; Just 5 can win pool and 2 guaranteed money

HOME/DIGNITY HEALTH SPORTS PARK, CARSON, CA (smt)- #5MW-Auburn proved it could win without launching lots of threes (just 7 of 23) and knocked off their 3rd straight Blue Blood, #2MW-Kentucky, in overtime 77-71.  Although the rest of the team hit just 7 of 13 free throws, Jared Harper was 11-for-11 and hit all six in overtime and had 12 of the Tigers’ 17 OT points.  Auburn made its first Final Four and knocked off legendary programs Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky in consecutive games.   Each team had a chance in the final seconds as regulation ended at 60-60. 

#2E-Michigan St complained that they shouldn’t have been in the same region as #1E-Duke despite one of the higher 2 seeds.  But they faced each other and produced a great game, with no team taking more than a 4-point lead in the final 17 minutes.  In the end, Duke’s RJ Barrett tried to take control from Zion Williamson and got the foul but missed the first of 2 free throws down 68-66 with 5.2 seconds left.  He tried to miss the second but actually made it meaning Duke now needed to foul four times (not being in the penalty yet).  After the first foul, with 4.7 seconds left, Duke misplayed the situation and Michigan St. ran away from the defenders and ran out the clock to reach their 10th Final Four, winning 68-67.

​Issue # 12.5.1 “Revenge is Sweet”

Archive

– The Final @ Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium) –
(36-3) #1-West (Los Angeles, CA)	vs.	(34-4) #1-South (Houston, TX)

Saturday, April 4, 2015   *** HAPPY BIRTHDAY BELUCKY2 ***

BADGERS WIN REMATCH TO END WILDCATS’ PERFECTION; DUKE ADVANCES

FULLERTON/SANTA ANA, CA (smt)- #1S-Duke quickly trailed #7E-Michigan St 14-8 before going on a dominating 36-11 run to easily give Coach K his 9th finals appearance with a 81-61 win.  In a rematch of the 2014 Final Four, #1W-Wisconsin saw #1MW-Kentucky string an 8-0 run to go down 60-56 with 6:37 left but the Badgers answered back with their own 8-0 run to go up 64-60 with 1:06 left.  With perfection slipping away, the Wildcats had an offensive foul, missed a free throw, and shot a 3-point airball as the Badgers advance to the title game for the first time since 1941 with a 71-64 win.  Offensive rebounding, key 3’s, and a gift call on a basket after the shot clock ran to zero helped Wisconsin snap Kentucky’s 38-game winning streak. While not as young as last year, Kentucky fielded two Freshman, two Sophomores, and a Junior and again ran into a more mature team in Wisconsin (two Seniors, two Juniors, and a Sophomore) like they did last year in UConn in the title game.  Although I needed Wisconsin to win to have any chance at the pot (The Bracket Awakens), I would have loved Kentucky to go 40-0 as history is cool.

The Bracket Awakens (6th, 131 pts), Buccos 2 (16th-Tied, 126), Flying Ace (23rd-T, 124), and Baba’s Bad Boys (23rd-T) all got both teams correct (only 83 have done so before) and all but the latter still have a chance to win money.  But it’s Big Luther who Read the rest of this entry »

Issue # 10.4.1 “Close Doesn’t Count”

Archive

Saturday, March 29, 2015

OLD HAT FOR BADGERS & WILDCATS

The Happy Couple

CERRITOS, CA/CHINO HILLS, CA (smt)- Why Chino Hills?  Well, it has finally happened as my esteemed co-admin and co-creator of this pool, The Mighty Mobelfakta, has finally found someone to spend the rest of his life with and we couldn’t be happier.  Myself (’02 champ Gold Fabone) and my wife SpAva, our current leader Will I Ever Win This, last year’s champ Badzy (David’s sister), ’95 champ Bix Pix, Bramlet Aberchrombie and his wife (’99 champ Shary Bobbins), former players Jayloc and Uthpope, and The Flying Elvi were there to celebrate.  It was a wonderful ceremony and a great reception.  And it ended early enough for those to listen to the 2nd half of a Badger-Wildcat match that was dominated long-range by #1W-Wisconsin.  Helped by #2W-Arizona weirdly playing for the next possession despite being down by 5 and less than a minute to go that ended in a shot clock beating 3 by Wisconsin, the Badgers reached the Final Four for the 2nd straight year, beating the Wildcats in the Region Final for the 2nd straight year, 85-78.  Wisconsin hit 10 3’s in the 2nd half led by Sam Dekker’s 5 including two daggers in the last two minutes.  The Badgers missed 5 free throws in the last five minutes yet Arizona didn’t foul but allowed 30+ seconds to run off the clock each time.

In the second game, #3MW-Notre Dame gave undefeated #1MW-Kentucky everything they got but couldn’t build their lead bigger than 6 with 5:22 left.  The Wildcats slowly chipped away and didn’t panic as they calmly scored the last four points in the last 2:36 to stun the Irish, 68-66, to reach the Final Four for the 2nd straight year (4th straight time doing it (did not qualify in 2013)).  John Calipari has now led the only 3 teams with 38 wins (2 with Kentucky, 1 with Memphis) and could set a record of 39 with a Final Four win Saturday.  It’ll be interesting to see if Kentucky is now wounded with the close call or inspired and will finish the Final Four with ease.

There were 57 who went 2-0 including Will I Ever Win This who now has Read the rest of this entry »

Issue # 15.6.1 “Freshmen Hazed”

Archive

2014 NCAA Champions
#7-East (New York, NY)	The University of Connecticut Huskies (32-8) 4th Title: ’99, ’04, ’11, ’14
2014 Winningest Conference
	The Southeastern Conference (11-3) 3rd time: ’06, ’07, ’14

CERRITOS, CA (smt)- The veteran starting lineup of #7E-UConn, some who stayed on despite the Huskies being banned from postseason last year, came out hungry against the all-freshmen starting lineup from #8MW-Kentucky jumping to a 30-15 lead and eventually hanging on to a 60-54 victory.  The Huskies never trailed in winning their 4th title (the same number as Duke!), all in the last 16 years and two years removed from retired coach Jim Calhoun and one year removed from a postseason ban due to academics.  While UConn was a perfect 10/10 from the charity stripe, Kentucky bookended 6/7 by missing 7 of their first 13 free throws and their last three (including a front end of a one-and-one).  Senior Shabazz Napier, while taking some ill-advised or quick shots, scored 22 pts and had 6 rebounds as he was one of the few who stayed on through the postseason ban.  This capped a wild tournament partially aided by bad seeding by the selection committee and that sometimes, just the name on the shirt (with a little luck) is enough to propel you to the finals.

In a strange twist, all 8 entries alive to win money were guaranteed to finish at least tied for 6th (before the dreaded tiebreaker), meaning two would lose the tiebreaker and go home empty handed.  But first, Read the rest of this entry »

Issue # 13.5.1 “#7 vs #8, Oy Vey!”

Archive

In a wild game that saw Kentucky go on a 15-0 second half run only to be answered by Wisconsin’s 15-4 run, Aaron Harrison made his 3rd straight go-ahead 3-pointer in 3 games, this time with 5.7 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 74-73 win over the Badgers.  The Kentucky freshmen (66 points, a Final Four record) once again Read the rest of this entry »

Issue # 11.4.2 “Big 10 Implosion”

Archive

MICHIGAN TEAMS FALL; UCONN & KENTUCKY BACK IN FINAL FOUR

#8MW-Kentucky rallied and beat #2MW-Michigan, 75-72, on Aaron Harrison’s 4th straight 3-pointer with 2.3 seconds left.  With the game tied and playing for the last shot, the long 3 wasn’t as ill-advised but it worked out (why Read the rest of this entry »

Update #2: Let’s do the Math (that) Counts

Or view full update.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Issue # 2.0.2 "Let's Do the Math (That) Counts"
[ Home | Blog  | Twitter | Facebook | Updates ]

USC Wins Pac-10 Title

Whoa… now I gotta pick them to make the 2nd round.  There’s one loss in my bracket already.  This is probably the final nail in Arizona’s coffin in extending their steak of 24 straight tourneys.  That gives the Pac 10 5 teams in the tourney, which is already one too many.  No room for ‘Zona to sneak in this time.  Barring some extreme generosity by the selection committee, Arizona and Kentucky failing to make the tourney will only leave Kansas as the lone team to be in every bracket since our pool started in 1995.