March Madness - Preview

All right!!!  Games have started and I've managed to enter all the brackets into my master spreadsheet.  We wound up with slightly more than last year.  There are 210 entries, and the fact that I have them all entered in time to watch most of the first game makes me deliriously happy.

Not only that, the first game is Duke / NC Wilmington, and as I told someone earlier this week, the day that Duke loses is probably my 4th favorite day of the tournament.  Plus, I wore my UNC Wilmington T-shirt today (yes, I have a NC Wilmington T-shirt).  Never let it be said that I am a casual college basketball fan.

I am all set up at my brother's place.  I've only got one TV going currently, but that's because I haven't had time to figure out the streaming on the others.  I have my Pizza from the Pizza Port, my donuts from VG's in Cardiff and my Mello Yello.  There's really nothing else I am wanting, except for my Dad to show up around noon today.  After that, everything will be gravy.

There were a few brackets that were filled out incorrectly, but I think I managed to get answers on fixes, so everything is complete.  As a rant, I just want to say that I have to transcribe all of the picks into a master spreadsheet, so when you get cute with your entries by writing in "Cuse" for Syracuse, "Nova" for Villanova or "Zags" for Gonzaga it really slows things down.  I want to point out one totally egregious example.  Never, ever, ever, ever do I want to see "The U" or "U" as a representation for Miami-Florida.  You might as well just write in the mascot for all the good that does me.  If it makes things easier, just assume I'm an idiot that knows nothing about these places.  That would be a good rule of thumb while filling these sheets out.

But wait, the rants aren't over....  I didn't have this issue last year, and I thought I had effectively shamed enough people to keep it from happening again, but I had no less than 3 (THREE!!!) people pick only by the seeds.  These brackets will be scored as Gutless Ray, Gutless Kye and Gutless Missy.  After the initial revealing of the brackets, my favorite time of the tournament is when these cowardly brackets get eliminated.  IT can't happen soon enough for me.  C'mon people, pick at least one upset. VCU over Oregon State, MSU over Virginia.  These are popular choices.  Anything but only by the seeds....

Enough ranting.  Here's some stats for our little group.  Here's the breakdown for the winners:

Kansas (60)

Michigan State (47)

North Carolina (32)

Virginia (12)

Kentucky (11)

Villanova (9)

Oregon (9)

Xavier (5)

Oklahoma (5)

West Virginia (4)

Maryland (3)

Arizona (3)

Texas A&M (2)

Purdue (1)

Vandy / WSU (1)

Indiana (1)

Connecticut (1)

Iowa State (1)

Syracuse (1)

Notre Dame (1)

Texas (1)

I think that more or less aligns with the gambling lines for the tournament.  Looks like Oklahoma and Xavier were a little underrepresented, and with all the turnover at #1 this year, these seem like good value picks.  You'd only be competing with a handful of people.  Something to think about (although it's too late for this year).

Here's the breakdown of the 4 regions:

South Region:

Kansas (138)

Villanova (33)

Maryland (12)

Arizona (9)

California (7)

Miami (6)

Connecticut (4)

Vandy / WSU (1)

West Region:

Oklahoma (91)

Oregon (56)

Texas A&M (33)

Duke (19)

Baylor (5)

Northern Iowa (3)

Texas (3)

East Region:

North Carolina (109)

Kentucky (32)

West Virginia (32)

Xavier (26)

Indiana (6)

Notre Dame (3)

USC (1)

Wisconsin (1)

Midwest Region:

Michigan State (134)

Virginia (42)

Utah (15)

Iowa State (7)

Purdue (5)

Seton Hall (2)

Gonzaga (2)

Syracuse (2)

Dayton (1)

The most popular Championship matchups are:

Kansas & Michigan State (55)

Kansas & North Carolina (27)

Oklahoma & Michigan State (13)

Kansas & Virginia (12)

Kansas & Kentucky (9)

Oregon & Michigan State (8)

Oklahoma & North Carolina (7)

Kansas & Xavier (6)

Villanova & North Carolina (6)

Oklahoma & Kentucky (5)

The most popular final 4 are:

Kansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Michigan State (31)

Kansas, Oregon, North Carolina and Michigan State (14)

Kansas, Texas A&M, North Carolina and Michigan State (8)

Kansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Virginia (7)

Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Michigan State (7)

Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Virginia (5)

Kansas, Oklahoma, Xavier and Michigan State (5)

Kansas, Oregon, North Carolina and Virginia (4)

Kansas, Oregon, Kentucky and Michigan State (4)

If you have any of those above, you better hope you do well this opening weekend as these are probably going to be the tiebreakers.

Speaking of which, there are actual games going on.  Here's the breakdown:

Duke / NC Wilmington:

Duke: 188

NC Wilmington: 22  (Go Seahawks!!!)

Butler / Texas Tech

Butler: 149

Texas Tech: 61

This is a little surprising for an 8/9 game, especially since Butler is the 9 seed.  I guess people remember their track record when they went to back to back Championship games.  If memory serves, they went one year from the 8 seed.  Hmmmm.....

Colorado / Connecticut

Connecticut : 133

Colorado: 77

Another 8/9 game, where the 9 is picked more than the 8.  Again, this may be based on history.  Either that, or my old friends from my UTC days live and/or are from Connecticut.

Iowa State / Iona

Iowa State: 169

Iona: 41

As someone who has been burned repeatedly by the Cyclones over the years, I can sympathize with the people that took Iona here.  I also want to comment that this is one of my least favorite games from an administration standpoint.  I like to use autofill on my spreadsheets, and this game made me type more than I wanted.  (Nothing like the potential Texas / Texas A&M 2nd round matchup).  Most people could not care less about this I'm sure.  I am also sure that this is the year that Iowa State makes a deep run since it is the year I abandoned them.

I'll be back later with updated standings.  It looks like the Seahawks are losing, so I need to cheer them on from the comfort of my brothers couch some 2500 miles away.  Go Seahawks!!!!!