Tournament Time is Here! March 15, 2012
Posted by Matt in NCAA Tournament.Tags: basketball, Final Four, Kentucky Wildcats, NCAA Tournament, predictions
add a comment
If the NCAA Tournament isn’t the most wonderful time of the sports year, it’s near the top.
What’s not to like? You’ve got 68 teams from all corners of the country, from the small, vaguely familiar universities to the longtime juggernauts, battling it out in a winner-take-all tournament to see who will be crowned champion of the year. Where else can you find these levels of elation and crushing disappointment, of excitement and drama?
Granted, the absence of my team, the Arkansas Razorbacks, dampens things a bit, but given that we haven’t been a factor in the tournament since the mid-90’s anyway, it’s no big surprise.
I’ve filled out my bracket and entered our office pool, my perennial donation to enrich someone else for their good luck, but despite the fact that I pick too many upsets and always lose, it’s still a fun time.
My first round upsets include:
New Mexico St (13) over Indiana (4)
Long Beach St (12) over New Mexico (5)
Ohio (13) over Michigan (4)
Belmont (14) over Georgetown (3)
NC St. (11) over San Diego St. (6)
My Final Four:
Kentucky
Missouri
Ohio St.
North Carolina
Championship
Kentucky over Ohio St.
I do tend to go upset-heavy, which always spells doom for me in the office pool, but makes for fun watching. A few possible upsets I thought hard about, but ultimately declined include:
Baylor (3) over Kentucky (1)in the Elite Eight
Memphis (8) over Michigan St. (1) in the 2nd round
Kansas St. (8) over Syracuse (1) in the 2nd round
VCU (12) over Wichita St (5) in the 1st round
What do you think?
A Little Wisdom for Your Tournament Picks March 18, 2009
Posted by Matt in basketball.Tags: basketball, Elite Eight, Final Four, March Madness, NCAA Tournament, picks
add a comment
So, I’ve finally filled out my NCAA Tournament bracket and at some point today I will enter it into the online pools that I am a part of. Over the past few years I’ve gone heavy on upsets, with the hope that I may be the one to pick the next Davidson or George Mason, but my prognostications of underdog dominance have been of little value and I generally finish somewhere in the middle of the pack among my peers.
I’m not exactly sure what has changed this year, but when I completed my picks this morning, it became apparent that the favorites, for once, were ruling with their tyrannical, highly seeded grip. Now, that does not mean that upsets are absent, but only that they are minimal in this annual iteration of bracketology.
Without further ado, my Elite Eight:
Louisville
West Virginia
Connecticut
Memphis
Pittsburgh
Villanova
North Carolina
Oklahoma
My Final Four:
Louisville
Memphis
Pittsburgh
North Carolina
Ending with North Carolina’s defeating Louisville for the Championship.
As you could probably guess, my only real upset is picking sixth-seeded West Virginia to beat both Kansas and Michigan State. There are a few minor ones early in the brackets – USC over Boston College, Maryland over Cal, Minnesota over Texas, Western Kentucky over Illinois, and Temple over Arizona State – but nothing that is too far out of the ordinary.
What about you? Who is in your final four? Who are you picking for upsets?
