27 Entries Still Alive

And just like that, we’re down to the Final Four, with the semi-finals consisting of the number one seed from each respective region. Now 18 or our entries went with all of the number one seeds making their Final Four, yet only six of those have a chance of winning it all, which underscores the importance of making accurate picks in the earlier rounds. There are even some scenarios in which entries that did NOT pick all of the one seeds can finish on top. Huh? Yep, it’s a fact. Further proof of early round importance.

Overall, 27 entries remain alive for some kind of prize. Our leader for the last several rounds suffered terminal damage when Final Four picks Michigan State and Tennessee suffered defeat, but the entry labeled dfs currently sits atop the standings with Duking it Out right behind, Eyebrian3 in third and then a whole bunch of fourth place entries all tied. In reality, though the standings at this point have little meaning other than bragging rights for the next six days, because everything comes down to the eight possible scenarios, all of which are spelled out in the “Final Four” report, which you can select above by clicking on the “Status Reports” menu, then selecting “Final Four” in the dropdown box. Here you’ll be able to determine who you need to root for this coming Saturday in addition to your best possible finish.

In the meantime expect to hear from your local collection agent this week if you haven’t already, and please arrange to make your donation promptly so that our winners can be rewarded for their insight and accuracy.

Halfway to the Final Four and little has changed among the leaders, as both number one seeds notched a win in the first half of Elite Eight competition. Mark McKeown Bracket continues to lead, followed by dfs, and then we have a three-way tie for third between Duking it Out, Tyrone Shoelaces and Striper Chasing. Whether you go by the Current Points sort or the Possible Points sort, the standing among the top six remain unchanged. And as a matter of interest, each one of these, with the exception of the leader, have some combination of Florida and Duke in the Championship game. So tomorrow’s games, involving top seeds Auburn and Houston taking on Michigan State and Tennessee, respectively, will play a big part in sorting out the logjam at the top.

More than half of our entries have been eliminated from winning any kind of prize at this point and further, only 19 entries have a chance to win it all. The current Status Report now includes a Best Finish column, or due to space limitations, “Best Fnsh,” which we are guessing stands for “finish,” rather than the Federation for Nova Scotia Heritage. If you can’t figure out where your entry currently sits in the standings (or if you’re wondering about any possible ties to native Nova Scotians) please drop us a line at headquarters and we’ll be happy to pass along what we know.

The Elite Eight has pretty much come down to the elitest eight teams in the tournament. With apologies to St. Johns, it seems that the top eight teams that remain in contention are pretty much the top teams in the country. And while there’s a certain logic there, it can be argued that it’s made for an incredibly boring season of March “Madness.” With little in the way of upsets, buzzer beaters and Cinderella teams, the tournament might be more accurately labeled March Dullness.

But that should not detract from the stellar play of seven of our entries that nailed all eight of the Sweet Sixteen matchups. Now before you seven go gloating, realize that anyone who simply picked the higher seeds, lacking any knowledge of the game (not that anyone would make use of such random tactics – or refuse to advance any SEC schools, or even use Catholic Institutions as a basis for making picks) would be solidly in the top five at this point too.

Not surprisingly our consistent leader, Mark McKeown Bracket, continues to hold strong leads in both the Current Points sort and the Possible Points sort. Sneaking up into contention is Gordon Bjorkman III, who is tied for second place with the “dfs” entry in both sorts. Seems that the key to success is to not only simply pick favorites, but also to use your real name for your entry.

As for the race for the Brandy Award, the title has officially been claimed. Not surprisingly, Pope’s Picks has locked down the worst performance of this season, going back-to-back with truly horrible picking. We’re not suggesting that God hates college basketball necessarily, but this kind of consistency does bring to mind the possibility that he’s suggesting that institutions of a certain faith might want to refrain from competing is such pagan activities.

With half of the Sweet Sixteen having concluded, little has changed at the top of the standings. Extending the lead for the third consecutive summary, the Mark McKeown Bracket, one of many to nail four of four matchups, has widened the lead to four points over Provolone Cheese in the Current Points sort. In the Possible Points sort, the Mark McKeown Bracket has an even more formidable lead with 231 possible points (the next closest being 223 points) and all Elite Eight entries still alive. But the leader, and in fact all but two of the top 13, had to sweat out an overtime game that Texas Tech came close to giving away to Arkansas. Had Arkansas been able to pull off the upset, the standings would be looking very, very different going into the second half of the Sweet Sixteen. Maybe tomorrow will bring us some shakeups and get us out of this rut of favorites advancing. What fun is that?

Oh, wait, we do have some fun – at the other end of the standings, that is. Just when we thought that Pope’s Picks had the Brandy Award wrapped up for a second consecutive year, a new contender has leapt into contention. And in spectacular style, having whiffed on every single Sweet Sixteen game so far is MrMortgage, the only entry that ended up with a goose egg in column number 4 of the Standings page. With just two Elite Eight picks still alive, MrMortgage ranks just behind Pope’s Picks in the Possible Points sort and is making a strong case for hitting rock bottom.

Ah, but in the Current Points sort, we have yet another contender, current last place overall, the entry labeled “No SEC,” which predictably has not a single SEC team advancing to the Sweet Sixteen (this despite the fact that 14 teams and three of the top four ranked teams come from the SEC).  A questionable strategy, to say the least, ranking right up there with betting on Seth Davis making an accurate game prediction. 

At this point we can only conclude that the race for the Brandy Award is currently much more intriguing than the race among the leaders. 

As we close out the first two rounds of March Madness and prepare for next week’s Sweet Sixteen, just one double digit seed, Arkansas, remains in contention. Other than a couple of 6 seeds and a 5 seed, the remaining teams are all 1 through 4 seeds. Dare we say……..boring??????

After the plethora of upsets and surprises that we experienced during the previous two years, we expected a little more…..errr, you know……madness. Shoot, if you had simply picked the higher seeded team to win each matchup, you’d be among those in the lead right now. Hopefully we’ll see some shakeups over the next two rounds to lend a little fun to our little tournament here.

As for current performances, three entries got though Round 2 having picked 14 of the 16 games correctly, one of those being yesterday’s leader, Mark McKeown Bracket, which leads in both the Current Points sort and the Possible Points sort. Four entries got 13 of the 16 games right, and then there’s everybody else.

And also with the conclusion of the first two rounds we see the emergence of the dreaded asterisk. For those unfamiliar with the dreaded asterisk, let us put it this way – your payment is pretty much overdue. Yes, those unfortunate souls who see an asterisk next to their entry have no hope of finishing in the money. Chief among those is current last place entry, Pope’s Picks, winner of last year’s Brandy Award and seemingly a pretty good bet to wrap up another free entry as seven of the bracket’s Elite Eight picks have been eliminated. We have a few other contenders, namely a number of picks that went sideways with just six correct picks in Round 2, but it’s going to be a challenge to move the Pontiff off of the perch.

The first day of Round 2 saw one huge upset (documented below) and a couple of mild ones. Most entries managed to bat .500 or better, but four somehow got it right on seven of the eight games played today. Two of them, Mark McKeown Bracket and Tucker4, now sit tied at the top of the current points standings. An impressive accomplishment, but let’s get through the rest of Round 2 before we start trying to predict any sort of success possibilities. After all, we haven’t even seen any of those pesky asterisks that identify gloom and doom for pool participants – though tomorrow could yield a different story.

Of course we can’t go without recognizing the futility at the other end of the standings. Prominent among those is the stunning accomplishment of RaleighGoodBracket today, the only bracket that somehow selected just one correct pick out of the eight games played. Makes you wonder what RaleighNotSoGoodBracket’s results might be if there was such an entry. Ordinarily such a lack of accuracy would vault a bracket result like this far into the lead for the Brandy Award. But Pope’s Picks, now with six of eight Elite Eight selections already gone, is overshadowing all other terrible entries, selfishly hogging the spotlight. That said, the Pope did manage to get three picks right today. Encouraging, but it’s only warding off the inevitable – the bracket pool version of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

We had to wait until the second round but we finally got our first big bracket buster as the tenth seeded Arkansas Razorbacks ended the tournament hopes of the number two seed, St. John’s. Bad news for our six entries that had St. Johns winning it all, the most notable being our new standard for inept bracket play, Pope’s Picks. Given the frail health of the pontiff these days, this blow has given rise to even more concern among his followers. We’ll hope for the best, but consider this the first major claim on the Brandy Award and possibly the first ever back-to-back finish at the bottom of the rankings.

As for those who were wise enough to stay away from the Big East, the St. Johns pick will likely have only a minimal effect relative to the rest of the competition as a mere nine entries had Arkansas advancing past the second round. Furthermore only two entries picked the first two games of the second round correctly, one of those being our new leader, Moochies. Contrast that with the 56 entries that missed on both of the first two games, which tells us that nothing is even close to being decided yet.

The hopes for a massive double digit upset over a top seed died with the completion of the round of 64. With the exception of number 11 Drake over number 6 Missouri, and a couple of the somewhat predictable 12 over 5 upsets, there were not that many surprises, resulting in a plethora of high scoring brackets grouped together at the top. Tyrone Shoelaces’ picks, with three losses on day two, were rather mundane in comparison to the perfect run of yesterday, but his bracket leads all entries at this point with all but three results having been picked correctly. Behind Tyrone is a six-way tie for second, just one game back, and behind that group is a seven-way tie just one game back of that group. Suffice it to say that there is really no true favorite at all at this point.

The battle for the Brandy Award is almost as closely contended as the battle being waged at the top, with picks being uncommonly accurate, the “worst” record being 18 of 32 winners. The two leaders, sorted by possible points remain unchanged from yesterday, but a new name……….well, let’s say familiar name to be more accurate, has joined the contest. That would be none other than our old friend, Pope’s Picks. If that entry sounds familiar, it was Pope’s Picks that snared last year’s Brandy award.

Pope and Basketball – Bad Pairing?

The Pope has a reputation for favoring the Catholic schools, a strategy that ranks right up there with relying on Charles Barkley for bracket advice. Sadly, the Pope’s hopes suffered a couple of tough blows as three of his Elite Eight picks, one of them also a Final Four pick, failed to make it past the first round, making some question his commitment to, or more importantly, his knowledge of basketball. While some claim that this is proof of God’s disdain for Catholic schools participating in hedonistic events such as the NCAA tournament others are encouraged that schools portraying sainthood have survived and seem poised to forge onward in the tournament. Meanwhile, the only entry that has BYU going all the way, subtley carrying the name of “Polygamy Picks” looks on in amusement.

The hopes for a perfect record, as well as Tyrone Shoelaces’ dreams of riches, have been dashed with two incorrect picks in the early games of Day 2. On the positive side, though, Tyrone still stands atop the “Possible Points” standings and is tied for first with “Show Me The Money” in the “Current Score” standings.

The Brandy Award all time official low score has already been exceeded – and we haven’t even gotten through three quarters of the first round yet.  The worst bracket has successfully picked 13 of 24 games played so far.  A quick check by our official statistician, Numlock Salmon, shows that never before have our participants failed to fail at such a rate.  Somehow that qualifies as a disappointment.

There still hasn’t been much in the way of big upsets other than the somewhat expected “twelve seed beats five seed” result that remains intact through two matchups to date. Let’s hope for a little more excitement in the second half of the Day 2 games.

It is well documented that it is nearly impossible to pick a perfect bracket. The actual odds are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 or 1 in 9.223 quintillion. Reports are that such a feat has never taken place. To be a little more realistic, if the bracket picker has any knowledge of basketball at all, meaning no crazy picks like all of the 16 seeds beating all of the one seeds or all of the Catholic schools winning their way into the Final Four (apologies to the Pope’s Picks entry), the odds are still 120.2 billion to one.

Well, believe it or not, that possibility of a perfect bracket is alive and well in our tournament. Yes, incredibly one entry, that labeled Tyrone Shoelaces, has picked all 16 games correctly at this point. So what are the odds of that taking place? Well, put it this way – if Tyrone had made those picks as a $100 parlay in Las Vegas, he’d each be walking away with a $1.4 million payout, certainly the greatest “Bass’ball Jones” ever. However, he is going to have to be satisfied with the remote possibility of winning something in the neighborhood of $300 at best – which is almost as good, right?

Noteworthy is two entries with records almost as impressive, BigLumber1 and Moochies, each of which has only one miss. OK, this is all fun speculation at this point. Keep in mind that rarely do the early leaders end up competing for the final big bucks, but, hey, with few upsets, there isn’t much material to work with.

Meanwhile, the race at the other end of the bracket is almost as impressive with the worst picks sporting a record of 9 and 7. Eight teams are tied for this “worst record so far,” but two of them have seen one of their Final Four teams fall by the wayside, giving both “Who is Homiak?” and “16 Sunrises” the current inside track on a claim to the Brandy Award. It might also be worth mentioning that the same person has title to both of these entries.

At the halfway point of Day 1…..well, what we consider to be the real Day 1 at least, only three of our 118 entries remain perfect with 8 and 0 records. One of those (Luv Me Some Bulldogs) appears to have implemented a strategy based solely on teams with a Bulldog as their mascot – of which there are six in this year’s tournament. Quite a brilliant approach we must admit, especially when there could be no wrong pick when the Gonzaga Bulldogs took on the Georgia Bulldogs. We’ll see how this plays out when Yale Bulldogs, Drake Bulldogs and and Mississippi State Bulldogs hit the hardwood later in the tournament.

Shockingly, the worst picks continue to maintain a record no less than .500 – and there are only ten teams sporting such a record. It could be an all-time high score for the Brandy Award winner!

*Day 1  being when token pity entries, e.g., North Carolina have worked their way in after “play-in” games.

With the first four games complete, 37 entries are sporting perfect brackets. With virtually no upsets (some would argue that number 9 Creighton beating number 8 Louisville was rather expected) such a success rate in not a huge surprise. What is a surprise is that even the worst records so far are batting .500. Yes, no team has any less than two incorrect picks. It may be early, but such a trend speaks well for the Brandy award’s total of 30 likely remaining safe. As we write this, though, Auburn has its hands full with Alabama State. Should the overall number one team go down in the opening game, not only would Charles Barkley likely commit suicide live on camera, but it would throw our brackets into disarray matched only by that of astronaut Suni Williams’ hair after 9 months in space.

Reminder: For up to the minute reports on bracket/tournament status simply click on the “Status Reports” link above and click on various reports to your heart’s content. Or just stick with the main page here where we’ll keep you updated with our legendary analysis and commentary.

Congratulations! All pool participants are currently in first place. Savor the feeling, and good luck!

And pool master Ron is away from his keyboard, breathing deeply as the Boilermakers are in the championship game.  Best of luck, Ron, on recovering from your post-final four celebrations.

For those of us focussed on more important issues, such as the standings in our pool, we dive deep (shallow) into the final four report to see that if UConn defeats Purdue, Ron will be sad, but “WheresNova” will not only have their answer (Ummmm – who cares?), but a victory in the pool.

On the other hand, if Purdue defeats UConn, both Ron and “MF2” will be ecstatic.  Which seemed unlikely when NC State defeated Duke in the great 8.

In an example of excellent hedging strategy, Shizcity is in position to finish in 2nd or 3rd place dependent on the outcome, favoring UConn to finish in 2nd instead of 3rd should Purdue win.

Congratulations, once again to Tom for his steadfast lock on the Brandy award as previously reported.

There are four teams remaining from the original field of 68 and in a bit of a coincidence there are four entries remaining from our original field of 125. Well, for first place, anyway. Incredibly, three entries correctly picked three of the four finalists, WeresNova, MF2 and Shooters Schrute. Each of them has a chance to grab the title for this year, along with that pesky RaleighGoodBracket, who refuses to go away despite seeing Duke fall earlier in the round.

A mere eight other entries remain alive, most with hopes of no better than 4th or 5th, but alive nonetheless. Congrats to those who had the foresight to pick some of those surprise winners and ride to the top of the standings.

With the Final Four upon us (and there will be some personal game representation among your administrators here) there are several reports available that lay out the chances and different scenarios that might occur next weekend. The Possibilities Report shows that RaleighGoodBracket has a 50% chance of taking the title and a 75% chance of finishing in the money. However that requires Alabama to get to the final game and also involves some variation of NC State getting to the final, so take that percentage with a grain of salt. All of the scenarios are laid out in the Final Four report, so for those in the running, check that out and say your prayers.

And We have a “Winner”

With the first two games of the Elite Eight having been decided two entries have leaped to the top of the standings. Dunkenstein Senior and MF2 are the only contending entries that picked both Connecticut and Alabama to advance to the Final Four. RaleighGoodBracket tumbled out of the lead for the first time since Charles Barkley made a correct pick, but remains in contention in third place in present points and fourth place in possible points. MF2 is in second place in both present and possible points, but current leader, Dunkenstein Senior tumbles to 11th place in possible points by virtue of having only two Final Four picks still alive. Yeah, it’s a head scratcher. The leader in possible points is WheresNova, who has much invested in tomorrow’s NC State-Duke game, because this is the lone entry that has NC State making the Final Four. Tomorrow will provide much more clarity – we hope.

One thing is clear presently though, and that is fact that the winner of the Brandy Award is a certainty. In a huge blow to Catholicism, the Pope’s Picks has wrapped up last place with a score of 59 points. It’s a particularly cruel blow given the holiday weekend, so if the Easter Bunny seems a bit more forlorn than usual, you know why. Evidently the Easter Bunny is a very big fan of the Pope.

But wait, it gets even more interesting, because the “winner” is once again, Tom Roche. Actually it’s more than once again – in fact it’s the fourth time that Tom has secured the title awarded for “horrendously bad guessing,” breaking his own record of three times, established just two years ago. With this kind of dominance it could be high time to bar Tom from the competition as that is $20 that he has now saved – or one whole hour’s worth of labor at Del Taco (starting on Monday, that is).