With the Sweet Sixteen now complete, of the eight teams remaining in the tournament, seven of them are located west of the Mississippi, while the one that is east of the Mississippi proclaims itself to be the “Champions of the West.” Fitting for this tournament where virtually nothing makes sense.

For a west coast based contest, the popularity of west coast teams is on a par with that of Tom Brady dessert recipes. Only five entries had Oregon State getting to the Sweet Sixteen, and none of those had them advancing to the Elite Eight. Meanwhile, only three contestants predicted UCLA getting to the Sweet Sixteen, and none of those had them advancing further. The best performance for the Sweet Sixteen was five correct picks, and only eight entries pulled that off.

But that has not greatly affected the 37 entries still alive as we approach the Elite Eight. The leader in the Current Points sort is Eyebrian3, with a solid 97 points. But with two Final Four teams gone, one of them Brian’s finalist pick, the likelihood of winning it all could be considered slim. The strongest looking entry at this point is BCG2, the leader in the “Possible Score” sort and second in the “Current Score” sort. Most of the possibilities seem to center around some combination of Gonzaga, Baylor, Michigan, and Houston in the Final Four.  But a “favorite” in this year’s tournament is really more of a subjective choice than logic might predict.

But why speculate? The Reports on our home page now have the “Dynamic Possibilities” feature active. Just plug in your predicted scenario and see instant results! The Reports also show best possible finishes for each of the surviving picks. Unfortunately only 17 entries have any possibility of finishing in first place, but there’s still pride (and a little profit) in finishing in the money.

At the other end of the standings the race for the Brandy Award has become very interesting. The hold that heavy favorite Mulari Fernadez’s had on the title slipped a bit when supposed long shot, Michigan, survived. Should Michigan overcome UCLA in the Elite Eight matchup, Mal will vault out of last place, likely to be replaced by either English Bulldog, the earliest leader or Mandalorian1. Hey, you don’t see coverage like this from Barkley and pals.

With the most optimistic Red Raider fans in our pool having picked their team to at best make the final four (no one picked them to make the championship, much less win it all), the pool suspense for tomorrow’s game is somewhat muted.  At the end of the first final four game, a thrilling last second free throw comeback by UVA to defeat Auburn, first place in our pool was cemented with Gerald 2 guaranteed that position.  In fact, 2nd place was also set with pool shark / stalwart TKC2 also in a risk-free position as the 2nd place finisher in our pool.

What remains is a contest between 6 entries for the remaining 3 places of honor.  If Texas Tech wins we have the interesting outcome of DWG4 finishing in 3rd place, with DWG[2,3] in a tie for 4th and 5th, WITH exactly the same tiebreaker.  At pool HQ we are scrambling through the obscure bylaws that will allow us to rank the final outcomes.  Current legal advice points to ranking by alphanumeric order of the entry name, which would have DWG2 finishing slightly ahead of DWG3.  Others at pool HQ believe that the final standings should be decided by a coin toss.  Watch this space closely for further updates.

Should, however, UVA win it all tomorrow night, third place will go to DWG3, 4th to “Cans on Fire”, and we’ll have a tie at 5th between “TearDownTheWALL” and “Da”.  TDTW and Da DO have different tie-breaker scores (with TDTW’s tie breaker being 127 and Da picking 135), so the pool legal team won’t be required to determine the final standings.

While the pool (and the bracket) is a zero sum gain construct, with winners and losers on each riding the fates of the games, such is not the case with fandom.  With the oft-practiced but rarely seen in games “clang the second free throw, slap the rebound past half court where your teammate recovers it, lasers a pass to the key for a buzzer beating nothing-but-net shot to tie the game” play at the end of regulation, the setting for pool MC Sven-the-boilermaker’s subsequent torment was in place.  While being a Cal Bear fan myself makes the possibility of such torment a thing of the distant past, I do think that you’ll recover soon.  Hang tough…

In pool news, at the beginning of the final four we have a 1,2,3, and 5 seed remaining.  You can imagine that this has been a tumultuous ride in the pool, with the result being that “Gerald 2” is in the catbird seat, winning it all in every outcome save one.  And in that one outcome where G2 does not finish in first G2 does have the consolation prize of 5th place.  Not a bad position to be in.  Notably in that “Gerald 2” may very well be the pool Horatio Alger story, as we suspect that “Gerald 2” might well be related to last year’s Brandy Award winner!

Be sure to check out both the final four report and the possibilities report to make sure that you are rooting for the right outcome in each of the final games!!

Good luck…

First, in the “news that you already knew” category, we can now officially anoint TripsterMatilda as the Brandy award recipient for the 2019 pool.  With a current and possible score both equal to 44, at this point this entry from the land down under has nothing left to cheer for.  Other than perhaps that the Fremantle Dockers will continue their meteoric rise in the AFLW division, currently in 4th place in the standings after last year’s disappointing 14th place finish.  Cheer along with Matilda as the Purple Dockers take on the Gold Coast Suns tonight (10:40 PM pacific time.  datelines are tough). While Matilda is hoping that the hat adorned referees will favor the purple, she can take solace in her entry NOT being particularly bad in the echelon of Brandy award recipients – 44 is only the 2nd lowest scoring entry in the past 8 years!!

Looking at the less dreary side of the standings, we see that creatively named “Gerald 2” and “DWG3” entries  share an equal “probability” of finishing in first place with 18 remaining outcomes each where they do so.  Perhaps the lesson here for the rest of us is to spend “less time being creative with entry names, more time being correct with bracket picks”.  Those outcomes are, of course, NOT equally probable – but we ARE in the part of bracket play where each game’s outcome is getting closer to a toss up.  The fact that in reading this you instantly object with the thought “Blimey, Michigan State has as much a chance against Duke as Theresa May has to solve the Brexit problem” is exactly why you should read the possibilities report with a grain of salt (or perhaps a with a crumpet and a cuppa tea if that’s actually what you thought).

If your entry does still have a chance to finish in first and you don’t know which team to root for (other than Purdue if you want to see pool administration become hopelessly giddy, each of us for different reasons) – log in to our pool on the hoopness site, pull up the possibilities report there, and click on your entry (it doesn’t have to be your entry) – our staff will quickly kick their HP-41s into action and provide you with a list of the final four outcomes that the entry needs to finish in first!!  While this will bring up a tediously long list of outcomes for both Gerald 2 and DWG3, if your entry is dfs you will have a much less odious task – only 1 line!!  No need to guess…

Half of the Sweet Sixteen games have now been contested and four entries picked all four of the outcomes precisely. And a special salute to those 22 entries that had the foresight and wisdom to predict that the Purdue Boilermakers would proceed to the Elite Eight and/or beyond. Your wisdom and faith are commendable. Given that, all signs point to perennial contender DWG as the odds-on favorite, presently sitting at one, two, three in the standings. Whether you sort by present score or by possible score, two time winner Dave Getty, the Zion Williamson of EQE March Madness, dominates the standings.

But all of Dave’s entries are some variant of Duke, Virginia and Gonzaga playing in the Championship, two of which won their Sweet Sixteen match today.   That’s quite a concentration. For a different approach, check our new “Possibilities” report, which shows that the most likely team to take the overall win, as sorted by the “Possibilities” report, is Barack, with an 11% chance of winning it all, and a nearly 19% chance to finish in the money. Really, doesn’t that dude have enough income from Michelle’s books and gardening tips already?

Tripstermatilda managed to pick one of the Sweet Sixteen games correctly, but still looks to be the overwhelming favorite to lock in the Brandy Award for the year. Nothing is for sure yet, though, so keep and eye on contenders Rather Be Knitting (a former champion, but the way) and Tyrone Shoelaces, both of whom suffered a loss by their championship pick this evening.

Sadly, 14 entries are no longer being scored because they failed to get their fees in on time. However, much to DWG’s or Barack’s delight, they still have the chance to be reinstated should they get their fees in soon. If you tardy types want the chance to compete next season, you’re advised to pay up soon or be forever banished from tournament play!

A very audible exhale was heard emanating from EQE March Madness participants on Sunday as Duke barely came away with a win over upstart Central Florida.  With 77 brackets facing the possibility of total destruction, the tournament was nearly thrown into total Kaos…errrr chaos.   In the end, though only two teams seeded one through four did not survive, meaning that 98% of our entries still have a chance to finish in the money.

However, four of our entries probably have a little better chance of taking the big prize relative to the others, for they somehow managed to come away having precisely predicted the remaining sixteen teams in the tournament.  Now they didn’t necessarily pick every early game win correctly (nobody has done that, much to the relief of Warren Buffett) but they did correctly identify every Sweet Sixteen team.  And furthermore, three of those entries belong to one individual whose initials evidently stand for “all I Do is Win Games.” At the top is Cans on Fire, followed by Missouri Loves Company, followed by old DWG at three through five.  That would be two time tournament winner Dave Getty, who’s a pretty good bet to finish in the money at this point. But this doesn’t mean that your entry has no hope – far from it, in fact….unless your entry is one of those three that is preceded by a little star.

Yes, the dreaded “bad news asterisks” have made their ugly appearance, but only three of 116 entries have officially been eliminated.  But that doesn’t mean the end of competition, for the prestigious Brandy Award is still up in the air, thanks to frontrunner Tripstermatilda’s sudden Sunday surge.  Having picked three of Sunday’s eight games correctly, our backmarker’s score soared to 39, once again preserving Brandy’s 24 year old record low score of 30.  But with two of Tripster’s Elite Eight teams still alive, all is not lost for challengers Controlled Kaos and BCG1.

As we take a four day break, it’s time to sit back, breath a little, and contemplate what exactly it is that motivates  all of those people to remove the tailgates from their pickup trucks and then carry them to a field and gather with other people who have also done the same thing where they all proceed to sing about it. Not to mention the confusion we are all suffering when considering whether medieval characters really prefer Miller Lite over Bud Light. And why in God’s name are they drinking light beer at all?  Or are we at headquarters just suffering from March Madness advertising overload?  Oh, and while you’re pondering all of those things, why not take some time to settle up your debts?  We have many entries that are not yet paid for and we’d sure like to get those fees taken care of before the number of asterisks increases dramatically.  If you are among the minority of well intentioned folks who have not paid up yet, please either take the time to do so at this link, or contact us to make alternate plans if you cannot or wish not to pay by PayPal.

Admin’s NOTE: A new Report is now available under Quick Reports: POSSIBILITIES.

The first day of games in the second round of tournament play had one down-to-the-last-seconds thriller seeing Will Wadeless LSU defeating the Terps  69-67.  In pool play this was a status quo ending to the game, resulting in a stunning blow to 19 hopeful pool entrants, 1 of which had Maryland winning it all.

The day also saw Wofford losing to Kentucky which will simplify things for our LSJU sailing team friends who were challenged with understanding how ‘ford was playing in the men’s tournament.  The only seeding upset of the day was #5 Auburn sending the #4 Kansas Jayhawks home.  This was a minor blow to just over 50 pool entries, 1 of which had Kansas making the final 4.

In the pool status report we have the top three entries all having had a perfect day (that was a fairly common outcome from a quick perusal of the standings), with “Cans on Fire” also showing up on top sorted by possible score with an impressive 231 possible points.

At the Brandy end of the pool TripstersMatilda was back to batting .250 with only two outcomes picked correctly on the day.  With a highest possible socre of 62, and the next lowest entry (Phil Knight Secretly Wears Adidas) having already scored 49 with a possible score of 194 (plenty of scoring opportunities left), our current leader to the bottom of the barrel may well waltz into a spot on our Brandy Award hall of incompetence.

Day 2 of the tourney saw upsets aplenty with 7 games going against the seeding (5 if we consider the 8/9 games evenly seeded):  10/7 Iowa, both 9/8 games, 13/4 UC Irvine, both 12/5 games, 11/6 Ohio St.  So while it was a tough day for those who clicked the “pick all higher seeds to win) button, the worst damage in the tournament was K. State packing their bags.

In more important news, at the end of the day we have a tie at first place between the eponymous “Upsets Galore” (HOU wins it all) and the more traditional “Eyebrian3”, both with correct first round prognostications in 27/32 games.  A total of 12 entries picked 25 or better first round outcomes.  Which leads us to the promised “check out the ‘sorted by possible score'” blather:

All bad picks are not equal – if you picked all saved 1 of the first round games correctly, but that 1 miss was the team that you picked to win it all your chances are not quite as rosy as if you made a few first round blunders but have an unblemished slate of sweet 16 teams.  SOooo- if we look at that report we see the aforementioned Eyebrian and Upsets Galore both still tied for 1st, but a differentiation below those first entries and those fighting for the top of the bracket.

In the “finding something nice to say” theory of communication, “Tripstersmatilda” doubled her daily batting average, today picking a whopping 8/16 outcomes correctly.  That nonetheless leaves her with a paltry 24 points (and a best possible score of 120 points).  Looking at her slate of great 8 teams one has to think that the Brandy award competition might be done and dusted after round one – Matilda has only 3 teams left in the top of her bracket.  It may be too early to call this end of the bracket, but if it looks like an emu, and it quacks like an emu – it might just BE an emu…

DAY 2: Watch each team’s celebration as they advance in the NCAA tournament

The first “upset” of the tournament has occurred, UC Irvine, local legends to those in Orange County, but virtual unknowns elsewhere, took down the fourth seeded Kansas State in convincing style. Not that much of a surprise among EQE March Madness participants, though, as 39 entries predicted that very outcome. How smart are we?

Halfway through the second half of the second round things are looking up for past champion Big Ten Love. Big Ten teams are currently 6 and 0, with two more yet to play. Then again Big West teams can also lay claim to an undefeated record – but there don’t seem to be any Big West Love entries.

Yesterday’s leaders, Savage Rocco and Petey1, have taken a back seat to our new co-leaders, Nathan Detroit and Eyebrian3, both of whom have only two incorrect picks. At the other end of the contest is previous laggard, Tripstermatilda, soaring to a win rate of 50% for the day at this point.

Day 1 of the tourney is complete with a number of relatively modest upsets (10/7 Florida, 12/5 Murray St, 9/8 Baylor and10/7 Minnesota), the Murray St 12 seed victory being the most notable so far. That is unless you are a big fan of Old Dominion and considered them to be the favorite – then you were among the notable 2 such entries whose first day was crushed by Purdue, the home town favorite of up to one of your pool MCs. One of your other pool hosts WAS hoping for an upset win by the hockey powerhouse Northeastern fightin’ Huskies, but we take solace in only having made one entry backing the underdog dogs.

Given the relatively few monumental upsets on day one in the tourney it’s not shocking that there are a number of entries that made it through the day with near perfect records: 2 entries (Savage Rocco and Petey1) only missed one game each (notably not “Purdue over Old D”), with an additional 5 entries have only 2 blots on their slate. Congratulations for the great results – but don’t get comfortable quite yet at the top of the pool!!

However, there WAS one significant entry performance for the day: “TripstersMatilda” was chucked a wobbly and exited the day with a stunningly interesting result of batting just .250 for the effort, a respectable batting average for American cricket but not so good pool prognostication.  A Brandy award shoe-in? Too early for us to call the match, but TM IS well placed for the honor. For context, the best possible score for TM is 173 points (i.e. EVERY SINGLE GAME from now going forward falls Matilda’s way), a score that would have failed to win in 3 of the last 4 pools.

Tomorrow, being Friday, should be even more fun. We look forward to sharing our annual homage to the “status sorted by possible points” screed.  If that doesn’t get your heart thumping…

The brackets are official, Seth Davis has revealed his (consistently incorrect) picks, and the Charles Barkley/Samuel L. Jackson/Spike Lee initially entertaining, but progressively annoying Capital One commercials have been unleashed.  Of course that means that the pool is now open.  You can make your pick by simply clicking above on the “Create Entry….” link and pick away!

We are requesting, if at all possible, that entries be paid for via PayPal.  The link to make that possible can be accessed here.  If you are unable to pay via PayPal, please contact your pool administrators at hoopsmaster@eqemarchmadness.com to arrange alternate means to pay.  Please take note that entries not paid for by the Sweet Sixteen, i. e. as of midnight  of March 27 will be suspended from the pool until payment is received.